By CHELSEA JENSEN
Stephens Media Hawaii
The Hawaii County Leeward Planning Commission on Thursday approved a special management area use permit for the Alii Kai park, allowing the long-promised project to move forward.
The commission’s six members voted unanimously during the monthly meeting hosted at the West Hawaii Civic Center to approve with conditions a special management area use permit for the Hawaii County Department of Parks and Recreation to construct the new neighborhood park within the Alii Kai subdivision, located off Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona.
“The administration is looking forward to developing this park. It’s been a long time coming,” said park planner James Komata, noting support for the project by Mayor Billy Kenoi and Kona Councilman Dru Kanuha and the hosting of various meetings to determine the park’s future. “We believe what we have here in front of us, what we are proposing, represents the desires of the community.”
The special management area permit is for projects within a certain distance of the shoreline.
The park is located between 1,300 and 1,650 feet from the coast and is not expected to impact the shore, Parks and Recreation documents said.
The next step, after obtaining the special management area permit, will be to file for building permits and solicit construction bids, said Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Bob Fitzgerald.
Once work begins, Komata previously estimated it would take about a year to complete.
The estimated $2 million project includes grading, planting, installation of accessible concrete walkways, a playground, a comfort station, drinking fountains and perimeter fencing and retaining walls. Funding will come solely from the county, according to the department’s background report submitted with an application for the special management area use permit.
Funding for the project was included in a letter tendered by Kenoi last week, asking the Hawaii County Council to authorize $61 million in new bonds for 23 projects islandwide.
Kenoi is asking for $1 million for the Alii Kai park project.
A Parks and Recreation spokesman said the county would also use money from fair share contributions assessed on new developments. Once funding is obtained, the project will move forward, he added.
The park, which the department said it expects will serve the neighborhood, rather than the larger community as a regional park, will be built on 1.63 acres located between Lehua and Pakalana roads, off Royal Poinciana Drive.
Vehicular access will be via Lehua Road, where a 10-stall parking lot will constructed. Neither parking stalls nor sidewalk improvements are planned along Pakalana Road.
A concrete walkway will encompass a large grassy area and provide pedestrian access to the park from Pakalana Road. Gates will be installed at the parking lot and walkway.
Komata said the department plans to close the park nightly.
“The park will be used for both passive and limited active recreation purposes such as picnicking, strolling, children playing on equipment, ball playing and occasional parties,” according to the application’s background report.
Just one person, whose property abuts the park, testified during the meeting. Roy Sveiven noted his support for the project but raised concern about trees he planted and a paved area he created that intrudes into the park. Komata said the department is aware of the issue and is working with the resident.
Developers initially promised the park to homeowners more than four decades ago, but when the subdivision plans were submitted in 1959 to the county Board of Supervisors, the board did not make the park a condition of subdivision approval, though original plans said there would be a park. A 1991 county memo said without that condition, the county could not compel developers to ever build the park.
County officials began taking steps to build the park in 2008, with two community meetings in 2009 to gather residents’ preferences. A final Environmental Assessment, which received a finding of no significant impact, was completed for the project in December 2010.
Among the 10 conditions attached to the SMA use permit approval are a requirement the project be completed within five years and protecting the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat during breeding and pup-rearing season (May to August) by not removing or trimming vegetation more than 15 feet high during construction and thereafter.
The commission also approved 6-0 to revoke a special management area use permit for four parcels comprising the lands of the former Keauhou Beach Hotel, Kona Lagoon Hotel and Kona Botanical Gardens.
Carlsmith Ball attorney Steve Lim, representing Kamehameha Schools, said the revocation was sought because the SMA, approved in 1991, was for a different master plan that proposed constructing a new swimming pool, restaurant, landscaping, entry drive, parking modifications, white sand area, repair of a shoreline wall, and other related improvements.
Kamehameha Schools is working on a new master plan that focuses on increased educational opportunities and Native Hawaiian cultural practices and awareness, he said.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.
