A Hamakua neighborhood group is suing the county Department of Parks and Recreation, its director and the mayor over proposed improvements to Kukuihaele Park.
The civil suit, filed Wednesday by attorney Georgette Yaindl on behalf of the Kukuihaele Neighborhood Association, Colleen Lawrence, Koohan Paik, David Allen, Miequel White and Rudolph Angelo, names as defendants Parks and Recreation Director Clayton Honma and Mayor Billy Kenoi in their official capacities.
Lawrence is the association’s president and Paik its secretary. The other plaintiffs are Kukuihaele residents.
The suit claims draft and final environmental assessments for the project, which were prepared by Hilo consulting firm Geometrician Associates, are insufficient and the documents’ finding of no significant impact is wrong. It claims community members were not consulted about the scope of the county’s plans for the park, which include a fenced Little League baseball field, dugouts, an 18-foot chain-link fence backstop, basketball court, 27 parking stalls, a pavilion and comfort station.
The group also filed for an injunction seeking to stop the county from going ahead with the project until a more extensive environmental impact statement is done.
According to the county website, a contract for the project, originally estimated to cost $2.5 million, was awarded Monday to Isemoto Contracting Co. for $5,010,320.
“We’ve got two weeks by state law to file a challenge (to the contract) and if they break ground, we will file for an immediate (temporary restraining order),” Paik said early Thursday evening after learning the contract was awarded.
“The proposed improvements don’t serve our community,” she added. “They would very much serve the softball leagues outside the community, who have made it clear that they very much want to play softball in a space that overlooks Waipio Valley.
“There is this huge misunderstanding around the island that we are against a park in our community. No, we’re not against park improvements in the community. We’ve been pleading for park improvements (for) two decades in our community. But we believe what is proposed does not serve the needs of our community. It serves the needs of other people from other communities.”
Asked what kind of improvements would serve Kukuihaele best, Paik replied, “I don’t want to speak for everybody in the community because there are many different desires. But what has been repeatedly said by many people in the community for many years is bathrooms and a pavilion. And then, more recently, a lot of the kupuna in the community have been talking about wanting a playground for the keiki, for their grandchildren.”
A playground was not part of the original plans, but was approved for a possible later addition to the park after a county meeting Jan. 10.
“It seems like the playground was something that the majority of the community agreed was vital for the needs of the community,” Deputy Parks and Recreation Director James Komata told West Hawaii Today in late January. “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 suit also claims Parks and Recreation approved a final environmental assessment “that identifies, but then ignores or dismisses as minor, patently major environmental impacts.” Those include, according to the filing, a water delivery system that can’t accommodate additional demand, elimination of 4 acres of open space overlooking Waipio Valley, increased motor vehicle traffic on Kukuihaele Village Road and ballpark event overflow parking in residents’ front yards.
“In the final and draft EA, the Department of Water (Supply) said the Kukuihaele water system does not have sufficient water for this project. And that has not been addressed,” Paik said. “So clearly, studies that would be included in an environmental impact statement need to be conducted. And this has been pushed through with no regard for the people who live here. All we have been wanting to do is get a park that suits our needs.”
“We were told by the county that their goal was to provide us with a park that would best serve the community of Kukuihaele, but at every turn we were met with a deaf ear. And it’s now come to the point where we have no choice but to challenge this finding of no significant impact because indeed, the significance is very great. Especially as we read it, there were … very important issues regarding traffic and water,” Paik added.
Hamakua Councilwoman Valerie Poindexter proposed an appropriation of $2.5 million for the project, which was later approved by the County Council, in May. Poindexter, who was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said Thursday, “The majority of the community wants (the park improvements) to happen.”
Poindexter said the Kukuihaele Neighborhood Association represents “only a small portion of the Kukuihaele community” and she gets the sense from community meetings she’s conducted that the group’s view is the minority opinion.
“I wouldn’t go after something that a community would not want and that would not benefit the community,” Poindexter said. “It’s a hard thing when we have a division like that and the people who have been waiting for so long for this, but this is about the health and safety of the community, from the keiki to the kupuna.”
Poindexter said the park was privately built when the town was a sugar plantation community and had a ballpark and restrooms at one time, but those were razed when the county took over the land for safety reasons. She said water in the area is adequate for the park but noted improvements need to be made to the road to accommodate park traffic.
“Any improvements to the road would be for next year, after the park is completed,” she said. “We don’t want construction trucks and backhoes going in and breaking up the new pavement and having to do it over.”
Parks and Recreation spokesman Jason Armstrong said Thursday the department can’t comment about the pending lawsuit.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
