Waikiki may soon have its park

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The first city park in residential Waikiki is close to reality after years of planning and a grassroots effort by residents.

A new city park is proposed for this lot in Waikiki bordered by Royal Hawaiian Avenue on the left, Seaside Avenue on the right, Aloha Drive at top and Manukai Street at bottom. View is looking mauka. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Property owner Ernest Nowell, whose plans for a senior facility on the site were rejected by the community, is making a last-ditch effort to keep the property by proposing a smaller senior project and giving free land to the city for a park. But some see this as a ploy to up the price for the property.

William Sweatt, who lives at the nearby Royal Kuhio high-rise, helped collect 700 signatures in a petition drive to stop the apartment building and support the park.

"Within 300 feet of that little park there are 10 condominiums and about 3,500 residents," Sweatt said. "We need open space rather than having another building put in here. There is a need for additional parking. The design they have come up with will provide both."

Waikiki has 20,000 inhabitants in the high-rises, two- and three-story rental buildings and the few remaining single-family homes situated between Kuhio Avenue and Ala Wai Boulevard and from McCully Street to Kapahulu Avenue, but there is not a single public park.

Larger Waikiki is encircled by public places with Kapi'olani and Ala Moana parks on either end, and the beach and Ala Wai canal running the length of both sides.

Eric Crispin, the city director of planning and permitting, is also the facilitator for the Waikiki/Diamond Head Vision district and said the park is just part of the improvements planned for residential Waikiki.

Crispin said an $800,000 vision team project is about to get started to beautify residential streets by placing trees in planter boxes to provide shade, create an environment that is more pedestrian friendly and will help absorb noise.

Other vision projects include building a bath house near the Waikiki Public Library for canoe paddlers and creating a landscaped gateway into Waikiki at Kapahulu Avenue.

"It is a multipronged effort that the city is taking in the way of enhancing the quality of life in residential Waikiki," Crispin said.

The city has set aside $2.3 million to pay for the Aloha Drive parcel and budgeted nearly $1 million to build the park. Original plans called for an underground parking garage similar to the city's new Smith-Beretania Park, which cost $7.6 million, but that design was determined to be too expensive. The new plan is for about 60 diagonal parking spaces encircling the lot with the park in the center. Improvements include landscaping, an irrigation system, playground equipment and a pavilion for picnics and shade.

"The architect came up with a good solution, which is to put diagonal parking around the perimeter and it leaves a 21,000-square-foot park in the middle," said Ben Lee, city managing director. "We get 60 parking spaces and a structure would only total 70 or 80. I said 'are you kidding me — we are going to spend millions of dollars to pick up 10 more parking stalls?' That doesn't make sense."

Property owner Nowell was looking to build a 33-story senior-living facility at the site but needed several building exemptions for height, set back and parking, and faced overwhelming community opposition.

John Nowell, speaking on behalf of his father from California last week, said after the first proposal was rejected, a new offer was made to the city to build a smaller senior facility and donate 11,000 square feet for a park and 70 parking stalls for public use in their new building.

Nowell said this would satisfy the residents' need for a park, city's need for more parking and allow the family to continue with their project. He said it would also save the taxpayers more than $2 million to buy the parcel.

Residents blocked property owner Ernest Nowell's effort to build a senior-living facility on this vacant lot. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Nowell said he has retained an attorney and plans to fight the condemnation in court.

Lee said the city acquired the land for public purposes under its right of eminent domain and that after more than four years of work and planning, Nowell's offer is too little too late. Lee said the property has already been rezoned for a park and parking and the court will make the final decision on the price, but no hearing date has been set.

Robert Finley, chairman of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, said some residents are concerned about crime in the new park. The vacant lot has been used by homeless people and late-night drinking parties for years.

Lee said it is possible the park will be fenced and closed at night, but he will need to talk with area residents before making that decision.

Sweatt has talked with police about the possibility of placing a bike patrol on the property or having security cameras on nearby buildings that would be monitored by the Waikiki Business Improvement District's Aloha Patrol, which already provides security officers for the commercial areas of Waikiki.

"Those things have been discussed," Sweatt said. "Some say there will be homeless and everything else, but I think that can be overcome."

Sweatt said no name has been officially selected for the park, but residents are already calling it Aloha Park. Some have suggested naming the park after Ernest Nowell if he would donate the property and save the city some money, but Sweatt said that is not likely.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.