The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0159.097 2024-2026/5. Camo,1 51152 COW Ifiq Michael J. Konowicz 68-1845 Waikoloa Road, Suite 106-228 Waikoloa, HI 96738 o<--) CD May 20, 2025 Hawaii County Council - 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, HI 96720 =� To Whom It May Concern: I'm writing this testimony in strong OPPOSITION to Communication 159.41 to amend Bill 432, Draft 2 to fund initial engineering of Waikoloa's second arterial road. While I've been a vocal proponent of the construction of multiple roadways in and out of Waikoloa, this amendment is a waste of money since the engineering work for a proposed roadway has been paid for and the work is complete, as confirmed by the County of HawaiL It would make sense for Hawaii County Council and the Mayor to focus on ways to bring those plans to life rather than simply re -do the initial planning work all over again at tremendous expense to the tax payer. As is the case with the Waikoloa Road-Paniolo Avenue intersection project in which hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on consultants, traffic studies, and engineering work with little tangible work done to show for it over several decades, Hawaii County Council should break the cycle of merely lining the pockets of civilian professionals and work to bring an actual roadway project to life as soon as possible. I am testifying as an individual and not as part of any Board nor Commission that I currently participate in or participated on in the past. However, I am leveraging my insight as a former elected Board Director of the Waikoloa Village Association in relationship to this roadway. Over my tenure, I was an active participant in the review of documentation and agreements, preliminary and final work, conversations with private developers and county officials, and the recipient of many documents and emails marked "CONFIDENTIAL" related to the construction of an arterial road that would connect Paniolo Avenue to the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway. Most proposed roadways leaving Waikoloa Village would go through W VA land which is why Uwe participated in such discussions. As you know, in December 2004, then -Planning Director Christopher Yuen in the Mayor Harry Kim administration granted approval to Planned Unit Development Permit 73 (PUD 04-04) for TMK (3) 6-8-002:022 in Waikoloa, South Kohala to then -land applicant and owner Waikoloa Ma La'I, LLC for an area to later be called Waikoloa Heights and now known as Nana Kai. The PUD 73 superceded PUD 43 which was approved in August 1991 for the master planned community here. In another amendment to those approvals recorded with the State of Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances on April 22, 2022, entitled "Amended and Restated Agreement for Waikoloa Heights" the Developer and the County entered into an agreement dealing with a "Two Lane Mauka-Makai Road" which describes the construction of a "reduced scale 2-lane road... connecting the north or west boundary of (their) Project to the Queen Kaahumani Highway.. " to satisfy the Developer requirements of contributing to "Regional Traffic Improvements." Hawaii County agreed to reflect these changes in their documentation, filing this under PUD 73 and SUB-04-000190. Amendments gave the ability for the Developer to construct either a 4-lane extension Comm. No. 0. _ 1 T Ref. To: Ref. Rafe J 2 04 of Paniolo Avenue or that mauka-makai road and the developer made clear in verbal and written communications since then with the County that the road to Queen Kaahumani Highway would be pursued. Shortly after that was recorded, the current developer drafted a "Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to Determine Feasibility of a Connector Road and Draft Temporary Right of Entry Agreement" and shared that with all of the property owners to which such a roadway would cross. At our May 24, 2022 Waikoloa Village Association Board Meeting, we made a motion to approve and execute that agreement, which eventually was approved not only by the Waikoloa Village Association, but Waikoloa Heights Land Investment L.P., and Kamakoa LLC too. The developer then hired Bowers + Kubota Consulting at 2153 North King Street, Suite 200, Honolulu, Hawaii 96819, to draft plans for what is now known as the "Connector Road" They prepared preliminary plans which were eventually shared with Hawaii County and the property stakeholders involved along the proposed roadway for feedback and comment. I personally provided feedback through the Waikoloa Village Association on those plans, as did other Directors. Feedback was also shared by other involved property owners and a revised plan was developed based on all collected feedback. Then -Planning Director Zendo Kern took the lead in facilitating dialog between the property owners and also involved Hawaii County Department of Public Works and the Hawaii State Department of Transportation. Based on the feedback received, Bowers + Kubota Consulting updated and presented a new