The city is moving forward on plans to spend $8.2 million to buy almost 19 acres of shoreline land in Waipahu for a new park. City advances plans
for park in WaipahuBy Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.comThe money is in addition to $1.5 million already appropriated to begin the first phase of the proposed Middle Loch Park, including beautification and a rest station for bikers and joggers.
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said an ordinance signed by Mayor Jeremy Harris last week assigns the area as a publicly funded park, which is one of the first steps in acquiring the land.
The park would be part of a larger project known as the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail, the brainchild of City Councilman Gary Okino, who conceived the idea while a member of the Aiea Community Association.
The historic trail is an 18.6-mile rail-and-trail system that would link neighborhoods to beach parks, regional attractions and historic sites between Aiea and Nanakuli. Middle Loch Park would include an existing bike trail and an extension of the historic railway that runs from Nanakuli to Ewa Villages, Okino said.
The city has appropriated a total of $9.7 million for the project, but that does not include appropriations for the extended rail, which Okino said is still in the conceptual stages and is at least five years off.
Darrlyn Bunda of the Waipahu Community Association called the plans for the park "another piece in the puzzle to revitalize Waipahu."Although the association is not working on the historic trail project, she said the group is "making sure portions that affect Waipahu go through because it's going to be advantageous to Waipahu."
"(The parcel is) just scrub now, and with improvements and things happening, it just makes the community a better place," she said.
Original plans called for the city to buy the 18.9-acre parcel in steps, starting with just 4.6 acres for $2.7 million. Okino said the city now will buy the lot whole, in part because landowner Okada Trucking Co. said the piecemeal approach would hurt its plans to build a condominium there.
"Because we didn't want the condos there ... we thought why not preserve the whole thing, especially since the landowner told us either all or nothing," Okino said.
He said the city plans to sell a part of the parcel to the state for a secondary access road to Leeward Community College. But most of the parcel would be used for the park, he said.
The vacant parcel sits between Pearl Harbor's Middle Loch on one side and Waipahu High School, its athletic field and a Navy Drum Storage facility on the other. It would be bordered on the mauka side by the planned access road.
Okino said the idea of the park and trail is to increase visitor traffic to the area. "If we have the train there, all these nice parks to see, you're going to have people (coming) from all over the island," he said.
"When they go to the Waipio Soccer Complex, they've got to eat plate lunch. That's the same idea. Make this place a nice place for people to come spend their money in the community to help our businesses."