Kuli'ou'ou residents fight construction yard
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau
KULI'OU'OU — A pile of dirt stands in the corner of a vacant lot on quiet Summer Street, a reminder that the community has been turned into a construction storage yard, residents say.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Highway Construction Co. Ltd. says it is trying to be a good neighbor, but needs a place to store equipment and, sometimes, dirt and debris.
This empty lot between Kalaniana'ole Highway and Summer Street in Kuli'ou'ou has become a storage area for construction equipment, and sometimes dirt and debris.
"We're trying to take care of things at the site," said Randal Ching, company president. "We've done work like this a number of times before. Everywhere we go — Wai'anae, 'Aiea — when you have a yard in the community, when it's right up there, it's a problem."
The residents of Summer Street oppose the city's permit allowing the contractor to use the privately owned lot for a storage yard and want it removed from their community. They say they have been subjected to unacceptable levels of noise, dust and traffic.
"We are very, very upset and concerned," said Phil Morris, president of the Kuli'ou'ou Kai Association of Apartment Owners. "This is a quiet residential area. We feel we've been dumped on because they were kicked out of Hawai'i Kai."
The company had proposed to build a storage yard at Maunalua Bay near the bathhouse, creating a place for its equipment when it wasn't being used in the $6 million, two-year project to replace water mains on Kalaniana'ole Highway from 'Ainakoa Avenue to West Hind Drive.
City Councilman John Henry Felix and others objected, saying the Maunalua Bay location was inappropriate. And the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board voted against allowing the company to use the space as a storage yard.
Residents in Kuli'ou'ou say they were never notified by the city or the state that the contractor would instead be using the lot on Summer Street. One day, the trucks just started to roll in and the black dust screens were erected, Morris said.
In response, the Kuli'ou'ou-Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board voted recently to urge the city to re-examine its permission to use the property.
The contractor moved into the property March 5, Morris said. The city's temporary use permit was issued May 23.
"If they think the folks in Kuli'ou'ou aren't very bright, they're wrong," he said. "This is totally inappropriate and wrong."
On June 12, the city issued a notice of violation against the construction company for not complying with certain permit conditions for the Summer Street location. The company was given three days to comply. The city did not return calls seeking comment.
