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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, June 27, 2005

Hawai'i Kai cemetery plans back on track

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

HAWAI'I KAI — Work could resume by the end of summer on the cemetery in the back of Kamilonui Valley, which was first proposed five years ago.

During the past six months, no work has been done after the initial actions of erecting dust screens, clearing the roadway of weeds and debris and stockpiling tons of dirt needed to fill in the area. For the dozen or so residents whose homes back the access road, the 12-foot-high dust screens are reminders of the delay.

The operating partner of the planned 69-acre cemetery is PRM Realty, a Chicago-based firm with offices in Honolulu, St. Thomas in the Caribbean, Dallas and New York. The project stalled because of a lack of financing and a reorganization of the company's top management, said Trappeur Rahn, PRM senior vice president.

Once the funding is secure, stockpiling of dirt will begin immediately. Not much more dirt is needed, Rahn said. After that the engineers and designers will be drawing up the plans for the cemetery, which should take about six months, Rahn said. The first phase of the cemetery should be open sometime in early 2007, he said, but sales will begin sooner.

"The community won't see much for the next six months or so," he said.

PRM Realty will make a presentation to the community at the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board meeting at 7 p.m. July 26, Rahn said.

In the meantime, not only are the dust screens bothering residents, but the Hawai'i Kai Marina Association is concerned that the stockpiled dirt on the property could wash into the marina in a heavy rain, said marina president Jaap Suyderhoud. During heavy rains, the area where the cemetery is being planned floods and sends debris and water into the marina.

"It becomes a river," Suyderhoud said. "And it all runs into the marina. We are the ones that have to then pay to have it dredged."

The cemetery — the first new one on O'ahu in nearly 50 years, since the Valley of the Temples and Mililani Memorial Park opened in 1960 — would wrap around the valley's farm lots and be reached from behind homes in Mariner's Cove.

The plan was first presented to the community in 2000, but local developers sold the property in 2003 for $7.5 million and it's now called Paradise Memorial Park, according to public records.

The cemetery would have a mile-long, two-lane access road running behind the homes. There would be land enough in a first phase for 12,000 burial plots, a chapel and a mortuary. When completely built, the cemetery would hold about 60,000 burials and have a caretaker's home and a waterfall.

Mariner's Cove resident Chuck Johnston said residents are concerned about the fate of the cemetery project. After hearing the details of the project last June, residents had hoped that the developers would be neighborhood friendly, Johnston said.

"Those black tarps, those dust screens, block off the trade winds for the residents who live back there," Johnston said. "Their whole lives are disrupted and no work is going on. I don't understand this."

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