HomeMy WebLinkAboutBender, Rebecca
Tsuneda, Kaci
From:Becky B <beckybender5455@gmail.com>
Sent:Wednesday, September 9, 2026 10:44 PM
To:Council Testimony
Subject:Testimony in OPPOSITION to Bills 186 and 187 (Applicant: Waikoloa Green LLC)
Aloha Councilmembers,
My name is Rebecca Bender and I am a resident of Waikōloa Village.
I am writing in opposition to Bills 186 and 187. I am not opposed to housing. Waikōloa needs more
homes, including affordable homes. I am asking you to withhold approval until the County has funded,
scheduled commitments for the infrastructure that keeps residents safe during a wildfire, starting with a
second access road.
Waikōloa Village has one road in and out for nearly 7,000 residents. The County's 2008 Community
Development Plan named a second access road a very high priority. Eighteen years later, nothing has
been built. During the 2021 Mana fire evacuation, residents sat in traffic for over an hour just to reach
Waikōloa Road, and our population was smaller then. The state Attorney General's Lāhainā investigation
rated Waikōloa's wildfire risk higher than any other place in the country. Adding hundreds of homes
before a second road exists puts current and future residents in danger.
Water supply during a fire is part of the same concern. When wildfire threatens the Village, firefighters
depend on a water system that can deliver when it matters most. We have raised the reliability of that
supply during emergencies with the Public Utilities Commission, and it remains an open question there
in the ongoing Act 258 rulemaking. Before approving more growth, the Council should examine whether
the water system can meet firefighting demand during an emergency across all of the development
planned for the Waimea Aquifer, not this project alone.
The same risk reaches our children. Waikōloa Elementary and Middle School has no buses on site during
the school day, so in a fast-moving fire, students depend on the same single road as everyone else. The
County's Community Development Plan recognized the need for a second school as the Village grows,
yet it named the second road a community priority even before a second school. The road has to come
first.
Please do not approve Bills 186 and 187 until these infrastructure needs are met with real commitments,
funding, and a timeline, not just plans. Housing and safe infrastructure should move forward together.
Mahalo nui,
Rebecca Bender
68-2182 La'akea Way
Waikoloa
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