Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/27/2016 Housing & Transportation Committee minutes MINUTES HOUSING & TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE July 27, 2016 A meeting of the Housing & Transportation Committee of the Council of the County of Kauai, State of Hawaii, was called to order by JoAnn A. Yukimura, Chair, at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201, Lihu`e, Kauai, on Wednesday, July 27, 2016, at 9:45 a.m., after which the following Members answered the call of the roll: • Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Gary L. Hooser Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Honorable Ross Kagawa, Ex-Officio Member Honorable Mel Rapozo, Ex-Officio Member Excused: Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i The Committee proceeded as follows: Resolution No. 2016-39 RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING CROSSWALKS, STRIPED PEDESTRIAN WALKWAYS, AND INTERSECTION MODIFICATIONS ON WAIKOMO ROAD, KOLOA DISTRICT, COUNTY OF KAUAI (This item was Deferred to the September 28, 2016 Committee Meeting.) Councilmember Kaneshiro moved to approve Resolution No. 2016-39, seconded by Councilmember Chock. Committee Chair Yukimura: The Administration has requested a deferral on this matter, but before we go to that, I would like to suspend the rules so that we can receive testimony from the public. Councilmember Kagawa: I am a non-committee member, but may I speak? Committee Chair Yukimura: Go ahead. Councilmember Kagawa: I am just checking, but do.we want to hear from the Administration or have you heard from the Administration as to why they are requesting this deferral and what are they going to try and accomplish by the HT COMMITTEE MEETING 2 JULY 27, 2016 next deferral date so that these people who have come have not come for nothing. There are a lot of people here for it. Committee Chair Yukimura: The request from the Administration was for more time to work with the community on this matter. We do not have...I do not think anybody is here from the Department of Public Works. Councilmember Kagawa: That is okay if they just needed more time to work with the community. That is a good answer. Thank you. Committee Chair Yukimura: Okay. I know we have people registered to speak. I will suspend the rules. CODIE K. YAMAUCHI, Council Services Assistant I: Yes. Committee Chair, you have one (1) person registered speaker, Mariann Tabuchi. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. MARIANN TABUCHI: My name is Mariann Tabuchi. I am a resident of Waikomo Road, particularly a resident of the area that will be affected by the one-way only section, so past the one-lane bridge on the stretch to the Koloa. We are the very first house across the bridge. I came to you folks to speak today in support of the measure and I will explain why. My family that I married into are long-term residents of Koloa, and Koloa has changed so much in terms of pedestrian safety. Living in Koloa, it is a small town so we like to walk. We want to walk to school, walk to the ballpark, walk to the grocery store, and walk to the shops. Unfortunately, there are many people who utilize roads, such as Waikomo, as kind of a speedway. It is unfortunate that there currently are not any pedestrian safety measures that allow folks like myself, my family, and my toddler who want to go on a walk to the park and to be able to do so safely. I understand that you folks have been looking into the issue for the last six (6) years and I am sure you folks have determined whether or not a one-way heading towards the school is the best measure or not, given afterschool traffic and potentially blockages. Obviously, the best solution in my eyes would be an actual concrete sidewalk, but at this point, we will take of whatever we can get for the safety of our children. It will be an inconvenience to me and probably to the other people who live along that roadway to have to turn left every time, even if we just want to go to the grocery store, which is literally one (1) block to the right. But when it comes to the safety of my daughter and the children of our neighborhood, especially ones that walk to Koloa Elementary School the first Wednesday of every month, to me that sacrifice is worth it. Thank you. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who wishes to testify? Aloha Tessie. Good morning. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 3 JULY 27, 2016 TESSIE KINNAMAN: Good morning. Tessie Kinnaman, for the record. I just found out this morning that this item was going to be deferred. We are going to submit all of this other stuff, but I would like to read Rowena Cobb's testimony. I do not know if she sent it to you folks. Committee Chair Yukimura: Whose testimony is this? Ms. Kinnaman: Rowena Blake Cobb. She lives on Waikomo Road. This is her testimony in regards to Resolution No. 2016-39: "Dear Mr. Kagawa, this is to request your reconsideration of the resolution before you concerning the modifications to Waikomo Road, Koloa District. I am appreciative of the Council looking out for children who attend Koloa Elementary School; however, this request that the resolution before you be reconsidered due to the following: a) I am aware, see, and observe the number and flow of students walking to