06-27-2016, 09:39 AM
quote:
Originally posted by kalakoa
HPP can't upzone land they don't own
Nor can HPP control the PMAR -- I suggest they might have better luck with the 20-acre parcels.
So why can the Shipman Estate control the PMAR, but HPP can't? Perhaps because the HPP landowners are individual homeowners with relatively little clout and the Shipman Estate is a deep pocketed organization that has an inside track with elected officials, including Greggor as he so proudly stated at the forum?
The time for an emergency only route has passed, no one solution is going to improve things, and the time is going to come when the population of Puna will be larger than that of the Hilo district, just not as concentrated. HPP alone is going to have roughly the same population as the urban area of Hilo within 15 years, which is a fairly short window for transportation planning. As long as the cheapest lots in Hilo are postage stamps in Kaumana for $50-75,000 Puna will continue to grow much faster than Hilo.
It is already too late to think we can widen the current highway fast enough, or rezone fast enough, to handle the growing population of Puna without building the PMAR to handle the traffic. Designating a route sooner would reduce the number of homes that need to be condemned to build it, but the various county councils and mayors have so far allowed a handful of big players, which does not really include HPP, to squelch any suggestion of making a concrete decision on where to put the PMAR. When I still commuted to Hilo daily, often during the morning "rush" hours, the highway from Keaau to Puainako would be a slowly creeping parking lot, there is a pretty good number of people who commute to Hilo from the mauka subdivisions, so just dumping the PMAR out at the Macadamia plant just kicks the traffic jam down the road a few miles.
The whole mess makes me glad I telecommute from Kapoho all but a few days a month now.