KANE'OHE — Kamehameha Schools wants to move its Kane'ohe preschool into Ha'iku Valley, but residents there said they don't want it because it would increase traffic and take away the open space that was once their private playground.

Kamehameha Schools is seeking a zone change from preservation to residential for a little more than two acres of land bordered by Ha'iku Road and Kahuhipa, Kuneki and Makena streets in Ha'iku Village subdivision.

The City Council Zoning Committee was slated to vote on the issue last week, but the vote was deferred pending a review and finding by the city's attorney.

Residents question whether the city can alter the zoning under provisions in the Ko'olaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan, which calls for maintaining preservation lands, and argued that the site was supposed to have been dedicated to the city a long time ago for park use.

City Planning and Permitting Director Henry Eng said he's asked corporation counsel for some advice about the park. The park was created at the time of the subdivision about 30 or 40 years ago, and the debate is whether the park was to be turned over to the city, Eng said.

"I don't know what rules applied 40-some years ago," he said.

But Kamehameha Schools said the community gave up its interest in the property 12 years ago.

"Our view is there was nothing recorded against the title that would make a permanent dedication," said Marsha Bolson, Kamehameha Schools director of communications.

The former Ha'iku Village Community Association used to collect fees to maintain the area as a park and pay for insurance. When the master lease ended in 1994, a new lease was offered to the community, but residents declined, Bolson said.

Since then, the site has been designated for educational use, she said.

Bolson said the school is aware of the community's concerns and has tried to address them, including the traffic and drop-off routine. A study by a private consultant concluded there would be little impact from traffic with the scheduled, staggered drop-off times during which parents would be funneled into the school parking lot to discharge students, she said.

Between 72 and 108 students would be served at the new location, Bolson said. Buildings from the Ha'iku Road site would be moved onto the property, which would be landscaped, according the school's proposal.

The present location — an unused parking lot at Windward Mall — was never meant to be permanent and was hastily constructed after Kamehameha Schools closed two Windward preschools. The students were relocated to the Kane'ohe facility, she said.

Preschools are in demand on the Windward side, with about 1,300 children of preschool age in Kane'ohe and Kahalu'u, Bolson said. There are only 13 schools in the area that serve about 700 students, she said. The Kamehameha Schools preschool gives preference to children of Hawaiian ancestry, and while 28.8 percent of the adult population in Kane'ohe and Kahalu'u is Native Hawaiian, 43.8 percent of the 3- and 4-year-olds in those communities are Native Hawaiian, she said.

"We feel there is a great need," Bolson said.

Drew Jernigan, a Ha'iku Village resident, said the sustainable community plan that the city uses as a guideline calls for the retention of preservation zoning to maintain open spaces and viewplanes. But the city seemed to have ignored this when it recommended the zone change, Jernigan said.

But the plan has some exceptions, and the city planner could have taken that into consideration, said Eng, the planning director.

Some 285 members of the community signed a petition opposing the preschool and are calling to make that area a park for everyone to enjoy, Jernigan said.

She warned that the preschool might not be the end goal of the school because a zone change could set a precedent.

"If Kamehameha Schools wins this rezoning from general preservation to residential, they can build anything there," Jernigan said. "Then our green spaces start to get eaten up by whoever has the most money and wants to develop land."

Bolson said the school has no interest in building homes and its mission is education so it will dedicate the property to education for 20 years.

Longtime Ha'iku Village resident Sid Tsubata said there was a question about the community association being able to afford the cost of insurance when it decided not to renew the lease on the park, but he felt it was a mistake and would prefer to keep the land as a park with swings, a slide and spring animals for children.

He produced a document that called for the park to be dedicated to the city and wonders why it never happened.

If the city does change the zoning, then Tsubata said he would like the school to build a facility that is more in keeping with the neighborhood where he said homes are selling for $800,000 to $1 million.

The modular building that Kamehameha Schools plans to move to the community are cheap-looking and would be a blight on the neighborhood, he said.

"I'd like to see a first-class facility fitting with the kinds of home that are in the neighborhood," Tsubata said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.