HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0159.111 2024-2026,F/5. courts
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From: J Perez
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2025 10:36 AMCD
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To: Council Testimony
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Subject: Waikoloa's second road
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Aloha Chair and Members of the Council,
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My name is, Joseph Perez and I'm a resident in Waik6loa Village. I am testifying in support of Communication
159.41 to amend Bill No. 32, Draft 2. 1 fully support this amendment for funding the initial engineering of
Waik6loa's second arterial road.
There are many reasons to build a second road, but only one not to. There are not enough votes in this
community to help you win you re-election. It should not about your job, but about the people you serve.
1. Ed Sniffen, Director of the Hawaii Department of Transportation, is committed to helping find federal
money for this arterial highway if the County completes the engineering and design, but has stated that
he cannot help if the engineering has not been completed and a firm cost estimate prepared by DPW.
He will no longer be in the job after 2026 to honor this commitment if the County does not complete the
engineering and project design by 2026.
2. New funding is being added to the 2025 CIP budget for street paving projects, new parks, and other
amenities that have not been planned for 17 years and ARE NOT flagged by the County plan as a
"very high priority" project needed to prevent the loss of life.
3. Saving lives from catastrophic fires should rank as a higher priority.
4. The Attorney General's second report on the Lahaina Fire specifically identifies Waik6loa Village as
having a worse risk of catastrophic wildfire than Lahaina.
5. Since 2008, the population at risk has increased from 5000 to 7500, with new housing to accommodate
another 2000+ residents expected by the end of the decade.
6. Wildfires in Waik6loa have become more frequent and more intense as climate warming has made
summer drought conditions and red flag wind conditions more extreme. During the 2023 Lahaina fire,
three wildfires burned 40,000 acres within sight of Waik6loa Village. By chance, the hurricane winds
carried the conflagrations away from the Village.
7. During the evacuation ordered by the Mayor in response to the 2021 fire, residents experienced hour-
long delays in traffic seeking to exit the Village on Waik6loa Road and the Hulu emergency road. Had
the fire burned into the Village, people trapped in traffic could have died in their cars.
8. A second arterial access highway is needed to save lives. It is not just a traffic convenience.
9. In 2008, the County adopted the Waik6loa Village Plan "with very high priority given to the
construction of a second access road connecting Waik6loa Village to Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway."
Seventeen years later, no funding has been committed to implementing this priority.
10. The 2008 Waik6loa Village Plan explained that "[t]he most significant type of natural disaster that
threatens the Waik6loa community is the threat of wildfires. [T]he fire threat is an ever-present
danger for the Waik6loa community, and a second access/egress road may well prove to be the
difference between successful evacuation of the Village and injuries and even loss of life."
11. The HI FD Deputy Fire Chief stated that they need another two-lane access route to bring the
equipment and crew from the Puako station to help fight fires approaching or burning into the Village.
12. Parents with kids in Waik6loa School who work outside the Village or do not live in the Village will need
access into the Village during fire emergencies to pick up their kids from school. If Waik6loa Road is
blocked by fire, parents will have no access, and children will be trapped without transportation.
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Ref. To:
Ref. Date AY 2 22 2002255
13. Potential buyers of the workforce housing (Na Hale Makoa) now under construction will be exposing
their families to being trapped in a fire miles away from the current access road where they will face
competing with 8000 other residents for a way out.
14. Homeowners whose homes survive a catastrophic fire and realtors will not be able to sell anyone's
property in Waikoloa if residents are incinerated in the flames while stuck on the road trying to escape a
fire.
15. Waikoloa generates about $25 m in RE tax revenue annually ($14.4 m from residential RE, and at least
another $10 m in commercial RE taxes). Building the planned second arterial road will cost about one
year of the real estate tax revenue generated in Waikoloa.
16. Planned new housing will approximately double the tax base and real estate tax revenues over the next
20 years.
17. New housing development and a large portion of the current and future RE tax revenue stream will be
lost for decades if a significant portion of the Village is destroyed by fire, losing far more in future
revenues than the road will cost.
18. In addition to the loss of RE tax revenues, loss of housing in the Village will impose an extreme burden
on the existing housing stock by requiring that as many as 7500 current residents displaced by fire be
relocated.
Mahalo,
Joseph