2007-06-05 TSUPERSTORES - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

IWASHITA: I have a couple, I guess I’d ask for your comment. Part of our material includes articles that talk about, you know, sort of obvious thing to me, that superstores would require a super parking lot, yeah, in order to accommodate the people that you expect to come. And so the claim is that that adversely affects traffic, not just in the area but in the surrounding areas. So do you have any comments about that? That would be one of the, in my mind, an adverse impact of having a superstore that would have a super parking lot and super traffic problems. CROWLEY: I can’t speak personally of it. GRAHAM: Mr. Crowley, go ahead, yes. CROWLEY: Yes, I’m sorry. I can’t speak personally of it, other than the fact I visited the mainland too and I’ve been to some of the supercenters that they have there, and their parking lots are not any much bigger than the one that we currently have in Hilo. It depends, you know, obviously on the size of the store. But just for the ones that I’ve seen they’re not much bigger than the parking lots that we have. GRAHAM: Thank you. YATES: Can I also make a comment to that, Chair? GRAHAM: Yes, Mr. Yates. YATES: Okay. If you look at the demographics of our Kona store, right next door is the Safeway. The way I look at it is the traffic, if you go into a supermarket plus the general store that exists today, it benefits if you have one location. In fact, I think there will be less traffic by having to just go to one location. We’re right next to each other, we’re neighbors, everybody goes to the same location. The rest I can’t really speak for. Our market manager had to step out so that would be my comment to that. IWASHITA: The other question I had for both of you is that, you know, one of the things that the Council resolution talks about is that, you know, state-wide we’re trying to promote what’s called smart growth or, you know, making our communities more pedestrian friendly and so forth. And, I guess, this superstore, super parking lot image that I have doesn’t really promote developing more towns like Hilo, and, you know, those developed in a time when there were less cars, obviously.But that’s basically the idea that the resolution talks about. How do you see a superstore, you know, adding to? ‘Cause I don’t really see how it can add to the development of a more pedestrian-oriented town. GRAHAM: Mr. Yates? YATES: I have not -. IWASHITA: More simply put, how many people are going to walk to your store and walk away with bags in their hands and go home? EXHIBIT D 13