HILO — What’s your idea for Pahoa’s future?
That’s a question residents might be asked later this year as Hawaii County begins developing a Pahoa Village master plan.
April Surprenant, county long-range planning manager, said the Planning Department is going through the procurement process to select a consultant to help draft the plan. That could be done in the next few months.
A consultant had been selected a few years ago, but the Pahoa lava flow put that process on hold in 2014. Surprenant said the contract hadn’t been finalized at that point.
“It never started; it never got kicked off,” she said, because of the lava flow, which destroyed a house and threatened Pahoa Village Road before changing its path.
Surprenant said the plan would include a feasibility study on building a wastewater treatment plant for the town, as well as issues related to land use, infill, streetscapes, etc.
“It makes perhaps better connectivity to the park, it could realign some of the streets,” she said. “It will look at parking and how better to facilitate parking in the village core.”
Surprenant said it would have to be consistent with the Puna Community Development Plan.
Public meetings will be held. Surprenant said these types of plans take a few years to complete.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.