A genuine civic center is slated for Wahiawa after decades of planning

A more proper rural state courthouse appears to be in the not-too-distant future for Central Oahu and North Shore communities as part of a $76 million civic center redevelopment project in Wahiawa.

The state Department of Accounting and General Serv­ices has outlined plans for replacing an old, cramped state office building with a much larger new complex that would include space for the district court, several state program offices, a satellite city hall and a driver’s licensing office.

The project, described in a recently published environmental impact statement preparation notice, would fulfill a decades- old community objective to establish a bona fide civic center in Wahiawa with public services clustered in one place.

Currently, the rural district court leases space in a nondescript commercial building next to a motorcycle shop two blocks from the state office building.

A couple of blocks farther away is the satellite city hall and driver’s licensing office next to the Wahiawa Police Station.

And since March, a Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children office has operated partly out of the Wahiawa Public Library after a couple of cottage-like buildings next to the state office building burned in a fire that displaced WIC program operations from the buildings, which have since been demolished.

Under the redevelopment plan, these state and city facilities would be grouped together in one, two or three new buildings that replace the existing state office building on 3 acres.

“The decentralization of such offices is inconvenient for residents and complicates coordination efforts among and within stakeholder agencies,” DAGS said in the notice.

Existing users of the state office building in Wahiawa — the Department of Human Services, a Department of Health Public Health Nursing Office and the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources — also would be housed in the new complex.

About 140 parking spaces are also planned, potentially by adding two levels to an adjacent city bus transit center that was built on state land and provides parking for transit riders and state workers on the facility’s second-story rooftop.

DAGS said Wahiawa had identified the 3-acre site bordered by California Avenue, North Cane Street, Kilani Avenue and Lehua Street next to Wahiawa District Park for a civic center as far back as 1957.

The site is commonly known as Wahiawa Civic Center but is a product of what DAGS described as piecemeal development of “assorted temporary or semi-permanent structures” representing less of a true civic center.

In the past, city motor vehicle services and the state court were on the site but were relocated due to space constraints.

The state court, which is one of four rural district court facilities on Oahu (others are in Pearl City, Kapolei and Kaneohe) has been in a commercial building at 1034 Kilani Ave. since 1985.

The Wahiawa court has been described by officials as inadequate and less secure than a traditional courthouse.

“Having the courthouse and related government services in a convenient and secure location in the heart of Wahiawa town will certainly be a benefit to the community,” Hawaii Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald said in a statement.

Satellite city hall and College of Tropical Agriculture representatives have described their space as insufficient, and the Department of Health’s Adult Mental Health Division has said a new facility would allow for a proper nursing station and a conference room for group behavioral health services.

Plans to develop a true civic center in Wahiawa were part of a broader town master plan from the 1990s that led to a civic center conceptual plan produced in 1997.

More recently, efforts to achieve the goal included the University of Hawaii Community Design Center engaging community stakeholders to flesh out and advance the project using $250,000 provided by the Legislature in 2019.

Earlier this year, Hawaii lawmakers included $76 million in the state budget to cover the project’s cost estimated by DAGS.

State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, who represents Wahiawa and was instrumental in the funding as Ways and Means Committee chairman, said his involvement in the project stretches back two decades to when he served on the Wahiawa- Whitmore Village Neighborhood Board from 1999 to 2002.

“All my years on the neighborhood board it was an issue of being needed,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll help revitalize the center of Wahiawa.”