Pahoa Village Plan Draft is now Online

[Rob Tucker]

Check it out and comment.....

http://records.co.hawaii.hi.us/Weblink8/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=63816

Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator

[kalakoa]

Nice to have a "style guide" for "historical appearance", but Pahoa really needs a sewer system.

[David Shaw]

Very complete and well-researched and documented. I enjoyed the illustrations depicting the various types of options and examples.
May be difficult to find at least 3 residents of the district able and interested in being on the PDRC, though.
Mahalo for posting.

-dwajs

[Seeb]

Think it’s a little like forming a committee to discuss the lace curtains........On the Titanic

[kalakoa]

Realized later that this documentation is incredibly valuable: several of these "historic" buildings are just "termites holding hands", and they WILL be lost when the sewer system goes in.

A style guide will be very important for the eventual reconstruction.

[punaticbychoice]

kalakoa:
You got it!
A Hawaiian "Wiilliamsburg" (VA)?[][][]

[ericlp]

Maybe after the termites finish the job than one can bring in D9's and rumble down both sides and talk about "REAL" planning and development not just pictures of paint and trim / molding design.

Would be nice to get some modern buildings and some real sidewalks.

[csgray]

By "modern buildings" do you mean more soulless sheet metal barns like Longs and the Malama Marketplace? They could be anyplace in the United States and have no local personality; Malama Marketplace didn't even bother to plan for planting strips and shade trees. It is just acres of hot asphalt stretching from one ugly bit of a strip mall to another. I sure hope the Bryson's build something that doesn't look like it was plucked from Anywhere USA, but instead put in something that reflects the history of our community. It is bad enough that the state uses every new development as an excuse to engineer ever more dangerous intersections, but to add insult to injury, our local developers keep building butt ugly complexes to house much needed commercial enterprises.

Cheap doesn't have to be ugly, and charming doesn't have to be expensive, but the builders and developers have to plan to build something that looks good.

Carol

[kalakoa]

Anyone who visited Pacific Ave in Santa Cruz before, and then after, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake will know what happens next.

Sure, the downtown gets rebuilt with "style", but most (if not all) of the "substance" will be gentrified away. Granted, it's still a bit "funkier" than the average strip-mall, but not by much, because the new corporate tenants want a "clean-and-safe" experience for their customers.

It would be simpler to create a new self-contained South Pahoa (eg, with its own sewage treatment plant and HELCO substation), then direct any growth which requires "infrastructure" into this area. While this might create some "sprawl" (which is "bad"), it's also consistent with the PCDP in general, which seeks to concentrate industrial/manufacturing uses into designated "business parks".

There are some large parcels just down the highway which would be ideal. Give the dialysis clinic, auto body shop, etc a "proper" place to go, and leave Old Pahoa just the way it is -- tourists can keep taking pictures until Pele burns the whole thing down.