Resort towns share development blues

By Kevin Dayton and Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writers

Lahaina, Maui, and Kailua, Hawai'i.

John Buckstead of Keauhou, left, and Carol Fedman of Kailua, urge drivers stuck in traffic on the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway to oppose a nearby hotel development unless something is done about worsening traffic jams. Kevin Dayton • The Honolulu Advertiser

The sun-drenched seaside villages and their surroundings are steeped in Hawaiian history and have evolved from sleepy towns into busy tourist meccas, each trying desperately to hang on to its heritage amid a burst of visitor-related commercialism.

And they have something else in common: too much traffic.

Kona and West Maui both rely heavily on a two-lane highway that is often choked with rental cars and commuters.

The congestion promises to get worse before it gets better, as low interest rates, booming economies and miles of open space have developers scrambling to add new residential and resort projects.

Politicians in both counties are challenged as never before to weigh further construction against existing infrastructure, and anti-growth forces are finding converts in their battle against development.

At the end of her workday as a sales receptionist at Cyanotech Corp. near the Keahole airport, Nicholle Davis gamely climbs into her car and begins the drive home to Kainaliu on Kona's clogged roads. It takes 90 minutes to make the 19-mile drive, Davis said — if nothing goes wrong.

"If there's an accident, you can just forget about getting home at all," she said. "Just go to a friend's house and stay for a while."

Frustration at stalled traffic has some otherwise business-friendly residents opposing any new development.

Hawai'i County Councilman Joe Reynolds, who represents Kona south of Kailua, estimates that eight out of 10 people who contact him want no more growth until something is done about the traffic.

Reynolds, a real-estate broker, said the furor over traffic has him reconsidering his long-held pro-development stance.

"I think of myself as a pro-growth person, and I understand that development is our economic engine here — it's the only thing we have other than tourism," Reynolds said. "It's kind of like biting the hand that feeds you. But I live here, and I have said openly at council that I just can't keep voting for these things."

There was far less concern about traffic during his first term on the council, from 1996 to 1998, Reynolds said. Lately, the problem has been mobilizing people to fight development who would have accepted new projects in years past.

Sandra Scarr, a retired university professor and county water board member who volunteered on Gov. Linda Lingle's 2002 election campaign, has found herself in an unlikely partnership with longtime shoreline access advocate Jerry Rothstein, an outspoken critic of developers and projects he has labeled "malignant."

Scarr doesn't go along with Rothstein on all issues, but she agreed to help him round up people this month to pack a council hearing with opponents of a new hotel, apartment and retail project proposed at 'O'oma, north of Kailua.

"Widen the highway, get all the intersections in — and then tell me about that project," said Scarr, who declared earlier that she would withhold her property tax payments until the state and county "show good faith" by launching road construction projects to address the traffic problem.

Kailua resident Carol Fedman stood on Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway recently to pass out fliers to motorists stopped in traffic, urging them to oppose the 'O'oma development.

Fedman said she had never done anything like that before, but she believes the quality of life in Kona is being threatened.

"There's nothing wrong with developing Kona, but you have to develop the infrastructure first," she said. "We're doing it backward."

The state and county plan to spend many millions of dollars on road projects in Kona — including widening a portion of Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway to four lanes, building a new parkway from Keauhou north toward Kailua, extending Lako Street to make it a mauka-makai connector, and widening Kuakini Highway south of Kailua — and yet no one seems confident of dramatic improvement soon.

The rash of road construction expected to start late this year actually will make traffic worse until the projects are completed.

Even then, it might not be enough. County Councilman Curtis Tyler, who represents Kailua and North Kona, said a number of developers have the approvals they need to launch additional construction projects.

"I have to say that I really think that it's going to get a lot worse before some meaningful change can be effected," Tyler said. "I'm sorry to say that, because I know that's not good news, but it's probably the truth."

12,000 units planned

Traffic is so bad in West Maui that the Maui County Council recently rejected the proposed Pu'unoa subdivision, with its desperately needed affordable housing, in large part because of fears it would worsen congestion in one of Lahaina's busiest areas.

Cranes tower over the construction site of the Ka‘anapali Ocean Resort Villas time-share project at North Beach on Maui. Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser

What's more, hundreds of acres of former sugar-cane land have been bought up by developers who aim to build new neighborhoods.

Some say the simplest solution is to say no to new development until the infrastructure catches up. But home prices in West Maui are among the island's highest, and the area suffers from a severe shortage of affordable housing. A sizable chunk of workers who can't afford homes on the west side commute to tourist-industry jobs there, adding to the congestion.

County Councilwoman Jo Anne Johnson of West Maui, an advocate of affordable housing, worries that "the face of Lahaina could change overnight. Will we be ready for it?"

To help meet the onslaught, Johnson is pushing for a moratorium on hotel projects and implementation of a more effective system to collect traffic-impact fees on new development.

"I have no idea where the infrastructure money is going to come from," she said. "We're so far behind, and we're not getting developments — high-end or otherwise — to pay their own way. We're probably at least over $1 million behind in collecting fees."

A recent county Planning Department capacity analysis shows that West Maui also lacks public library space, school facilities and police.

A study conducted for the traffic-impact fee ordinance calls Honoapi'ilani Highway one of the island's busiest thoroughfares, with Maui's highest volume of visitor traffic during peak morning and afternoon hours. The study also found intersections in Lahaina among the most congested on the island.

Little relief

Some relief is in sight, with the first phase of the long-awaited nine-mile Lahaina bypass highway scheduled to begin by the end of the year. Construction of the road mauka and parallel to Honoapi'ilani is expected to take three years.

Joe Pluta, president of the West Maui Taxpayers Association, said he's gratified the bypass road will become a reality, but it took 30 years of lobbying, and West Maui continues to get the short end of the stick in public money, despite its hefty contribution to state and county tax revenues.

Pluta and his group have been leading a campaign to address a related issue: the need for an acute-care hospital.

Since Honoapi'ilani Highway is the only route in and out of Lahaina — other than narrow, winding Kahekili Highway on the backside of the West Maui Mountains — the area is vulnerable in disasters. Honoapi'ilani has been closed for hours at a time because of serious accidents and brush fires.

The West Maui Taxpayers Association has led efforts to acquire land and is hoping to tap into federal money to build a 50-bed hospital as part of the massive Ka'anapali 2020 development.

To ward off the rising tide of anti-development sentiment, some developers have started involving the public in planning from the start.

The Ka'anapali Development Corp. created citizen committees to look at land use, infrastructure and other issues for its 200-acre Waine'e project and the Ka'anapali 2020 project of housing, commercial spaces, parks, a golf course, schools, agriculture and other uses. Even the controversial Pu'unoa subdivision, rejected last month by the Maui County Council, has turned to community members for help in reshaping the proposal.

"We need development and growth," said George "Keoki" Freeland, executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, who has been working on Pu'unoa.

"But it has to be done properly. We don't want to create a monster. We need the infrastructure. If that can be taken care of, we can handle it."

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916. Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.