COM 0056.023 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

1,'i 2pCl 1:12 PM FFnM: Far. Tn; oF]-oy__ pp~E: OP2 7F 003 Denyxe £ynn temple 15-2725 U`opu St., Pahon, HI 96778 808-965-7139 r~ January 2, 2007 i2 County Council of Hawaii c/o County Building 2> AupuniSt. Hilo, HI 96720 -n _ Re: Bills 220 and 221 tJ To the Honorable Members of the Council: 1 am writing in opposition of the request for the zoning changes in Bills 220 and 221, and urge you to vote "no" on both bills. Before you is the findings of the Planning Commission which recommended this not be approved for reasons of safety and the fact that the Planning Department has had a policy for not allowing the area along Highway 130 from Kearau to Pahoa to be opened t'or commercial use end the building of strip malls. W e applaud the Commission's and Director Yuen's Endings on this for several reasons, the safety factor of traffic along Highway 130 being only one of them. My opposition to these bills is also based on: 1. 'fo pass these bills would set a precedence which the people of the Puna azea have repeatedF~ requested not be set and prior Council's have seen fit to both acknowledge and uphold. I ask the same of this body. 2. The economic impact of strip mall development on both Pahoa and Kea`au, both economically distressed villages, would be disastrous. 3. While the safety issue was mentioned above it is much too important an issue to be left out of this list of concerns. The traffic on Highway 130 has increased ten fold in repent years and number of accidents right along with the amount of traffic. To add yet another impediment to the free flow of traffic on Highway 130 until such time as safety issues and concerns can be worked out with the state only increases the greater risk of mounting injury and death to an already overly high number. 4. The new fire and police stations plans called for them to he placed on Highway 130 in order to increase their response efficiency. To allow this development as