Waimea Town Center Infrastructure Improvements needs changes

I object to the approval of the draft Environmental Assessment of the Waimea Town Center Infrastructure Improvements application. The following changes should be made as explained below.

– Parker Ranch Inc. should be required to complete Phase 2 of Ala Ohia Road from Pukalani Road to Mamalahoa Highway prior to further build out along Ala Ohia Road and no later than 2025.

– The alternative road corridor for this Phase 2 of Ala Ohia, from Pukalani to Kamamalum should be transferred to the County of Hawaii for future development as a nonvehicular accessway from Kamamalu Street to Ala Ohia (and thereby connecting to Kamamalu Road and the remainder of Ala Ohia).

Require Parker Ranch complete Phase 2 of Ala Ohia no later than 2025.

Center Waimea is a major bottleneck of local and cross-island traffic already often at traffic Level “F.” Allowing further development in Waimea town center without the concurrent completion of Ala Ohia Road would be outrageous.

When in 1992, Parker Ranch first obtained its 2020 Waimea Center Plan Rezoning approval from the County of Hawaii, to rezone some 240 acres of prime ag land to commercial or residential zoning, Parker Ranch promised this interior connector road would be completed prior to any residential or commercial occupancy. Based on this and several other unfulfilled promises made at one or more community meetings, the Waimea community supported the 2020 Waimea Center Plan rezoning.

Subsequent thereto, and following the death of Richard Smart, Parker Ranch requested the county modify that rezoning approval so that construction of this interior connector road could instead be completed concurrent with development along the roadway but in any case completed before development of the south (Mauna Kea) side of this connector road. The county was wrong to cave into that request then. It is unbelievable that the county would again approve a massive increase in development in Waimea Center and not require that this interior connector road be completed in advance of that development.

Furthermore, the EA should make clear completion of Ala Ohia Road is the responsibility of Parker Ranch. The draft EA appears to state (see page 62 and footnote 5) that construction of this remaining phase of the connector road is not Parker Ranch’s responsibility, but that it may be left to some unknown “third party,” and indicates that if not built by the “third party” by 2035 the resulting negative traffic conditions would be “less favorable than assumed.”

Based on my inquiries at the time the land abutting the Phase II corridor was transferred from Parker Ranch to the North Hawaii Community Hospital, Parker Ranch did not at that time also transfer its obligation to construct the connector Road to NHCH. My question is whether this is the county’s way of letting Parker Ranch off the hook, which means completion of this phase of the Ala Ohia would be the county’s (meaning us taxpayers’) responsibility.

Require the alternative Phase 2 road corridor from Pukalani Road to Kamamalu Street be transferred to the county for future possible use, including as a possible nonvehicular access route.

The Pukalani to Kamamalu corridor was the originally planned and preferred location for Phase 2 of the Ala Ohia connector road. Although I am not opposing selection of the less costly route directly onto Mamalahoa Highway, at least the county should be granted the fee to the original corridor that would connect to Kamamalu Road. This would not impose on Parker Ranch any obligation to construct a vehicular or non-vehicular pathway in this corridor, but would allow for a future project by the County of Hawaii. Locating a nonvehicular connection between these two roads would be an asset as a recreational and pedestrian travelway that is needed in Waimea Center, and would allow for significant nonvehicular traffic from Kuhio Village and from the Senior Housing Development into the commercial center of Waimea.

For your information, about 10 years ago, when Parker Ranch sought approval to develop the Lualai Subdivisions Phases III and IV, the county’s Planning Department was on the verge of approval of those subdivisions and the granting of a waiver of the rezoning requirement to concurrently construct Phases 1 and 3 of Ala Ohia – which abut these subdivisions from the Mamalahoa Highway by the rodeo grounds to Pukalani Road. It was only as a result of two legal actions that I pursued on behalf of Waimea residents that the county required Parker Ranch to complete the now existing portion of Ala Ohia.

Margaret Wille is a Waimea resident and former County Council member. Her comments were also sent to the state, county and planner.