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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Parking lot in Maunawili
now lies under dirtQuestion: Near the Luana Hills Country Club in Maunawili, a parking lot was built, paved and striped. I'm sure it involved state or city dollars. It was never opened. Now, it's all covered with dirt and secured with a chain-link fence. Who owns the property and who paid for the construction and removal of the parking lot? (Two questions combined.)
Answer: Neither the state nor city was involved in the phantom parking lot.
The property is owned by HRT Ltd., which was ordered to remove the lot because it did not have a permit, said Faith Evans, a member of the Kailua Neighborhood Board.
The owner "removed the vinyl fencing and covered the asphalt with soil," she said.
HRT did not have the required permit, confirmed Carol Costa, spokeswoman for the city administration.
HRT was told to remove the lot or be given a notice of violation by the city Department of Planning and Permitting. The lot was removed and work to restore the area was done by May 1, Costa said.
HRT, a for-profit subsidiary of the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, purchased 1,084 acres in Maunawili, including the Luana Hills Country Club and golf course, from Pan Pacific Development of Japan in 2000.
We called the office of Alvin Awaya, HRT president and trustee of Weinberg Foundation, and was told "if they are interested in commenting, they will call you back."
No one called back.
Q: There's an accident waiting to happen at the intersection of Meheula Parkway and Ainamakua Street at Mililani Mauka and it seems like HPD has not taken any preventive measures. It gets really hectic between 7 and 8 a.m. coming out of Mililani Mauka because there's an elementary school nearby. Congestion gets so bad that people are driving down Meheula in the right-turn-only lane and not turning right at all. I even saw two school buses using that lane one day. I've already been a victim of close calls when cars go speeding down that hill using that lane. How do I go about informing HPD?
A: Honolulu police officers monitored that intersection for a few days after receiving your complaint in September and saw no infractions.
An officer acknowledged, however, that could be because motorists were aware of the police presence. However, he said the problem appeared to be because the right-turn lane was not clearly marked and "for some reason, the solid line is very short."
Shortly after we passed on your complaint to the Department of Transportation Services, the lane in question apparently was coincidentally restriped by the city Department of Facility Maintenance.
The lines had faded and were striped to clearly indicate in which direction vehicles should be going, a transportation official said.
He also noted that developer Castle & Cooke already had scheduled a project to improve traffic flow at that intersection. The Department of Design and Permitting was reviewing the plans. Castle & Cooke will pay for the improvements.
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