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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Sunday, April 13, 2003

$3.5 million fire station planned for Hau'ula

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

HAU'ULA — The city wants to build a new $3.5 million fire station in Hau'ula to replace a smaller, weather-beaten structure across Kamehameha Highway from the ocean.

But the proposed facility hasn't been financed and won't be until the state transfers ownership of the property to the city.

The site is a 4.9-acre vacant agricultural lot at the intersection of Hanaimoa Street and Hau'ula Homestead Road, about a mile from the present station.

Fire Department Capt. Kenison Tejada said the project, which is in the preliminary stages, would replace a building that is in the flood plain and has other problems.

"It's old and with the salt spray the structure gets eaten up so fast because of its location on the highway," Tejada said.

A draft environmental assessment has been prepared and information about the project is listed in the Office of Environmental Quality Control bulletin. The city is accepting comments on the project.

The proposed Hau'ula Fire Station is an H-shaped 5,600-square-foot, single-story building that includes living and working quarters and three bays for fire equipment, according to the OEQC bulletin.

The building will be sited diagonally to the intersection of Hanaimoa Street and Hau'ula Homestead Road and set back 15 feet from both streets. Fire equipment can then enter the station from either street.

The building design will be compatible with the rural architecture of Hau'ula.

Because the proposed fire station is near a Board of Water Supply well, wastewater must be disposed of at another site. Selection of a disposal site and the design of the effluent disposal system will be developed during the schematic-design stage of the project, the bulletin said.

Send comments by May 8 to City Department of Design and Construction, 650 S. King St., Honolulu, HI 96813. Send copies to the consultant, Gerald Park, Urban Planner, 1400 Rycroft St., Suite 876, Honolulu, HI 96814 and to OEQC, 235 S. Beretania St., Leiopapa A Kamehameha Suite 702, Honolulu, HI 96813.