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Sunday, September 2, 2001



Hearings on
Koa Ridge Mililani
development
set to begin

Castle & Cooke plans up to
7,500 homes on nearly 1,250
Central Oahu acres

Health complex could be
feather in Koa Ridge cap


By Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.com

GET READY for the next great Oahu development fight.

Castle & Cooke Homes' plan to develop up to 7,500 more homes in Central Oahu begins this week with the Hawaii chapter of the Sierra Club and the Mililani Neighborhood Board nipping at its heels.

The state Land Use Commission begins hearings on the nearly 1,250-acre Koa Ridge project Thursday.

Both the Sierra Club and the neighborhood board have been granted intervenor status, having raised issues about traffic, water availability and overdevelopment of agricultural lands.

"At one time we were a rural area and then we were urban fringe. And now I'm not sure what we are. They mention us in the same breath as Kapolei." Richard Poirier, Mililani Neighborhood Board chairman.

Koa Ridge represents Castle & Cooke's home-building plan for the next 40 years after its successes in the 16,000-home Mililani community. An estimated 400 families move into Mililani annually, according to Harry Saunders III, the company's president.

The new project is divided into three segments -- Koa Ridge Makai (571.5 acres), Koa Ridge Mauka (485.5 acres) and Waiawa (190.9 acres). Nearly all the land once was used for pineapple production.

The state Office of Planning, based largely on concerns raised by state and city agencies, is recommending that the commission approve the urban designation only for the Koa Ridge Makai and Waiawa portions but keep Koa Ridge Mauka in agricultural use.

Koa Ridge Makai, which includes an ambitious medical park spearheaded by the Wahiawa Hospital Association, constitutes the area between Kamehameha Highway and the H-2 Freeway, Kipapa Gulch and Ka Uka Boulevard.

The segment would be the first phase developed, with the first medical facilities ready by 2003 and the first of about 3,000 homes available for occupancy by 2007.

Saunders said the Waiawa portion of the project is dependent on the development timeline of the Waiawa by Gentry project to the south on lands owned by Kamehameha Schools. Waiawa by Gentry calls for about 7,000 homes. But while zoning exists for about 4,000 units, none have been built.

Meanwhile, the Koa Ridge Mauka portion above Mililani Memorial Park is not slated to be developed until at least 2020, Saunders said.

Koa Ridge Mauka, unlike the Koa Ridge Makai and Waiawa segments, is outside the urban growth boundaries under the city's proposed Central Oahu Sustainable Communities Plan, making it more difficult for that segment to receive zoning from the City Council.

The discrepancy will be pointed out to commission members by the city Planning and Permitting Department, according to Deputy Planning Director Lorrie Chee, who noted that the final Sustainable Communities Plan, which is supposed to direct growth through 2020, is likely to be completed by the end of the year.

Jeff Mikulina, executive director for the Sierra Club Hawaii chapter, also noted that the city Board of Water Supply has raised issue over the need to keep the mauka portion undeveloped for the purpose of groundwater recharge.

Mikulina noted that the water board stated it has not determined the availability of potable water for the overall project. Saunders, however, said he believes the developer will be able drill wells to provide the water.

The Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, has written in opposition to urban reclassification for the mauka portion, noting that 226 acres of existing pineapple lands would be lost.

Saunders contended the pineapple cultivation in the lands under consideration has been dwindling because of encroaching urbanization from development on the two sides, as well as a shift to a new type of fruit that thrives better on drier acreage such as lands in Helemano and Waialua. The remaining pineapple acreage is expected to be out within the next two years, he said.

A key contention raised by the Mililani Neighborhood Board is traffic.

Board chairman Poirier said the state Department of Transportation has pointed out that major intersections in Central Oahu -- including Kamehameha Highway-Ka Uka Boulevard, Kamehameha-Lumiauau Street, Kamehameha-Waipahu Street and Ka Uka-Moaniani Street -- would be operating at an "unsatisfactory" level of service by the year 2020 if the project is developed.

Saunders said the developer will contribute its share to road improvements. Included are proposals for new on- and off-ramps from H-2 connecting the existing Pineapple Road and a new spine road that would snake through the makai segment.

Poirier and Mikulina also said they take exception to development in what they feel is the last large expanse of open space through Wahiawa when both the state and city have given lip service to diverting growth to Kapolei and the Leeward side of the island.

Approval of Koa Ridge "would urbanize the rest of Central Oahu," said Poirier, whose board is also in the throes of a separate fight against Castle & Cooke's phase 3 of Mililani Mauka now before the city Planning Commission.

Opponents believe the planned units in Central Oahu, such as the Waiawa by Gentry project, will be sufficient to meet the housing needs.

But for Saunders, the issue is one of choice. He acknowledged the stated planning policies, but said government should not be regulating where Oahu residents live.

"Central Oahu has been a third alternative from the get-go," Saunders said. "There are still people who would rather live in Central Oahu than in a condo in town or out in the Ewa plain," he said.

Statistics from Mililani sales, he said, show 90 percent of buyers are local residents.

Most, Saunders said, already live in the area between Aiea and Wahiawa.

"We're not adding people to the community, we're adding homes for the people already in the community," he said.

Assuming the developer receives commission approval and is part of the Central Oahu Sustainable Communities Plan, it will need to obtain zoning approvals from the City Council.

Map


Health complex could be
feather in Koa Ridge cap


By Kelliann Shimote
kshimote@starbulletin.com

A key component of Koa Ridge is the development of the ambitious 210-acre Pacific Health Center that would include a sports medicine complex, biotechnology institute and separate facilities for specialty fields such as cardiac care, geriatric and women's medicine and Hawaiian healing.

The project is the brainchild of the Wahiawa Hospital Association, whose members began contemplating a relocation from its Lehua Street hospital in the early 1990s.

In 1999, Dallas-based Baylor Health Care Systems led a team of consultants that worked with the community and hospital officials to develop a campus that would specialize in sports injury treatment, physical rehabilitation, senior health care and other medical fields.

"Baylor really had the best health care system that could be used as a model in Hawaii," said Rodney Sato, chairman of hospital partner Pacific Health Community Inc.

Now the plan's supporters need to convince other health care providers to buy into the concept.

Sato said business plans showed a demand for both an 11-acre sports medicine and research center and an 80-acre health campus mall.

The project is getting a lukewarm reception so far from leaders at other local care providers and the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Many said it is too premature to make commitments.

"This point in time, there is not enough detail," said Gretchen Gilroy, chief clinical officer of St. Francis Medical Centers. "We don't have enough information, and we haven't discussed it internally to make a decision on it."

Officials from The Queen's Medical Center and Kapiolani Health gave similar responses when questioned by the Star-Bulletin.

Sato said he has received letters of interest from a number of organizations both here and on the mainland. Among them have been officers with the UH medical school, which has expressed interested in partnering in sports medicine, he said.

And with new UH President Evan Dobelle's decision to reconsider initial plans to move the medical school to Kakaako, the Pacific Health Center's supporters are also eager to see if their campus will be considered as a possible future site of the medical school.

Five sites are being considered: Kapolei, Kakaako, Tripler, Pearl City and Waipio.

Edwin Cadman, dean of the medical school, said a decision is expected by Oct. 1. "It's a great idea, but we have not discussed anything further," he said.

Community leaders, meanwhile, are eager for the center's success.

"I believe the community is excited about the expansion but there are already concerns about care," said Donovan Dela Cruz, chairman of the Wahiawa Neighborhood Board, which has endorsed the new medical park.


Star-Bulletin reporter Gordon Y.K. Pang
contributed to this story.



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