Land deal allows city to
construct Central Oahu park

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The city expects to break ground this fall on a 270-acre Central Oahu regional park in Waiola which will be bigger than Kapiolani and Ala Moana parks combined.

Mayor Jeremy Harris, at a news conference yesterday, said a deal has been reached with landowner Castle & Cooke giving the city possession of the property in exchange for the 40-acre Manager's Drive parcel in Waipahu and $4.5 million.

Assessors valued the park property at $12.7 million, while the city earlier had failed to get a good deal for the Manager's Drive parcel, which had been assessed at $8.2 million.

The deal still needs to be approved later this month by the City Council, which has already approved appropriations for the purchase and an additional $16 million for the first phase of construction.

Slotted to the west of Waipio and north of Waikele, the park's first phase will include two regulation baseball fields featuring backstops, dugouts, bleachers, fencing and electronic scoreboards.

Also included are four youth baseball fields and five all-purpose fields which most likely will be used by soccer enthusiasts.

A parking lot will hold 262 cars with additional parking available for special events, two comfort stations and a maintenance storage building.

The main entrance will be at Ka Uka Boulevard and Kamehameha Highway.

Scrapped are plans for a 6,000-seat baseball stadium.

The first phase should be completed in fall 2000. Maintenance will need roughly eight groundskeepers and cost about $200,000.

Talks are ongoing with nonprofit sports groups about having them either physically assist or provide financial help for maintenance, given the city's shortage of groundskeepers caused by a budgetary crunch.

Future phases of the park, including a tennis complex and aquatics center, will also likely involve contributions from the sports community, Harris said.