Hawai'i Kai entry could get planted median

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

HAWAI'I KAI — Borrowing from its success at four other beautification projects, the city wants to install a median lined with nara trees on Lunalilo Home Road from Kalaniana'ole Highway to Kalakua Street.

The city will unveil its vision to the community at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board meeting in the Haha'ione Elementary School cafeteria.

Lunalilo Home Road was the first paved roadway in the community before Henry J. Kaiser came in and transformed the swampland into housing tracts in the late 1960s. Homes along the street are more than 30 years old — plenty of time to grow trees — but few trees grace the thoroughfare at the Koko Head entrance to the community.

The city has had good results with four similar projects: along Pali Highway, Kailua Road, Ala Moana and Punchbowl Street, said Eric Crispin, deputy director of the city's Department of Design and Construction.

"We've found in other locations that it helps define the character of the neighborhood and provides a sense of entry into the community," Crispin said. "It also slows down traffic by virtue of narrowing the roadway.."

The Hawai'i Kai project will go to bid Dec. 2, Crispin said. The city has budgeted $1 million, and depending on costs, hopes to plant 52 trees.

Long-time resident Sammy Steamboat Mokuahi welcomes anything that will slow traffic along the road. His bedrooms face the busy road, he said, and the sound of cars speeding down it at night can be jolting.

"It will narrow the road and make it more like a neighborhood street rather than like a highway," Mokuahi said. "It might beautify the street and then inspire the homeowners to beautify the homes."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.