Korean center proposed in Nu'uanu

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

A non-profit organization wants city permission to convert a Nu'uanu residence into a Korean cultural center, and is seeking to overcome concerns from the neighbors over potential traffic increases.

The center would occupy a 1927 stucco residence at 2756 Rooke Ave. known on the state and federal historic registers as Canavarro Castle.

It was originally built for the son of the first Portuguese consul-general to Hawai'i, according to an environmental assessment document filed with the state Office of Environmental Quality Control.

The property was purchased in 1947 by a Korean community association that two years ago sold it to the non-profit Korean Cultural Center of Hawaii.

Dr. Kea Sung Chung, listed as the representative for the cultural center group and official applicant for the required conditional use permit, was in Los Angeles yesterday and did not return calls for comment.

However, the group's planning consultant, Donald Clegg, said the plans are for a museum-type operation that would cause minimal disruption to the community.

"What they want to do is make the center more of a testimonial to the Korean independence movement, and as such they will have various pictures, mementos and documents," Clegg said. "It would be a museum, a repository of data and information."

The center also hopes to recruit students to come here on scholarship from Korea and live in the house, as well as to hold occasional events that would draw about 100 people about five or six times a year, according to the assessment.

The two-story house, a 7,515-square-foot structure, sits on a 7.7-acre lot, most of which extends up a slope on conservation land.

The flat area of the property would accommodate about 34 parking stalls which, with the assistance of a parking attendant, would fill the needs of the center, according to the document.

Clegg said traffic and drainage concerns have been raised by the Liliha/Alewa/Pu'unui/Kamehameha Heights Neighborhood board, but he said that the center is planning the use of smaller vans and private cars for bringing in visitors, not large tour buses.

Clegg said that the owners would pay to repair the drainage ditch.

The center would have to operate under limits on the hours, number of people allowed and frequency of events, criteria that the city Department of Planning and Permitting would set. Department staff said a public hearing would be scheduled.

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.