2011-05-04 Windward transcript HAAS

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E. WEATHERFORD: Hi, my name is Elizabeth Weatherford. With James Weatherford, we own, we have some property very close to HAAS School. I'd like to thank you for taking everyone's testimony and for your consideration of this matter. As someone who lives, who has land nearby we do consider them a good neighbor. HAAS is a really good neighbor and an excellent school and a good community member from everything that we have experienced of them to this time. I was really surprised to hear of the condition to do roadwork. I guess shocked would be the best, the best description of how I felt. And this is coming from Public Works, I take it. What astonishes me most is that Public Works must not be aware of the, I am not sure if it is set in stone yet, but the expressed intention of the Department of Transportation to build a roundabout, two roundabouts in the Pāhoa vicinity, one at Kahakai Boulevard, and the awareness is necessary to realize that that is going to change the traffic conditions considerably in that area. And an effective roundabout will be, will take the speed limits passing through to about 20 miles an hour, which means that the traffic there will be reduced considerably some more. I used to live in Australia. I lived there for several years; and roundabouts are you know, they’re great. Here’s a roundabout pamphlet from the, this is from FHWA saying your community deserves a lot less, deserves roundabout, deserves a lot less, less congestion, less frustration, less pollution, less expense, fewer and less traffic collisions, fewer pedestrian/driver injuries. Okay, that’s what’s going to be happening just a few hundred, just a couple hundred yards away. So that please consider that. I mean I don’t, I really doubt that much will need to be done to that intersection anyway if you take that into account; and that’s an ongoing plan that is being developed. Thank you very much. If you can be aware of the traffic changes and the changes it will make in the driver behavior in that area, then it should obviate the need to make this happen. Thank you. KERN: Thank you. Quick comment from the Madam Director. LEITHEAD TODD: Mrs. Weatherford, typically I don’t comment or really engage in questions with people who testify unless the question is raised. But since we’ve had prior testifiers who have commented on this also, I thought for the benefit of the members of the public as well as other people who are testifying that I should kind of explain the process by which we come up with recommendations. We typically send letters out, in this case letters went to the Department of Public Works as well as State Department of Transportation. Most of the conditions that people are concerned about were requested by the State Department of Transportation. In particular they are the ones that asked for the median strip. They are asking that all the mitigation measures in the TIAR be implemented and that all the cost of construction between the State right-of-way should be planned, designed according to State requirements and it’s all done at no cost to the State of Hawai‘i. Typically what we do is when these recommendations come in we incorporate the recommendations that come in from the various agencies. We don’t necessarily second-guess their recommendations. We then submit them as proposed recommendations. We reserve the right to change or mitigate or change the recommendations. And typically that occurs at a meeting such as this where we have an opportunity for the applicant to comment on them, as well as the Commissioners to hear from the public. And it is also from DPW from the County where the term roads in limbo came out because it was in their comment letter. I just wanted to clarify that. Because it seemed to me that some people think that the Planning Department just kind of comes up with these conditions out of thin air. In fact, what they are is incorporating the comments that have come in from other agencies. And I think part 15 EXHIBIT A