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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, September 19, 2003

Mililani park to get upgrade

By James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writer

The city is moving forward with a $570,000 Mililani Community Vision Team project to make improvements to Makaunulau Community Park.

The plan emphasizes expanded parking and other improvements to make the park more usable now and updates its master plan to allow for future improvements as money becomes available.

Makaunulau park, formerly known as Kipapa Community Park, is heavily used by soccer and baseball teams, but lacks sufficient parking, often forcing overflow vehicles onto neighboring residential streets.

"When it is heavily used, especially during tournaments, there is really a lack of parking and it congests the streets around the area," said Edwin Kamikawa, a vision team member.

"The park is big and the main parking is on one end and the baseball field and other activities on the other end so it's a long walk," Kamikawa said.

To comment

• To comment on the Makaunulau Community Park improvements, write to the City Department of Design and Construction, 650 S. King St., 11th floor, Ho-nolulu, HI 96813. Include copies for the consultant Environmental Communications Inc. and the state Department of Environmental Quality Control.

• The deadline for comments is Monday.

The city's plan calls for expanding parking by more than 20 percent and putting a second lot at the far end of the park.

The details are included in the city's draft environmental assessment for the work, which has been filed with the state. The city has set aside money for the project from the fiscal year 2002 budget, according to the assessment. If the project is found by the state not to have a significant environmental impact after pubic comments are reviewed, construction on the park can begin.

However, some residents oppose a new parking lot.

David Shimabukuro bought his Makaunulau Street home 20 years ago. It sits next to where the new parking lot would be.

"That whole area by my house and down the road is filled with cars during sports seasons," Shimabukuro said.

But it's not that bad, he said.

"It's not hindering the traffic and it is only for a short period of time, from late afternoon to early evening and a couple hours Saturdays," Shimabukuro said. "We can live with that because we know they are going to be gone. If you put in a parking lot there will be cars and people there all the time."

A parking lot will add noise and loitering, he said, adding that he will work with other neighbors to stop the parking expansion.

The park is on Makaunulau Street and Kuahelani Avenue near the Mililani Town Center and has volleyball and basketball courts along with parking for 122 cars.

The first phase of improvements would include the reconfiguration of the existing parking lot along Kuahelani Avenue, grading work, moving play apparatus and picnic tables to fit with future plans and a new parking lot at the opposite end of the park.

The new parking lot would have 26 regular and two handicapped-reserve stalls, which can be expanded to 50 stalls later.

A two-foot elevated earthen pad created for a recreation building that was never constructed would be leveled as part of the first phase work and become part of a soccer field.

Improvements detailed in the new master plan — updated from 1987 — include upgrading the baseball field, planting additional trees, adding picnic tables, regrading the soccer fields, renovating and expanding the comfort station and building a multi-purpose recreation building.

Kamikawa, who was involved with youth soccer for many years before retiring, said these improvements are needed now to give children a safe place to compete and to ease parking in the heavily populated residential area. Other parks in the growing area also need attention, he said.

"A number of projects got started with vision teams," Kamikawa said. "We have built comfort stations in a couple parks which are heavily used that just had a couple portable toilets."

No time frame is given for phase one construction in the environmental assessment.

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