Makiki project raises ire
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Parking is so bad in Makiki, Budd Zulueta says, he sometimes sleeps in his car in the driveway to his apartment to make sure he isn't blocking in another resident.
Artists' rendering
So it is no surprise that Zulueta and several neighbors have taken up the cudgels against a plan to plant an eight-story, 54-unit low-income housing project next to the YWCA's Fernhurst Residence for Women at Punahou and Wilder streets.
Plans for Punahou Vista, a 54-unit, low-income housing project, have drawn objections from residents who complain of serious problems with congestion in the area.
The YWCA wants to sell about half of its 52,000-square foot site to the developer and use the money for renovation of the women's transitional residence, probably eliminating some of its 60 residence rooms
Gary Furuta, manager of the proposed Punahou Vista project, says it will have less effect on the neighborhood than a larger, 11-story condominium which any private developer could build. And Furuta said the project will be wrapped on three sides by a little greenbelt more attractive than the chain link fencing and YWCA outbuildings on the property today.
Furuta works for the Hawai'i Housing Development Corporation, a non-profit corporation set up in 1993 by community leaders searching for ways to provide rental housing for people with low incomes.
The all-volunteer board is headed by Randy Moore, the former Kane'ohe Ranch executive who recently retired from that job to become a school teacher.
The possibility of low-income neighbors is not what upsets residents, says Zulueta, a construction company designer who lives in his three-story walk-up Punahou Street apartment a block from the site.
"We would oppose any project on that site because we think we have reached critical mass here in an area which is already the most densely populated residential neighborhood in the whole state."
Consultants for the developer said yesterday they are providing the 61 parking spaces required by law — far more than at older buildings — and that studies show the traffic generated by the building would not have significant impact.
Consultant Keith Kurahashi said Punahou Vista would offer one-bedroom apartments for rents as low as $253 a month, and two-bedroom units for $649 a month — fractions of what market-price renters pay in the neighborhood.
That socio-economic mix is the goal of the city, state and federal programs under which the group has already developed affordable and senior housing at Birch Street Apartments, Wisteria Vista and Kalakaua Vista.
Kurahashi said it may take five or six months to get approvals of the project from the state's Department of Housing and Community Development, from the city planning department, and from the City Council, approvals required partly because of the tax exemptions, tax credits and low-interest financing.
Punahou Vista is also asking the city for a number of permit exemptions, including permission to allow some of its parking spaces to extend into some of the required side yards on the site.
Opposition, much of it coordinated by area resident Greg Shepherd, a music professor and part-time Advertiser reviewer, surfaced at a Makiki/Lower Punchbowl/Tantalus Neighborhood Board meeting July 19, and the board decided to defer its discussion of the matter to Aug. 16 so it can review the traffic studies and impact statements.
"It's not easy to deal with the conflicting goals here," said Charles H. Carole, vice chairman and a 20-year veteran on the board. "But I think you have to lean towards the people who are already residents of the area. "
Irena Taylor says the best solution would be for the city to buy the land from the YWCA and turn it into a park.
"I have been a witness of so many accidents on that corner that it is unbelievable that they would increase any more traffic in this area," said Taylor, a realtor who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years. "We have (Kapiolani) hospital one block away, we have Punahou School and Maryknoll School and Maryknoll High School — we cannot get to our places where we live without going through this traffic."
State Senator Carol Fukunaga, D-12th (Makiki, Ala Moana, Tantalus) and State Representative Brian Schatz D-24th (Makiki, Tantalus) said yesterday they will sponsor a community informational briefing within the next several days to air the issues.
Correction: A previous version of this story contained a map that pointed to the wrong site.
