City master-plan measure on table
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
With neighborhood groups competing for the city's limited resources, community master plans should be used to determine which projects get money, says City Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz.
Dela Cruz, who represents the Wahiawa, North Shore, 'Ahui-manu district, has introduced a resolution urging the mayor to make sure traffic-calming devices, vision team and neighborhood board projects are endorsed within a community master plan before they are submitted as part of the administration's construction budget.
The Planning Committee will discuss the resolution on Tuesday.
"What I'd like for it to accomplish, whenever we do have these ... (projects), that they're all consistent with what the master plan calls for. Or, if there is no master plan, then we need to create one. It allows everyone to look at the big picture at the end of the tunnel," Dela Cruz said.
The resolution would ensure that the master plans meant to guide development aren't gathering dust on a shelf while other construction projects within the community are being financed.
In Wahiawa, for instance, Dela Cruz said the city is moving ahead with a traffic-calming device when it could be planting cherry trees called for in the urban development plan.
Since the city has paid for the master plans, Dela Cruz wonders why some aren't being consulted. "There's already money for projects, such as neighborhood board or vision team projects. Let's see what we can do to accomplish the plan," he said.
The 19 vision teams and 31 neighborhood boards are each allowed to include projects in the administration's construction budget — up to $1 million per year for vision teams and $500,000 for neighborhood boards.
However, with the city's budget crisis, the City Council could decide not to approve the projects this year.
The council is considering a two-year moratorium on traffic-calming devices, but that resolution has been deferred in the Transportation Committee.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