and from school days and the number is substantially low; b) I am aware, see, and observe the many tourists and residents that find alternate parking on Waikomo Road when needed to visit the commercial site entities on Po`ipu Road and a section of Waikomo and Po`ipu; c) I am aware, see, and observe many churchgoers to churches on Po`ipu Road, and when extra parking is needed, they park on Waikomo Road; d) today, cars are parked directly in front of my home to either pick up or drop off children from Koloa Elementary School; e) the furthest point these parents may walk with their children are no more than two (2) residences from Po`ipu Road onto Waikomo Road; f) contrary to the olden days when families had only one (1) car, children walked down Po`ipu Road from Koloa far greater than those who walk on Waikomo Road and the number of children seen today is extremely low considering the enrollment at Koloa Elementary School; g) even with the increases of homes off Waikomo and Weliweli, the number of walkers is significantly low; h) emphasize that children are driven to and from school more than they walk; i) this is significant when the lengthy line of cars to the school; j) the number of children who utilize Waikomo to and from school is minimal and is definitely not a stream of students; k) born and raised on Waikomo, I have been a consistent resident since 1979; 1) my children walked to and from school as children do today, as I did, and the number of children walking today is far less than we had years past; and m) the residents of Waikomo are acutely aware when school is in section and look out for other students. Turning Waikomo Road into a one-way is the action of an accident waiting to happen for the following reasons: a) Waikomo Road is a residential passageway to and from Koloa Town, to and from Po`ipu Road has been in existence from the beginning. Haul cane roads used the road to and from the mill during harvesting time and children were walking to and from school during that period to modify this road into a one-way will definitely create a hazard at many levels." Committee Chair Yukimura: Excuse me, Tessie. That was your time. You may come back after. Ms. Kinnaman: I will be back. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 4 JULY 27, 2016 Councilmember Yukimura: Is there anyone else who wishes to testify on this matter? We will have you come back, Tessie. Thank you. Ms. Sparks. NORMA DOCTOR SPARKS: Good morning. Norma Doctor Sparks. As I have said before, I was born and raised in Koloa, and as a young child, along with Tessie and my other friends, we often walked up and down Waikomo Road. I am concerned that the Administration has not done anything in the last two (2) months concerning this. I think it was clear that there were enough of us that requested the Administration to do more study and to also gather more data about impacts, and they have not done so. I am concerned that we are going to go for another two (2) months and not get anything as well. In addition to that, I think their ideas of trying to get stakeholders involved in the planning is a good one and I appreciate that very much, because I think that the way that this Resolution has been presented to the Council and the way it has not been presented to the majority of people in Koloa is also very problematic. I think there is a lot of distress about what the department is going to do and I think that having meaningful presentations and meaningful conversations about what the plan should be for Koloa would be helpful, as long as the Administration understands that we want more than just a presentation of what they want to do. I am very concerned about the mix of pedestrians, cars, and maybe bicycles. There has not been in this Resolution and even in the testimonies previously, about how children will really be protected just by striping. When the actual resolution plan is reviewed, it also names that part where children are going to be walking through as being an advisory walk pedestrian and I do not know what "advisory pedestrian" is. As an attorney, I tried to look it up in my different ways and could not find it. So I do have a concern that this has been presented as a way to benefit children, but actually I do believe that our children would be actually very exposed to being hurt and even killed by the way this plan is being made. I believe that sidewalks should be considered and I do not understand why this plan has to even be presented for Koloa without sidewalks. Thank you very much. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. Ms. Sparks, excuse me, but what was the thing that you looked up in terms of needing a definition? Ms. Sparks: On the Resolution, second page, Section 4, it says, "an advisory marked pedestrian lane." I do not understand what that is. I have looked at highway transportation, et cetera, federal and state laws, and I do not understand what that is. