If you were to ask residents on the rim of Waipio Valley what would be the worst problem there, they wouldn’t say dengue fever or the sale of the Bishop Estate lands. It’s traffic. In Kukuihaele, the quaint village just south of the valley, parked cars spill over from the look-out parking lot and snake along both sides of the road that passes through town.
In fact, it was because residents foresaw years ago that there would be traffic problems, that the Kukuihaele Neighborhood Association succeeded in getting the Highway 240 bypass. The highway spares the town’s humble road and one-lane bridge from throngs of tourist barreling toward the valley every day.
The bypass has been a godsend of urban planning for parents with small children. It allows our road to be left quiet. The road borders many front yards, but traffic is sparse, so if a child chases a runaway ball, it’s not too dangerous if cars follow the speed limit.
But that may now be about to change, as there are plans to build an overly elaborate Little League ball park in our neighborhood. The Environmental Assessment said it would draw more traffic. I am extremely concerned, and a little frustrated, because the whole reason for building the parallel bypass road was to route the traffic out of the village. Now we will be drawing it in.
But the most frustrating part was a meeting held by Parks and Rec last week to answer questions about the project. The county official who was moderating was unprepared to answer any questions about traffic. They plan on spending at least $2.5 million in tax money to install a regulation ball park in our village. But they couldn’t answer simple questions about how we will be affected by the increased traffic. They take the attitude like it’s not their job. Don’t they know that it is their job to study secondary impacts like traffic? Especially since traffic is one of our biggest concerns.
I will tell you how we will be affected. It will become dangerous for our kids. The road may need to be widened, which would eat up a lot of front yards. But does the county care? It seems not to, otherwise it would not be steamrolling through with this ball park plan.
This is not acceptable. The county has already spent millions to re-route traffic to Waipio. Kukuihaele is not laid out for the kind of traffic that would pass through town for Little League games. We don’t even have enough kids here for a team.
Janet Ashkenazy is a resident of Kukuihaele
My Turn opinions are those of the writer and not ow West Hawaii Today