04-18-2011, 03:48 AM
Emailed to planning@co.hawaii.hi.us
Aloha Hawai'i County Planning,
I have been watching the details emerge on Punaweb about the KTA application for a large retail center placed on Highway 130 at the intersection of Auli'i. We have also driven by to look at the site and have observed the posted sign regarding the SUP. While it is early, my conclusion so far is that KTA desires to end run the Puna CDP, ignore the very clear directives and directions in the PCDP and locate their supercenter where ever they think it suits their business needs. Legitimate for them, but bad for the rest of us.
I was a member of the early Growth Management working subcommittee of the PCDP. We submitted a detailed outline of growth management objectives, including many statements decrying suburban sprawl and patchwork development and, particularly, about commercialization of Highway 130. The KTA development goal appears at this point nothing more than exactly that sort of suburban sprawl and highway commercialization that we developed objectives against.
We realize that most big retail businesses want traffic exposure, exemplified by the placement of this large development directly on the highway. However, their objectives must not be controlling here. This is a very large and extensive development. I don't believe it compares at all to a 2010 application for a small commercial center across from the Wikiwiki in Orchidland. An exception to the objectives of the PCDP for a project of this size will, inevitably over time in my opinion, lead directly to a strip mall pattern developing on Highway 130. Large and small developments will metastasize from anchor developments like this type of large grocery store-anchored retail center. This outcome will be, again in my opinion, essentially destructive of the Puna rural character such as it still exists. Now is not the time in the still early stages of implementation of the PCDP to fundamentally alter the character of the highway and Puna itself. It is also not the time to begin creating large loopholes in the PCDP.
Aloha Hawai'i County Planning,
I have been watching the details emerge on Punaweb about the KTA application for a large retail center placed on Highway 130 at the intersection of Auli'i. We have also driven by to look at the site and have observed the posted sign regarding the SUP. While it is early, my conclusion so far is that KTA desires to end run the Puna CDP, ignore the very clear directives and directions in the PCDP and locate their supercenter where ever they think it suits their business needs. Legitimate for them, but bad for the rest of us.
I was a member of the early Growth Management working subcommittee of the PCDP. We submitted a detailed outline of growth management objectives, including many statements decrying suburban sprawl and patchwork development and, particularly, about commercialization of Highway 130. The KTA development goal appears at this point nothing more than exactly that sort of suburban sprawl and highway commercialization that we developed objectives against.
We realize that most big retail businesses want traffic exposure, exemplified by the placement of this large development directly on the highway. However, their objectives must not be controlling here. This is a very large and extensive development. I don't believe it compares at all to a 2010 application for a small commercial center across from the Wikiwiki in Orchidland. An exception to the objectives of the PCDP for a project of this size will, inevitably over time in my opinion, lead directly to a strip mall pattern developing on Highway 130. Large and small developments will metastasize from anchor developments like this type of large grocery store-anchored retail center. This outcome will be, again in my opinion, essentially destructive of the Puna rural character such as it still exists. Now is not the time in the still early stages of implementation of the PCDP to fundamentally alter the character of the highway and Puna itself. It is also not the time to begin creating large loopholes in the PCDP.