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April 9, 2013 <br />Mr. Graham Knopp <br />GK Environmental LLC <br />P.O. Box 1310 <br />Honoka` a, Hawaii 96727 <br />Subject: <br />■ <br />B.T. Kuwahara Private Commercial Development < <br />Draft Environmental Assessment (DEA) <br />Related Use of State Land <br />Dear Mr. Knopp, <br />The Puna Community Development Plan (PCDP) ti n Committee offers the following <br />comments on the subject DEA for your considerati <br />Section 3.3. — raffic should include a discussion on the use of a modern roundabout at the <br />Kahakai Blvd. and Pahoa Village Rd. intersection as an alternative to the construction of a traffic <br />signal. The PCDP (Sec. 4.4.2) identifies the use of the use of roundabouts as the preferred <br />intersection improvement for improving safety and traffic flow. <br />Further discussion in Sec. 3.3.2 on page 29 states that concurrent construction of the SR 130 <br />roundabout by HDOT and the proposed project intersection is not expected. Given that the <br />HDOT currently plans to begin construction of the SR 130 roundabout in the summer of 2013 <br />and completed in the summer of 2014 which appears to coincide almost exactly the construction <br />time frame for the Kuwahara project. <br />As stated under Future Traffic Conditions Without Improvements on page 27, the TIAR assumes <br />a 1% annual traffic increase due to population increase, which appears to be roughly half of the <br />24.5% total population growth in the Puna between 2000 and 2010. Additionally, the Census <br />Bureau has recently reported that the Hawaii Island population grew an additional 2.2% <br />between 2010 and 2012 and we believe that Puna continues to account for a disproportionate <br />contribution to county's overall population growth. <br />