Hawaii County has identified revisions for a park project in Kukuihaele it hopes will better suit the community’s needs after residents expressed concerns earlier this month.
Among the revisions is inclusion of a site for a children’s playground on the northwestern corner of the park by relocating the existing basketball court. To do this, the project will require constructing retaining walls and grading to capture park land to accommodate the use, as well as a pair of switchback ramps for accessibility.
“It seemed like the playground was something that the majority of the community agreed was vital for the needs of the community,” said park planner James Komata with the county Department of Parks and Recreation. “We felt it was important enough to make the changes necessary to accommodate that element — albeit it would be a future improvement, it would not be a part of the project at this time.”
The revision is among several identified following a Jan. 10 meeting hosted by the county, as well as letters and other forms of input submitted to the department that could be incorporated by the county’s consultant, SSFM International. The other revisions resulted in savings, including reducing 6 feet of fencing to 4 feet in areas ($6,000-$9,000 savings), removing fencing in favor of landscaping along Kukuihaele Road ($19,000-$22,000 savings), and replacing koa and palms with other varieties (up to $10,000 savings).
The county, in order to accommodate greater flexibility to deal with construction costs and the budget, as well as address concerns received from the community, will incorporate three additional bid alternates including constructing the site for the proposed playground, leaving the existing court as-is, reserving an area for a future playground, not doing any major grading work with the exception of a accessible route to include a switchback ramp and painting the makai and Honokaa 4-foot fencing dark green to mitigate visual impact.
Those alternates will be added to the original three bid alternates: constructing an exercise path from a comfort station to the basketball court with related fencing and palms, constructing baseball field dugouts and bleachers and portions of related walkways and retaining walls and a new baseball field with backstop, drinking fountains and portions of related walkways.
The Kukuihaele Neighborhood Association on Wednesday thanked the county and Councilwoman Valerie Poindexter for taking another look at the plans. The recently created association in early January expressed concern about the extent of the project, including that it could impede residents form hosting community events and cutoff access because of fencing around the park’s perimeter, among other things.
“We are truly grateful to our councilwoman (Poindexter) and Parks and Rec for meaningfully addressing community concerns. But the dire issues of traffic and water remain unaddressed,” said Colleen Lawrence, the association’s interim president.
The association said it remains concerned about increased traffic along Kukuihaele Road and EA’s finding that there is not enough capacity in the water system for the project. The association suggested the county conduct a more through environmental review via an Environmental Impact Statement before proceeding, as well as considering relocating the facility.
Komata said the county still stands “by the effort that was made to analyze and understand the traffic impacts that the park will provide.” As for water, he said the numbers used in the document were “preliminary figures, design estimates,” and after reassessing the numbers, down to what fixtures would be used, engineers think there will be adequate supply.
“We looked at the likely use of the park and similar parks and came up with figures that we feel are appropriate for the type of park,” he said. “And they still fall within the available water that Water Supply says there is.”
The county originally proposed to spend $2.5 million to improve the park with a 27-stall parking lot, ADA accessibility, a new comfort station and pavilion, an improved basketball court, new softball/Little League baseball field with related amenities, a new jogging path and fencing.
With the modifications and new alternate bids, Komata still expects the project to be done by November, as long as there are no further revisions or bid protests.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.
