Waipi'o Valley (Focused Discusstion) Supplementary Handout

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providing flood protection. However, the complexities of the permitting process and the implementation costs have resulted in minimal implementation of the technical and organizational suggestions. This policy recognizes that the County should be a party to any effort to streamline a permitting process. For more information on stream management, see pages 15, 45, 65, 190, 226-269 in Appendix V4A. Policy 57: Perform a feasibility study on developing a scenic route from the Waipi'o Valley Lookout extending mauka to connect to Mud Lane at the entrance of Waimea. Rationale: Improving the mid-section of Mud Lane would provide an alternate/emergency route to Kukuihaele and the Waipi'o Valley lookout, and potentially mitigate traffic through downtown Honoka'a, improve travel times between Waipi'o Valley/Kukuihaele and Waimea, and create a loop road for drivers to travel without needing to backtrack through downtown Honoka'a with each visit to the Waipi'o Valley Lookout. It would also develop Mud Lane into a safe, improved County road for residents (currently portions of Mud Lane are impassable for 2 -wheel drive vehicles and the Waimea -side section of the road is considered a Road -in -Limbo). However, developing this scenic highway would also be controversial in that it provides an access point to Waipi'o Valley that allows visitors to by-pass Honoka'a town. While the development of by-pass routes often becomes necessary as towns grow and traffic congestion increases, this by-pass could potentially negatively impact those Honoka'a businesses that rely primarily on pass-through visitor traffic. Therefore, this action is included as an investigatory action to ensure that appropriate community engagement with residents from Mud Lane (including consultations with the South Kohala CDP Action Committee), Waipi'o Valley, Kukuihaele, and Honoka'a business owners, is conducted. This policy is based on General Plan Policy 13.2.5.4.2 (c) "Encourage the State to construct a scenic highway from the Waipi'o Valley lookout extending mauka to connect to Mud Lane at the entrance of Waimea. See also related Policy 58. Policy 58: Perform a feasibility study on the development of a scenic park (accessible via Mud Lane) with a viewing area of Hi'ilawe Falls in conjunction with the development of the scenic highway. Rationale: This policy is related to and dependent on the implementation of Policy 57, and is based on General Plan Policy 12.5.4.2 (d) "Encourage the State to develop a scenic park on the Kohala side of Hi'ilawe Falls in conjunction with the development of the scenic highway." One of the advantages of developing a scenic park with a view of Hi'ilawe Falls would be to incentivize scenic viewpoints above the Valley with the goal of minimizing visitor trips into the Valley. To minimize impacts, this park could be accessible via a pedestrian hiking trail developed along the old cane haul road. Note: this is an existing "legacy' policy from the General Plan; but the CDP Team has not been able to verify that it is still physically feasible to create a park in this location with a view of Hi'ilawe Falls. This policy is included here specifically to solicit community input. Draft Hamakua CDP hamakua@hawaiicounty.gov www.hamakuacdp.info