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to testify? Mr. Lee. SAM LEE: Good morning. My name is Sam Lee and I have been a long-time resident of Koloa and a frequent user of Waikomo Road. I have a question first. The driving premise behind this proposal is pedestrian school children traffic to and from the school. I am sure a survey of that foot and bicycle HT COMMITTEE MEETING 5 JULY 27, 2016 traffic, both to and from the school has been made. If so, what would be the average number of walkers? Do you have an answer to that? Committee Chair Yukimura: No, not specifically. I think that, they have done some surveys, but I think the request was that more data be gathered and that is what they are supposed to come back for. Mr. Lee: Well, I understood that during the last two (2) months, that was a given over to the deferral from May to now for data gathering. So when it came up on the agenda, I assumed it was for action. Committee Chair Yukimura: Correct. Mr. Lee: And at which point, there should be facts. Committee Chair Yukimura: We received a request for a deferral because apparently they have not done the work that they wanted to do, so that is why there is that request. Mr. Lee: Okay. I am sorry. I am trying not to be argumentative. Moving to my observations this past week, which is not uncommon, there was a County crew, and there still is a County crew today over the past four (4) or five (5) days, trimming trees up and down Koloa Road, which restricts traffic to one-way according to what the traffic control folks are doing. So coming up Koloa Road to get into town, many people who know where Waikomo Road ends, are taking Waikomo Road, including myself. During school time and when Koloa Road is blocked for one reason or another, other than the bypasses, Waikomo Road is necessary for that purpose. My last observation is during the month of the May, before school ended, because every week day morning I am driving up and down Koloa Road to get to where I need to go. I purposely took Waikomo Road primetime before school because the assertion is that children gather as far up mauha as the bank and walk together in groups down to the school. I made four (4) trips in the morning between 7:15 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. in my automobile, granted I was only on the road from the laundromat to the bank, two (2) minutes, maybe three (3) minutes at the most. The total number of children that I saw during those occasions was one (1) little girl being walked by her mother; I saw two (2) on another day. Can I finish? Committee Chair Yukimura: Yes. Mr. Lee: I saw two (2) young boys on bicycles, and on the fourth day, I saw an older gentleman walking. Now that was the sum total during what I view as primetime when you would expect the roads to be clogged according to other descriptions of the amount of traffic. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you very much. Ms. Souza. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 6 JULY 27, 2016 JULIE SOUZA: Aloha everyone. Good morning. Even though it is going to be deferred, we are very happy that you can hear us at least, because we are still quite concerned about what will happen to our little Koloa Town. I know our first priority are the children, but as Sam has mentioned, he did a small survey of his own, and to find out the amount of people that use that road to walk does not compensate the fact of all of this money that will be put in to change the route of this road. I know that a lot of people use Waikomo Road to get around that Koloa and Po`ipu intersection, which is quite dangerous. If anything should be done in Koloa Town, it should be on Koloa Road: the intersection of Koloa and Po`ipu and Koloa and Maluhia. For the safety of the children, there should be a walkway from Koloa Road to Maluhia to the park. There are more children using that walkway to try to get to the park than there are trying to get to school. So many kids today are being taken to school by their parents. Committee Chair Yukimura: Can I interrupt you for a moment? Ms. Souza: Sure. Committee Chair Yukimura: You did not state your name. Ms. Souza: Julie Souza of Koloa. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. Ms. Souza: I am just trying to keep Koloa, Koloa. If anything, we should work on Koloa Road in the town of Koloa and not hamper the change of Waikomo Road, because that gets you around town if you need to and it gets you home in time for people that live behind the bank, instead of having to go through that bottleneck in Koloa. Thank you very much. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak for the first time? If not, I will ask Ms. Kinnaman to come back. Ms. Kinnaman: Tessie Kinnaman, for the record. I will continue on with Rowena Blake Cobb's testimony. "Turning Waikomo Road into a one-way is the action of an accident waiting to happen for the following reasons: a) Waikomo Road is a residential passageway to and from Koloa, and to and from Po`ipu Road has been in existence from the beginning. Haul cane roads used the road to and from the mill during harvesting time and children were walking to and from school during that period. To modify this road into a one-way will definitely create a hazard at many levels, and especially for our seniors who usually drive below the speed limit to and from Koloa; b) would cause more cars to encumber the Koloa/Po`ipii Road intersection, which already backs up at unexpected times, even today. The newly created four-way stop at Koloa Road will become a hazard due to longer times due to traffic flow. Some do not know what "stop" mean; d) medical HT COMMITTEE MEETING 7 JULY 27, 2016 assistance