Neighborhood Board opposes Kailua traffic plan
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KAILUA — Citing traffic concerns, the Kailua Neighborhood Board has asked the city to halt an $800,000 beautification project that has been in the works for nearly three years.
The request comes just two weeks before the business district project is scheduled to begin, and city officials do not expect a delay.
Cheryl Soon, director for the city Department of Transportation Services, said overall the project will improve pedestrian safety, add appeal to the shopping experience and enhance Kailua, and there's no reason to stop it.
"My full expectation is this will improve everyone's businesses," Soon said.
The work, to install a landscaped median along Kailua Road from Bank of Hawai'i to Liberty House, is part of a multi-year effort to improve the area with underground wiring, designer street lights and distinctive bus shelters.
In the median plan, the intersection at Kailua/Kuulei Road/Oneawa Street will remain the same and so will the number of traffic lanes. However, 10 parking slots on the mauka side of the road will be eliminated.
Other features of the plan:
• A left-turn stacking lane into Times Supermarket has been added.
• Two left-turn options out of the parking area from Bank of Hawai'i and at the Straub driveway closest to Oneawa have been removed to to enhance safety.
The median improvement is one of the first plans developed for Kailua when Mayor Jeremy Harris initiated the Vision Team planning process in 1998, promising each team $2 million a year for projects they want implemented in their community.
At a Kailua board meeting last week, board members said the median would impede traffic, lacks business support, reduces parking space and bars left turns onto Kailua Road from Bank of Hawai'i and Straub Family Health Center. But a city official stood by the plan.
"The city Department of Transportation Services has reviewed the plan and determined that there are no adverse impacts to traffic," said Eric Crispin, assistant director for the city Department of Design and Construction. "It actually increases the traffic flow, enhances safety and basically everything you can do today, you can do under the proposed plan."
Board member Jim Corcoran said that's difficult to believe without a traffic study, which he called for along with placing the project on hold until all of the board's concerns are addressed.
A traffic study was requested, but the city never followed through, Corcoran said, adding he was surprised to learn that the project is about to start.
"I take this as an insult personally, to members of the board and to citizens who elected members of the board," he said.
The board favored his motion 10-2 with one abstention.
Board member Terry Carroll said he's spoken to several businesses in the area and they were unaware of the project.
Don Bremner, a planning consultant and median project champion, said he and two other people canvassed all the businesses on Kailua Road, showed them the plans and explained the project.
At the recent I Love Kailua town party, Bremner said the plan was displayed and the community response was positive.
"(The board) better check around because they're definitely not in tune with the pulse of this community," he said. "All the people (at the town party) couldn't wait to get the median strip under way."
