HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0106.030 2004-2006 Page 1 of 2
Murashige, Laura
From: rscarola@mindspring.com
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 10:15 AM
To: Pilago, K. Angel; Isbell, Virginia; Higa, Stacy; phoffman@co.hawaii.hi.us; Holschuh, Fred; Ikeda,
Donald; Arakaki, James; Jacobson, Bob; Safarik, Gary
Subject: Roads & Development in West Hawaii
April 22, 2005 ,
Dear Hawaii Council Members:
I know you must deal with tremendous pressures on a daily basis, and I appreciate the effort you area
making to balance all of the difficult and complex issues you have to decide upon. And I now believe
you have reached a critical juncture in your efforts to plan for reasoned growth in West Hawaii. I b~ieve
you must at this point factor in to your thinking the following considerations:
1. There are already many subdivision developments that have been approved in West Hawaii and are
going forward, and these will add a heavy burden to a currently overburdened infrastructure, especially
roads.
2. Allowing additional new developments at this time, without first providing the necessary road
infrastructure for what already exists and what has already been approved, will only take us
from a nearly critical situation to an emergency situation.
3.). This is especially the case with any development bordering Alii Drive, Kuakini Highway, or the
Queen Kaahumanu Highway, such as the development being proposed by Suffolk Investment to put in
350 dwelling units and a shopping center makai of Pualani Estates. Placing a cross traffic intersection on
Highway 11 and the Kuakini Highway just before Kailua town to service an additional 700 -1000 or
more cars from that development seems absolutely untenable. Adding commercial businesses in the
proposed shopping center will only add more traffic from people who wish to shop there on a daily
basis. We are nearly at gridlock already at certain times of day trying to get into and out of town, so
another small local shopping center will not help people who need or want to go to Lowes, Costco,
Home Depot, downtown Kailua, and the industrial parks. Nor will it deter those people from trying to
get on the highway to go to those places. Instead, the additional traffic, stoplights, etc. will be a disaster
for people trying to get to the airport or who commute to work in the resorts or in Kailua from South
Kona.
4.) It will not help to have affordable housing that places an untenable burden on an already barely
functional road infrastructure (not to mention water, schools, police, sewage, etc). This is a false promise
and helps no one.
5.) Connector roads must have something to connect to that makes sense. There must be a divided four-
lane highway at least from Keauhou all the way to the airport before anything else is even proposed in
West Hawaii. Such a highway should be the absolute priority of the Council, and a temporary
moratorium should be put in place on all other development and roads until such a highway project is
accomplished. I believe that the residents of West Hawaii would strongly support you if you made such
a highway the major emergency project on your agenda.
Comm. No. ~ Q~O 0
Ref. To: _
4/22/2005 Raf, Late 2
Page 2 of 2
Think of our current situation as if a lava flow came down from Hualalai and wiped out Highway 1 I .
You would have bulldozers out the next day to re-open the highway, because you would have no choice.
Well, I believe there is currently a lava flow of traffic that now requires the same emergency response.
Mahalo,
Robert Scarola
P.O. Box 1778
Kailua-Kona, HI 96745
(808) 329-5233
4/22/2005