Connector Road plan that made subtle changes to the layout of the road and its connection to the highway. On February 24, 2023, Kendo Kem confirmed in email that he was working with the State Department of Transportation to gain necessary approvals to connect this new road to the highway. At the April 2023 meeting of the South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee, Hawaii County confirmed they received the required blessings from the State Department of Transportation to proceed as planned with their proposed connection to the highway based on the engineering work done by Bowers + Kuboto. On June 1, 2023, Zendo Kern issued another email to stakeholders to say, "Preliminary alignment and design has been completed and approved by all stakeholders and agencies. Next phase, which has commenced, is detailed engineering and roadway design" It was assumed that these additional, detailed plans would take a considerable amount of time and money to be developed, of which the cost was being absorbed by the Waikoloa Heights developer. The plans are quite comprehensive and incorporate things like archaeological surveys and hydrology concerns and provide specific details on the roadway construction, such as the clearance that needs to be graded on the shoulders, and the type of materials that need to be used in the 22' wide and 15" thick roadway, the 2% slope off the center of the road, and other details required to build it. On January 25, 2024, the developer reached out to Waikoloa Village Association and informed us due to the expenses outlined in their comprehensive, detailed engineering and roadway design phase that was completed, a different proposed roadway would be suggested instead. The need for the engineered road to cross Kamakoa Nui Gulch in multiple places was a significant driver of cost. It was explained to us that while the developer wished to eventually build that road as proposed and designed, another emergency egress roadway project encouraged by the County could be built as an interim solution, leveraging some of the proposed roadway and the engineering work already completed for that segment, for a one-way emergency egress road. In July 2024, the WVA Board unanimously approved granting the developer a Construction Right of Entry to pursue that. While I was pleased to see something come of all the engineering and design work on a permanent road applied to an interim emergency egress exit, I am disappointed by the lack of innovative thinking and financial maneuvering that would help get this road built sooner rather than later. Rather than push for amendments to pay for ah-eady paid -for engineering and design work, there needs to be more serious efforts in bringing plans to life. Other than the PUD obligation that doesn't kick -in until the developer is completed with more than 270 homes to build the roadway, I've heard of no plans to assist the developer to build this private road across multiple private properties sooner, I've heard of no special financing that may be possible to extend the parties to help finance building the roadway now; I've heard of no commitments by our State and Federal representatives to secure any funding to bring the road to completion sooner. I ask that you develop resolutions to find the funds for this roadway, which may exceed 5% of the entire operating budget of the County of Hawaii. Or develop resolutions that propose private -public partnerships to make this road a reality today not dependent on the financial success of a developer to meet their PUD-related development goals that trigger the road construction at some date in the distant future. Or renegotiate the subdivision approval agreements in a way that would force construction of the road sooner rather than later. The safety and well-being of Waikoloa and the economic engine it provides to the Big Island should make building ` this road a critical priority for you. I encourage you to take the developed plans and do everything possible to bring the designs to life as soon as possible. Please don't amend the proposed budget to divert tax payer dollars to pay for work already completed. Signed, lkv,H � -, //- �-'.�- ens•— - -�� K.:i�'�i LEGEND ABBREVIATIONS wNi QUEEN HA"LWNU WGHWAYSUGGESTED DESIGN SPEED: SS MPH POSTED SPEED:a MPH QUEEN KAAHUMANU HIGHWAY POSTED SPEED: SS MPH Tm W.w rd: Y�':uY :. `�;:^T,. :.� a. •'•�,'X( ,!.�'.{.T i,.:..��\ t :i�' ; �. � -- ��paRaxwwr y�l,.:^:l�];ll��irl� - �^,ti,Y(�:.� •yn �� '� r .•�.;Y,`�� E;.. •� ` .'}•",`..iJ'i .;'.J .Se: _�,.ri,�,-',:1 �s_'';=� - , — j'--=:��-;—::-}.�' 1 • �ENERQ'L SITE PLAN? , e, Dvumurta„,1, .. NOTES! i .anDMDD ". cRvaruwn r Kir[x D.v w.RRD V+ivnDrsil pavl[w.�iovuWfx. alumDmRlYR taq .: - ::. xn PAKm Dd¢Ativt>wa.RWrimaiRD r ^ - r,l.#. �� _ NPDDiI --_� ��y� µtotKDii�uRiwR �ifuriDmunlu-IiRrnvrwmiDu ...... - ( •_ � - - � � .'--------`------ 1 ram- ��s a.`. CLPATHFINDERIPCR.{f ,. 1! �ti' .� 14:i�r.xxr�4rrw �NNE<raRy ono �` 1 1 CONNECTOR RROAD INSET T ®RAFT - FOR REVIEW ONLY SHEET G•001 of __Sheets GENERAL SITE PLAN _xsa— vxm__—_