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Waipahu project
can start next year,
pending permit

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By Gordon Y. K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Work on the 230-home "Renaissance" subdivision along Managers Drive in Waipahu could begin by early next year, according to representatives for developer Castle & Cooke Homes.

City Planning Director Randall Fujiki has to make a decision by Sept. 21 on whether to grant Castle & Cooke its permit for the planned development housing project known as "The Renaissance," near the Waipahu Sugar Mill.

A public hearing by the Planning and Permitting Department drew no testifiers.

The 35-acre site, used for Oahu Sugar plantation homes through the early 1980s, is zoned for housing but requires a permit because the developer is requesting that a number of the lots be less than 5,000 square feet.

The average lot size will be 4,740 square feet with the smallest lot 4,000 square feet. Homes will have from three to four bedrooms and cost from $260,000 to $320,000, according to Natalie Kiehm, project manager.

The slightly smaller lot sizes "will help to spread the land cost as well as cost of development over a greater number of units," Kiehm said, thus reducing the cost to home buyers.

Access to the project will come off of Managers Drive, which the city is planning to extend into Waikele, near Hiapo and Kuhaulua streets.

Kiehm said the project has unanimous support from the Waipahu Neighborhood Board, and also been endorsed by the Waipahu vision team and the Waipahu Town Plan Committee.

Castle & Cooke got the Managers Drive property and $4.5 million from the city in exchange for the the 270-acre Central Oahu regional park site at Waiola.

The Managers Drive parcel had been assessed at $8.2 million; the park property at $12.7 million.