PL-REZ-2022-000033 J. GIMPEL TESTIMONY 10.09.23_v1

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From: .A 0 L-T e am! To: LPCtestimony Subject: Testimony re Kona Three LLC for October 19,2023 Meeting Date: Monday,October 9,2023 12:08:07 PM Attachments: Royal Vistas Oral Draft Oct. 2023.odt Dear Members of the Leeward Planning Commission, Following and attached is testimony regarding Kona Three LLC,s application for a 10- year time extension for the Royal Vistas Subdivision that I intend to present at your October 19, 2023 meeting. Aloha and good morning. I am Joel Gimpel, a member of the Board of the Pualani Estates at Kona Homeowners Association, a subdivision of 362 single-family homes several hundred yards north of the proposed Royal Vistas Project. I note that there are many testifiers here today, and that written testimony covering a variety of issues raised by the request for another time extension has already been provided, I intend to focus on the traffic concerns and CRC's recommendation. First, we believe that the traffic counts submitted by the applicant are woefully inadequate because they were taken during times when the COVID pandemic had begun to cause a significant decrease in visitors and business operations that resulted in greatly reduced traffic on Highway 11. Further, they don't adequately account for greater traffic volume that would result from other proposed developments in the area, such as the Pua'a Development and Suffolk Investment applications for commercial and multi-family residential development on 30 acres mauka of Highway 11 with the main entrance at Puapuaanui St. Applicant used a 1% rather than a 2% growth rate. Nor do the studies adequately deal with the fact that the needed improvements to Highway 11, which include widening to four lanes by the state from Henry Street to Kamehameha III Road, is neither planned nor funded, and is therefore uncertain for the foreseeable future. It's most disconcerting that applicant's response to concerns expressed regarding some of the existing deficiencies of Highway 11 are not the responsibility of applicant to correct because they're "outside the scope of this project." Furthermore, the direct access to Highway 11 from the development would be a non- signalized intersection, which will result in traffic delays and is inherently unsafe. The unanimously approved report of the CRC, prepared following nearly three hours of expert testimony and thorough discussion, clearly indicates that the proposed development, for which a ten-year time extension for completion of Condition I is sought, will likely have substantial impacts on historical and cultural assets on the subject property, and that the area should be preserved in perpetuity as a historic property. My wife and I, long-time residents of Pualani Estates, as well as the Board of Directors of Pualani Estates in Kona, wholeheartedly concur and urge your approval and adoption of the CRC's report and recommendations. We also object to the application because too much time has elapsed and too many changes have occurred since this project was first proposed more than 15 years ago. It's time to go back to the drawing boards.