After years of planning and anticipation, project developers, county officials and members of the KCA are ready to break ground in January at the site of a 44-acre community park complex.After several years of hoping and dreaming, a wish is about to come true for South Maui residents because after years of planning and anticipation, project developers, county officials and members of the Kihei Community Association (KCA) are ready to break ground at the site of a new park complex in South Maui.
Not long from now, families will lay out picnic blankets on soft blades of grass as Little League baseball players catch fly balls in the outfield at the new South Maui Community Park in Kihei. The much-anticipated construction of the 44-acre regional park complex in South Maui is expected to begin in January 2009, according to the KCA and the county department of Parks and Recreation.
To meet the needs of South Maui’s swelling population, the South Maui Community Park was included in Mayor Charmaine Tavares’ 2008-09 budget spending plan. Construction of the park will take an estimated eight years to complete, and the entire project will carry a price tag of nearly $30 million. The park complex will be built in three phases—the first of which is scheduled to begin in January and will cost around $10 million. While there is no official date set for completion of the project, park planners anticipate the first phase of the park to be open to the public by 2010.
In the first phase, construction crews will begin developing the park’s infrastructure, including digging sewer lines, installing water and electricity, and paving roadways and parking areas.
In a recent interview with The Maui News, county Parks Director Tamara Horcajo said, “We can’t wait to get the ball rolling now… it is a facility that is long overdue for our community.”
The new park is slated to border the future North-South Collector Road, Hope Chapel on Welakahao Road, Kihei Elementary School on Lipoa Street, Lokelani Intermediate School on Liloa Drive, and will be within walking distance of the Kihei Community Center on Lipoa Street. Today, the future site of the South Maui Community Park is a desolate patchwork of dirt, brambles and sun-bleached grass, but in time, the vacant lot will transform into one of Maui’s finest recreational facilities.
According to Chris Hart & Partners Landscape Architecture & Planning, the master plan for the park includes a 1,096-seat gymnasium, several multipurpose courts, soccer fields, baseball and softball fields, comfort stations, and a pavilion and amphitheater. The master plan allocates 13 acres for “active” areas—gyms, courts and fields—and more than 20 acres for open space and “passive” areas. Planners assured that parking will not be a problem, as the park will offer hundreds of paved parking stalls, in addition to “overflow” grass parking areas.
In accordance with the vision of Mayor Tavares, county parks officials and community members, the primary objective of the new park is “to address the active and passive recreation needs of South Maui’s fast-growing population” and “provide a wider selection of recreational activities than are currently available in the South Maui area.”
The second phase of the park, which will border the new Kihei Recycling and Redemption Center, is expected to be completed by 2015. And by 2020, the planner said the third and final phase will be finished, providing island residents and visitors the opportunity to enjoy their favorite outdoor activities in a new park complex with meticulously-landscaped gardens, breathtaking ocean views and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.
Construction bids for the project will begin as soon as September; in the interim, KCA members will continue to work with park planners and the county Parks Department. While this “Field of Dreams” may take some time to become a reality, South Maui residents are eagerly awaiting the moment in which they can bring their catcher’s mitts, soccer cleats and kites to the South Maui Community Park.
To view the South Maui Community Park Master Plan prepared by Chris Hart & Partners, visit the KCA Website at www.gokihei.org.