Mililani Mauka finally getting its district park
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer
MILILANI MAUKA — Residents have been waiting for a park for more than a decade.
Not an empty lot with porta-potties, but a bona fide district park with basketball courts, baseball fields and restrooms.
"We're well overdue," said Melissa Graffigna, chairwoman of the Mililani Mauka/Launani Valley Neighborhood Board. "So it's time."
The park is coming — but it won't be ready for nearly two more years.
The city has allocated $800,000 for a softball field, restroom and parking, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa. The project will go to bid by the end of the year, with construction scheduled to begin in late spring or early summer 2005. It will take about a year to complete the first phase of improvements.
Castle & Cooke created the master plan for the park, which will include a gymnasium, rec center, tennis and basketball courts, playground equipment, soccer and utility fields and a lighted baseball/soccer field, all across 16 acres on Ukuwai Street near Mililani Mauka Elementary School, said Tony Gaston, manager of engineering and site construction for Castle & Cooke.
The park will be next to the Mililani Park & Ride. Adjacent to that is the proposed site for the city's second dog park.
In addition, the developer also designed the area's community park, which will sit in the 12.8-acre empty lot near Mililani Middle School. The city will begin construction on a restroom facility there in late August. That should be completed by the end of the year, Costa said.
"This will be our first and only (park)," said Graffigna, who lives in neighboring Launani Valley, which has a private park with two tennis courts, a basketball court and a restroom.
That, she acknowledged, is surprising, considering Mililani Mauka's growing population.
There are more than 11,000 people living in Mililani Mauka, which covers about 12.5 square miles north of Mililani Town. That's a population that didn't exist in 1990.
But plans for the two parks have raised concerns from residents, who worry about the noise, traffic and crime it might bring to their neighborhood.
"There's too much traffic already over here. ... It's terrible," said resident Janice Murakami, who lives a block from the proposed community park site next to Mililani Middle School.
Other residents voiced similar concerns at last month's Mililani Mauka/Launani Valley Neighborhood Board meeting.
But Murakami, who has lived in Mililani Mauka for eight years, did admit that having a park nearby would be convenient for her three sons, who utilize the district park in Mililani.
Reach Catherine E. Toth at 535-8103 or ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.
