2013-07-18 Leeward Exh B - Hualalai Partners

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TUCKER: Eric Tucker, and I live off of Makapono Road, and as such fall within the 1,000-foot boundary of affected area of the development. I have to echo everyone else’s talk so far. Hualālai is not a safe road as it is now. I drive it on a daily basis. We’ve all experienced the problems of it. To put not one but four neighborhoods, the ingress and egress onto it without major reconstruction of the road seems to be a liability that the County is simply opening themselves up to. I don’t, I think that also during the build-out, the grub, the grade, and the build-out portion of this, I think Dan Bolton has done a very good job in terms of his construction project for the water tank, but it’s a very small project compared to what we are contemplating here; I think that just the portion of it is going to create enormous hazards on the road itself. Thanks. GIMPEL: Good morning. The Kona Traffic Safety Committee has once again reviewed these applications for boundary amendment and change of zone, first filed in 2010, and we find that several serious concerns and questions that we, along with members of the Kona community, the Leeward Planning Commission and the Council’s Planning Committee raised in the past haven’t yet been satisfactorily addressed. We still have the following concerns: 1) Primary access would be located on Hualālai Road, which you know is a narrow winding two-lane roadway that isn’t designed to accommodate safely either large commercial vehicles necessary for housing construction or a significant volume of automobile traffic. This planned project access is a blind intersection. The project driveway edge simply matches the existing roadway edge, and that driveway ingress and egress is unsafe. Safety consideration should also include details showing the correct and safe intersection geometry. It also should include elimination of visual obstructions, proper striping and signing are essential for comfortable and safe driving. We note particularly that the Hualālai Road-Highway 11 intersection, which would have to accommodate southbound left turns from Highway 19 isn’t signalized, and that there is no right-turn access lane from Hualālai Road to Highway 11. Furthermore, although the lands along Hualālai Road between the proposed project and Highway 11 aren’t yet developed, the potential for similar projects is likely to occur. Roadway access and safe circulation would be critical issues in future permit applications, so it’s important we believe that this project set the appropriate minimum intersection standards. 2) Secondary access to the project would be through a residential street in Parcel 42, which is Hu Ko Pa, and Paulehia Street, a residential street in Pualani Estates. In addition to the more than 80 homes that are projected for Parcels 43 and 42, there are more than 40 homes in Pualani Estates that are likely to use Paulehia Street to access Puapuaanui Street and its intersection with Highway 11. Because that intersection is signalized and Hualālai Road is narrow and winding, we expect that most of the traffic from Parcels 43, 42 and Pualani Estates intending to hit northbound on Highway 11 will use the Paulehia-Puapuaanui route rather than Hualālai Road. Indeed, the applicant’s own traffic report forecasted 80 percent of the traffic from those two parcels will use the secondary access through Paulehia Street. And this, of course, raises serious safety concerns because of the many, many driveways on Paulehia Street; it’s a residential street. I have two more points, very quickly. The applicant is, of course as you know, related to Hu Ko Pa, and because the -. BEAUDET: Excuse me, sir. GIMPEL: Yeah. BEAUDET: If you could wrap that up. 14 EXHIBIT B