2008-01-03 THUALALAI - Laserfiche WebLink

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got to be realigned. ThatÓs a huge project and that is not funded. There are small projects that the County is moving toward on Palani, including realignment of the Kealakaa intersection where thereÓs a, near where thereÓs a pedestrian bridge and the traffic goes into the school. But as far as there being a major project on Palani, no, thatÓs not funded and not in the cards. GALDONES:Commmissioner Kubota? KUBOTA:So weÓre back at where we started. ThereÓs no solution and, yet, as you said, thereÓs no control by placing a moratorium on further changes. It would not alleviate the problems on Palani is what youÓre saying; and this project certainly adds to it but is something that has got to be done. Is that what youÓre saying? YUEN:ThatÓs a lot of it. Let me talk about some other big picture issues. You have to, you canÓt look at these things, I mean, really, you have to look at the big picture and not an isolation. There is no question in my mind that the overall level of growth and development is a major threat to the quality of life on the island. ThatÓs, there are changes that were made in the proposed, in the County General Plan, in reducing the ultimate density along certain coastal locations, oceanfront locations. Some of the resort changes that I proposed in the General Plan that, are meant to address that, one of the drivers of road, of the overall growth on the island. I mean, you have to start at, you have to start where at, if youÓre talking about this problem, one of the things that creates a problem is the economic driver of some of this growth. And so by changing some of these sites to residential sites rather than resort sites, that is meant to deal with some of these issues. The second thing that we need to do is to have places that people can live in that are closer to where they work so they donÓt commute, so they donÓt have to commute as far. We, both the Planning Department and the Planning Commission have supported a number of rezonings in the immediate Kailua-Kona area to much higher densities for condominium zonings that will hopefully provide places for people to live near where they live so they donÓt live in Honokaa and drive to Kona, over 40 miles of road, and come down Palani to get to where they work or use other long stretches of highway. The County needs to get more active in the affordable housing realm. The County has 270 acres of land in Waikoloa that were granted to it to develop affordable housing. That has been inactive for about 10 years. We are letting out a request for proposals to update a Master Plan to try to see whether we can get affordable housing put into that area, because it is a logical area for people to live and work in the South Kohala resorts. By trying to get this started, again, weÓre trying to get people to, weÓre trying to get the places where people can live closer to their work so that they donÓt have to commute over the inadequate road network that we have on the island. So these are some of the big picture things that weÓre trying to do. ItÓs not going to be just a matter of fixing roads. I attended a session, you have to have land use planning that lets, again, that letÓs, that creates a land use pattern where people donÓt have to commute 14