Parks Planning Open House Sessions Announced

A series of interactive open house sessions has been scheduled for October to address parks and recreation facility needs.

File photo by Wendy Osher.

The open house sessions are part of the County of Maui Department of Parks and Recreation project to prepare a System Plan, which will define future recreation needs, an overall strategy and specific capital improvements.

The sessions are organized by district and will cover two areas: Overall district needs and ideas for parks and facilities; and aquatics facilities.

The schedule for the open house sessions is as follows:

· Tuesday, Oct 24: Kaunoa Senior Ctr. (West Maui), 5 – 7:30 p.m.
· Wednesday, Oct. 25: Tavares Community Ctr. (Upcountry), 5 – 7:30 p.m.
· Thursday, Oct. 26: War Memorial Complex, Parks Meeting Room (Central Maui), 5 – 7:30 p.m.
· Friday, Oct. 27: Kenolio Recreation Ctr. (South Maui), 5 – 7:30 p.m.
· TBA: Additional meetings for Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Hāna will be scheduled for later dates.

The open houses will offer opportunities for participants to offer ideas to improve parks, recreation facilities, and programs; suggest the kinds of parks that are needed in each district; review options for the improvement of the county’s aquatic facilities; and speak with project consultants and Parks Department staff.

The informal and interactive open house format allows participants to attend at any time during the two-and-a-half hour window.

There is no formal presentation but there will be four to five stations where people can write comments and speak individually with staff.

Following this set of open house sessions, Parks Department staff and the consultant team will prepare draft District Plans for all of the County’s park districts.

In addition, an Aquatics Facilities Plan will be prepared that summarizes the analysis of existing pools, recommends specific improvements and projects, and describes costs for staffing, and maintenance. By integrating the aquatics study into the open houses, participants will be able to think about aquatics facilities as part of the overall parks system. The plan will include an implementation plan and potential funding options.

For information on this project, please contact David Yamashita, Planner VI at 270-6508 or via email at [email protected].