GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
A proposed parking lot will be built adjacent to an already existing lot near the University of Hawaii Hawaiian Studies Center on Dole Street.
Parking lot plans
advance at UHA four-level structure will
provide 278 stalls for dorm
students and Hawaiian studies
Construction is scheduled begin in August on a $4.5 million parking structure at the University of Hawaii at Manoa that will allow more cars to park on campus rather than on crowded city streets.
The structure is part of a long-range plan to add 2,000 parking spaces to the current 5,500, said Rodney Sakaguchi, vice chancellor for administration, finance and operations at UH-Manoa.
"As we develop plans for the campus, we need to make sure that there's sufficient parking to go along with those plans," Sakaguchi said.
The four-level parking structure will have 278 stalls and be located on Dole Street between the Center for Hawaiian Studies and Kanewai Park. It will be built atop a 98-stall gravel parking lot, providing a net gain of 180 more stalls.
People who are using the current parking lot will have to park in the main structure on the lower campus until construction is finished sometime in April or May of next year.
Sakaguchi said the new parking structure will service the Center for Hawaiian Studies and dorm students. "It's closer to the dorms (than the main parking structure), so hopefully it will relieve some of the demand over there," he said.
Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, the Hawaiian studies director, said the new parking lot will not interfere with plans to build an extension to the current Hawaiian Studies Center for a library, auditorium and more classrooms.
"I'm happy they're putting it (the new parking lot) in," she said. "We often have events with 400 people here, and parking is always crazy."
She said she requested that native trees be put in as landscaping for the parking lot but was turned down.
"For most students it (parking) is a real problem. They have to come in early no matter what time their classes are, and it (the lot) is usually full."
"Parking is horrible," said Kalewa Correa, a Hawaiian studies student. "I had to park over at the (Kanewai) park and risk getting a ticket."
The university's 1994 master plan calls for additional parking structures near the Biomedical Science Complex, the Biomedical building parking lot, the Kennedy Theatre parking lots and the parking lot fronting the Pacific Ocean & Science Technology building, Sakaguchi said.
If enough parking can be built on the edges of the campus, Sakaguchi said the eventual goal is to close off the center of campus to vehicle traffic.
None of the other parking structures has advanced to the planning and design stage.
Construction on the Dole Street structure was delayed because a proposal to revise parking fees on campus has not yet been approved by the Board of Regents, Sakaguchi said.
The additional parking revenue will help pay for the cost of building the structure.
But he said the university was able to defer maintenance projects so that construction can start on the new parking structure by the end of summer.
Karen Ah Mai, a St. Louis Heights resident and member of the neighborhood board, said there was some concern about increased traffic on Dole Street.
But she said board members thought "it could be no worse than the traffic coming out of Kanewai Park when a baseball game gets out."
