Kapiolani Park Preservation Society

P.O. Box 3059

Honolulu, Hawaii 96802

 

 

[sent to the plan consultant Mr. Gerald Park, Councilmembers Djou & DelaCruz, Senator Les Ihara, Representative Scott Nishimoto, Parks director Lester Chang, Regional Director Mike Smith]

 

25 June 2007

 

RE: Kapiolani Park Master Plan 2007 

 

Dear Mr. Park:

 

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Draft Environmental Assessment of Kapiolani Park. (Please note that the name of the Park is not "Kapiolani Regional Park," it is simply Kapiolani Park.)

 

Below are KPPS’ comments. Many are in bullet-point form for easy reference to the plan, and if you or your staff would like further clarification or elucidation of these short points, we would be most pleased to provide it.

 

             

Keep the Park's traffic circulation pattern as it is.  Alternative plans A - D (fig 13-16) are unacceptable and alter the historic character of the Park.

             

In addition, the proposed accessibility improvements on Poni Moi Road are not acceptable, as they pose traffic hazards on Poni Moi with its heavy school traffic.  It would be better to remove the archery range to a park or parks elsewhere on the island than to ruin the aesthetics of the area and waste money building parking areas and walkways in this beautiful grassy area. 

             

 

              The number of parking spaces in the Park was set at the current number by court order subsequent to the Supreme Court ruling that re-established the Kapiolani Park Trust.  The limitation was designed to keep the Park from turning into a parking lot for Waikiki. 

Due to the death of a child on the curve in Paki Road near the tennis courts, and subsequent to the court order, a new parking lot was added into the central part of the Park (opposite the tree nursery) with the justification that parking was not being increased, just relocated off the dangerous curve in the road.  In actuality the new lot contained more spaces than those "removed" from the curve in the road.  To make matters worse the police seldom ticketed cars illegally parked on the curve and so the cars went right back into that area of the road, so that the dangerous conditions remain.

              The Master Plan's contemplated road improvements are necessary, yet on the plan on page 37, corner parking appears in the left corner of the drawing of Paki Avenue improvements.  There should be no street parking on that dangerous corner.  The diagonal parking also appears to create safety problems on this busy road.

              The existing additional parking spaces in the new lot created by the city across from the tree nursery more than make up for the parking lost along the dangerous curve, and also provide enough spaces for the replacement of the parking lot opposite Paki Hale.  Thus there is no justification for retaining and reconstructing the lot across from Paki Hale since those spaces have already been accounted for in the new lot.

              In general, the parking spaces in the Park are poorly administered by the city, resulting in a constant pressure to pave over more of the Park for vehicle parking.  For example, much of the zoo parking lot is used by Waikiki visitors and employees who enjoy the inexpensive parking meter rates there.  Many Waikiki shop and hotel workers park in the Waikiki Shell area for free during the day, depriving actual park users of its use.

              Parking lots fill up on weekends with salespeople and patrons of commercial activities in the Park (sales that KPPS maintains are contrary to restrictions of the Kapiolani Park Trust), once again depriving Park users of places for their cars.

              KPPS supported bus rapid transit service to the Park to provide public access to the park without destroying more areas for parking.

              Many of the soccer families who use the Park want to park their cars right next to the soccer field, rather than save the Park land by walking an extra hundred yards to a sports field from the parking areas at the Waikiki Shell area where there is adequate parking on weekday afternoons.

 

Please note that Page 41 of the report is missing, and that the report needs the most recent revised site plan for the zoo entrance.

 

Thank you for your attention to these matters directly affecting our beloved Park, a sorely needed green oasis in our urban Honolulu, enjoyed by residents since territorial times and a historical treasure. We look forward to working with you on this.

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

 

Alethea Rebman

President

Kapiolani Park Preservation Society

 

cc:          Lester Chang, C&C Department of Parks & Recreation

              Mike Smith, C&C Department of Parks & Recreation

              Councilmember Charles Djou

              Representative Scott Nishimoto

              Senator Les Ihara, Jr.