Ronald McDonald House proposed for Manoa
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Ronald McDonald House, which has provided rooms for families of critically ill children on Judd Hillside Road for 15 years, wants the city to approve another house on Dole Street near University Avenue.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
The "house that love built" provides accommodations for families from the Neighbor Islands and other Pacific islands while their children are hospitalized on O'ahu.
Getting new shingles yesterday, this is the Dole Street house proposed as a place for out-of-town parents to stay when they bring their children to O'ahu for hospitalization.
Jerri Chong, executive director of the charity's Hawai'i organization, said she knows that one homeowner adjacent to the site at 2351-2353 Dole Street has expressed concerns, but Chong said the group will be a good neighbor.
Kristi Koga, house manager at Judd Hillside, said rooms in the Dole Street property had been rented as a dormitory to 10 female university students.
Koga said there will be no more than 16 parents housed in eight bedrooms at Dole Street, with two other rooms used for an office and for the resident manager's accommodations. A child might be with the parents only at the beginning and end of the hospital stay.
The charity has been using the Dole Street house indirectly for three months, referring parents to the agent who manages the property for owner Pansy Goto.
On Dec. 5, the charity filed a city application for a variance and a conditional use permit to use the two-story building as a group living facility. The property is zoned for a two-family dwelling.
If the city approves, the charity would lease the building and operate it with an on-site resident manager and volunteers.
Letitia Oba, who lives next door, said yesterday she understands that some families of sick children need emergency housing.
But Oba, whose family has owned her home for decades, said she worries about noise and disturbance if there are more people next door, moving in and out.
"It was better when there were students living there," Oba said.
The planning and permitting department is scheduling a public hearing on the matter for Feb. 14, city staff member Jeff Lee said. The application can be inspected at city offices at 650 South King St. and the Ala Moana satellite city hall.
The original facility on Judd Hillside has room for 25 people.
In the past, the charity has housed overflow parents in discounted rooms at Outrigger Ohana hotels. Leasing the Dole Street property will cost about the same as renting hotel rooms, Chong said.
The application for the first Ronald McDonald house, in 1984, touched off years of controversy when some neighbors fought it.
State Sen. Brian Taniguchi, D-11th District (McCully, Mo'ili'ili, Manoa), said he does not believe the same dynamics apply today, partly because the Dole Street site has many non-residential uses nearby, including a bar two doors away.
Taniguchi, the Kapiolani Medical Center and the Guam Medical Referral Office favor the application.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
