The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0438.023 2002-2004 February 2151, 2004 Mr. Chris Yuen Planning Director Hawaii County Hilo, HI 96720 RE: Nani Kona Kai TMK 3/7-5-10-66, proposed development off of Kailua View Estates, and Uluwehi Properties, LLC development off of Hualalai Road ~~csivd Dear Chris: - tb-fo By----- t3ate 3- Co~ Goundl Sometimes, you just have to say "NO". This trend to rezone Ag-5 and A-1 properties to ~~p~ _PH a higher density just because they happen to be located in an Urban designated area is absolutely ruining Kona. Years ago I worked on the Kailua to Keahole Plan with the Kona Boazd of Realtors. The Urban designated areas were primarily for azeas north of the Palani/Queen K Junction. What I now see are azeas that aze zoned Ag-5 and Ag-1, that aze currently only appropriate for Ag-5 or Ag-1 use, being cut up into 15,000 sq. ft. lots or less, without the benefit of any additional roads. Creating roads to get to these properties does not lessen the impact of that traffic when it comes back down onto the Queen K highway. We aze in absolute grid lock over here and the insanity needs to stop At least once a week, I see an accident in front of Borders Book Store and Wall Mart, at the Queen K/ Henry St. intersection. Sometimes it's minor, sometimes not. There is just too much traffic that feeds into the Queen Kahumanu Extension and Henry Street intersection for safety. From 3:30 to 6PM, the traffic feeding down Henry Street from the Wall Mart/Borders azea is heavily backed up. If that traffic continues makai (into Kailua-Kona), it enters the grid lock going down Henry Street onto Kuakini Highway (it's a nightmaze story on Kuakini through Kailua-Kona in the afternoon, but I'll save that for another letter); this is further compounded by traffic entering and exiting Lanihau Shopping Center. If that traffic travels south on Queen K, it will virtually come to a stop and go halt all the way from the Borders intersection down to Captain Cook. You should see it pile up at Hagashi Hara Park. For an alternate route, frustrated drivers on the Queen K Extension to Kuakini will often head mauka on Hualalai Road to go south on Mamalahoa. This creates a problem on Hualalai Road, and there is no room for error on that road. If that same traffic decided to go north towazds the airport, it's stop and go until they get past the airport. And of course the real fun begins if that traffic goes east, up Palani Road where good citizens take their life's into danger every time they drive that road. The Queen Kahumanu Extension and Henry St. intersections have become one of Kailua- Kona's major grid lock areas and approving more lots for this area will cause deaths. The afternoon traffic pattern repeats itself in the morning from 7:30 until well past 9AM. Traffic crawls through the Kailua View/Queen K intersection, mixes with the Henry St. and Palani Road traffic, and it becomes a Los Angeles nightmare. Comm, No. ~ ~ •Z3_. Ref. To: prase C~ Ref. Date Going to the grocery store, the post office, the drugstore, the Old Airport Park, or just driving to work in this area is a daily knuckle-clenching ordeal. Here's a perfect example: My daughter takes dance class 3 times a week at 4:30 in the afternoon. I drop her off at dance class and go back to my office at Coldwell Banker Aloha Properties in Hualalai Center (about 1 '/z miles). It takes me 35 minutes to drive those &ve blocks. While I'm sitting in the grid lock, I read my mail!! Why not, I'm not going anywhere; it's like being pazked on a highway. Why should a developer such as Nani Kona Kai which is zoned Ag-5 and Ag-1 be allowed to do 44 lots? Where is it written that just because property is now designated Unplanned, it can automatically be developed to a higher density than its existing zoning? In this azea, supplying a road to the property or widening the old railroad bed will not relieve anything. 441ots mean a minimum of 88 more cazs, and the impact on the main road going through Kailua View Estates will be disastrous, but the real problem starts when those lot owners come down to the now grid locked Queen K. As additional already approved units (see below) come on line, this trafficked azea will become a death zone. Possibly with a future mauka road and further lateral relief that actually connects to someplace, then this property could be further down-zoned, but for now, it's just a bad idea that will cause absolute chaos and degradation to Kailua View Estates and Kona Heights. Here are some of the recent impacts to this area within 2 miles that have been approved, aze built, and/or in the process of being built just within the last two years: 400 Condos approved for Hualalai Village. 50 are constructed 298 Homes approved for Pualani off of Hualalai and the Queen K Extension 88 Homes approved for Kahakai Estates with ongoing construction 295 Units at Kona Sea Ridge Even the real estate brokers can't keep up with the names and numbers of all the new developments. The above units represent an impact of over 1,000 units built, or being built in a tiny little azea; this means approximately 2,000 more vehicles. I have been a real estate broker in Kona for 24 years and I can name the list of road improvements to this area on one hand (and that includes the removal of the down truck lane on Palani Road). We aze truly on a collision course of impractical rezoning with no serious road improvements. Until Kona has a serious plan for dealing with its traffic mess, the Planning Department needs to exercise it power and disallow any more lots in the area around Borders and Wall Mart. Sincerely - istine Van Pernis Realtor-Broker (R/GRI) Coldwell Banker Aloha Properties kristinev~a hawaii.rr.com CC: Planning Department Members