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For those of you who may not know, the General Membership of HPP has formed a committee to participate in and hopefully influence the planning of the Puna Makai Alternate Route. We are holding meetings and distributing a fact sheet and accompanying opinion survey to try to get a feel for how the HPP community wants us to deal with this important proposal. I am the chairman of the committee, and we meet the second Wednesday of every month at 4:45 p.m. in the Activity Center Library. Any and all HPP lot owners are welcome to attend and participate.
Councilman Fred Blas will be appearing at our next meeting on
April 13 to discuss PMAR and answer questions about it. Due to the HPP By-laws and the way the committee is set up, participation will be limited to HPP lot owners and the topic of PMAR. Councilman Blas is very approachable and quite willing to meet with Puna citizens, so those of you outside HPP or HPP residents with other issues to discuss should have no trouble finding opportunities to do so.
The HPP-PMAR fact sheet and survey are available at the HPPOA Office, the HPP Swap Meet, through Neighborhood Watch Block Captains, and at Neighborhood Watch meetings. We will soon have a secure on-line version on the HPP website for those who cannot pick up surveys in person.
PMAR has the potential to profoundly affect HPP and our quality of life, so please educate yourself and let us know how you want our community to approach it.
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Jerry - Good to know. Is there any way to post the fact sheet online? Either on here or on the HPP ASsociation web site? Can't make the meeting on the 13th.
Posts: 2,149
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Here is the current version of the HPP-PMAR Fact Sheet:
What is PMAR?
An alternate route makai of and more or less parallel to Highway 130. This would be a two-lane County road and would likely extend from the southern part of Hilo through Shipman lands, across HPP, and on to Hawaiian Beaches and Nanawale if built to the full extent mentioned in the 2004 Puna Circulation Plan. It would be a way to travel between Puna District and Hilo District without using Highway 130.
Will this be an emergency route only or a full time commuter route?
According to the Hawaii County Planning Department, it will be a full time County road. While emergency evacuation of lower Puna (in response to geothermal blowouts, seismic activity, and/or lava inundation) has been mentioned as a reason for building PMAR, that is not the main purpose being planned for.
What has been done so far?
Overall, it is still very early in the planning process. Funding for initial preliminary studies has been approved. Our contact in the Planning Department has told us that $188,000 has been made available for initial planning. The state has been asked to get the proposed road classified as a "major collector" according to Federal Standards. This is the very first of many steps and will qualify the project for eventual Federal funding, but does not guarantee it.
State Representative Faye Hanohano secured approval of an appropriation of $1.5 million in the last legislative session for planning. An important element of this appropriation is the stipulation that the route studies be done with an emphasis on "disruption of the fewest number of developed lots" in HPP. The Governor has not yet released these funds, but Mayor Billy Kenoi sent a letter to the Governor in mid-January formally requesting release.
An additional $500,000 for planning has been formally requested by the Planning Department to be included in the next County Capital Improvements Budget.
What do we know about the "nuts and bolts" of the proposed route across HPP?
This is in the very early stages, but there are some things the Planning Department has shared with us. First, due to the "fewest number of developed lots" stipulation in the State appropriation, the road would have to be built across the least heavily built out portion of HPP. Knowing this, the HPPA PMAR committee did some informal research and found this likely to be somewhere between 5th and 15th Avenues. This was confirmed when we met with a Planning official. Second, we were told in the same meeting that the road might go between two of our existing roads or across the backs of the lots. This would avoid having dozens of driveways entering the new road and put the road farther from homes, which tend to be built close to the fronts of the lots in HPP.
What about Railroad Avenue?
This has often been referred to as the "red herring" of the PMAR options. It has not been a legal right of way for decades, is subject to flooding in places, traverses HPP on multiple odd angles (thus creating twice the number of intersections as any other route,) crosses prime agricultural lands outside HPP, has thickly built up sections inside HPP, and has been designated as a recreational hike and bike corridor on the Puna CDP.
What are we certain of at this point?
Very little, other than some political momentum is behind the PMAR idea. The Mayor, the County Planning Department, and the new District 5 Council representative Fred Blas have all expressed support for PMAR. Beyond that, there is a long and potentially complicated series of steps that have to be completed before the first shovel of dirt can be turned. Funding is by no means automatic or particularly easy to come by in the current fiscal environment. It may be that something rather different from what has been described is eventually built, or even that nothing at all is built. The ultimate certainty for the HPPOA-PMAR Committee, however, is that we in HPP are better off closely observing and participating in every step of the PMAR process than we would be to ignore it.
What can residents of HPP do to influence the outcome?
Participate by joining discussion at meetings, doing surveys, sending comments/suggestions to the PMAR Committee, and testifying at hearings likely to take place in the future. The PMAR Committee has already started discussions with the County and is pledged to represent the expressed opinions of the community
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Just bumping this in case anyone is interested in attending. Our on-line survey will appear on the HPPOA website in about 10 days. Meanwhile, the printed version is still available through the HPP office.
