2005-01-21 TSUFFOLKOPUAA - Laserfiche WebLink

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employment and the burden onto the existing roads. Could you comment onthose, Mr. Takemoto? TAKEMOTO:As far as the factors that went into the TIAR, I cannot comment on that. I havent reviewed that study. But, you know, commonly, TIARs can be criticized just like an EIS, you know. Everybody who picks it up has something to say about it. So I would need to take the comments and compare it to the TIAR, and possibly get Public Works input on that as well. SPRINGER:Okay. Then perhaps a more general statement regarding how the Planning Department evaluates the benefit of affordable housing close to places of employment against the cost of increased traffic? TAKEMOTO:This kind of goes to an earlier question raised by Commissioner McCall,actually,about,youknow,thestrategyhereistodirectgrowthtotheexisting urbanized areas, which is called in-field development, and provided that this in-field development does have an affordable housing component. Because the trend is that the people are being pushed out to the periphery because they cannot afford housing close to town where their jobs are so, which is whats causing these long commutes to Kona. So, to counter that, the idea is to direct growth to the in-field areas, which are the vacant urban areas in existing urbanized areas, that have infrastructure or can be developed to provide infrastructure. As long as there is a component for affordable housing so that these people have a choice to move closer to where they work, we cannot guarantee that that would actually happen. I think the whole exercise here is to provide opportunities and choice; because without even that, we dont stand a chance. And that is kind of a paradox to hear you increasing development in the urbanized area in the interest of reducing congestion, but that is the long-term solution. We need the, the congestion that is occurring now is a symptom of the existing conditions. So we need quick fixes to clear up as much as we can the congestion thats occurring now. But in the long term we need to reverse this land use trend to not aggravate the existing trends. SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. Takemoto. Commissioners, any questions of either Mr. Gimpel or Mr. Takemoto on this matter? Okay, thank you, Mr. Gimpel. Next, Mr. Murata, if you could please give us your name and your address for the record. MURATA:My name is Harold Murata. My address is 77-6452 Alii Drive, Apartment 305, Kailua-Kona. My compressed statement is the Suffolk-Puaa project should not be approved. The Suffolk Development proposes 300 parking stalls, the Puaa Development proposes over 520 stalls. This kind of high traffic-inducing project, such as these, do not fit into the existing transportation infrastructure in Kona. These projects will further impact traffic flows and traffic circulation, not only on the roadways here in central Kailua and in the vicinity. But if you go mauka, about 10 more miles south, the effects of all these cars that will be generated will spill over to the Honalo-Kainaliu area, and continuing on 26