access to those in need on Waikomo Road will be a race against time; e) as a long-time resident near the intersection of Koloa/Po`ipu Road, having access to my home and many others requires changing the process; f) one-way streets are easy to adapt to if there is an alternate roadway parallel to the one in question. Waikomo has no alternate solution; and g) bike paths and marked sidewalks are nice when mapped out, however, in a small neighborhood, as Waikomo Road residents traversing from one spot to another means taking the quickest and easiest route to get to the desired spot. No one will walk two (2) to three (3) blocks to cross the street as proposed. They will cross the road where they need to go. In closing, this just touches a multitude of issues that will rise, should this Resolution be approved. Again, please reconsider your position and vote `no' on this Resolution. Koloa is an old town that has existed since the first days, beginning with Koloa Landing. Leave these roads as they are. Do not change the colorful, historical picturesque setting of Kaua`i's oldest neighborhood, Koloa. We have and can survive. Submitted, Rowena Blake Cobb." As for my testimony, we were going to submit it, but I guess we will hold on and get more signatures. We have a petition circulating in the community. So far, we were going to submit about one hundred twenty (120) signatures, so we will hold off until however long you defer. We started this petition a couple of the weeks ago. I know we had two (2) months' time, but still, we are all working hard. In walking through the community, I understand canvassing the neighborhood that they have had a lot of issues. My yellow light is on. I will continue in September. Thank you. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you, Tessie. Ms. Tabuchi, you may come up again. Ms. Tabuchi: Hi, Mariann Tabuchi again, Waikomo Road resident. In hearing the others' testimony and reading past testimony on this issue, I do have a couple of things to say. One, I do notice that there are not many children that walk to school in Koloa and I can tell you from my own experience living in Koloa and walking on Koloa Road and from being an educator and talking with educators about the issue and talking with parents about the issue of children, just as I do, is that one of the reasons they do not send their children to school walking is because they do not feel the road is safe enough to walk upon. I, too, experience this lack of safety, particularly when crossing the dip or the one-lane bridge. Although Koloa is an old town, Koloa has changed because Po`ipu has grown and we have so many people driving through Koloa Town who are not familiar with the way the roadways work. Often times, and I can witness this all day long, we have tourist vehicles or rental vehicles who screech to a halt at the one-lane bridge because they do not realize how dangerous that turn really is and it is a huge hazard for pedestrians, regardless if it is one (1) pedestrian or one hundred (100) pedestrians. People are at risk because the roadway currently is not safe for people who are not familiar with it and we have a lot more traffic from people who are not familiar with Koloa's roads. Thank you. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 8 JULY 27, 2016 Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who wishes to testify for the second time? If not, we will come back to order. Is there any discussion before a motion to defer? There being no further testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Councilmember Kagawa: Yes. Committee Chair Yukimura: Go ahead. Councilmember Kagawa: As a non-committee member, some of my concerns about Waikomo Road turning into a one-way was when I first looked at the plan, I saw this twelve (12) feet bikeway. It seemed like they were using the students walking to school as the main thrust of action in trying to push this, but actually it was creating this huge, wide bike lane. I get it. Bicyclists prefer having a wide bike lane that is just designated for bicyclists. However, we cannot do everything, everywhere. On a narrow road, you are going to choose that to be the choice area where you want to almost force bicyclists there? You are going to pick the narrowest road to do that? I would think that you would pick the widest road to do that. That was my concern. It is just those commonsense decisions that seem to be made these days, and we have a similar situation on the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant with Puaole and Malae Street. The Administration comes up with a proposal for roundabouts, bike lanes, and walking lanes, but the one thing they did was forget to tell the residents what was coming. So now they are holding these meetings and the residents are saying, "We do not want this," though not one hundred percent (100%) of the residents because there are some bicyclists and walkers, a lot of them who just uses it for exercise and say, "Hey, I want a safe area where I can do my walking and bicycling." The fact of the matter is right now with our County finances the way they are, we are broke. We cannot even pave roads that are in bad shape, but when we have extra moneys, we are going to put it towards bike lanes and walkways? And we are only going to do it on a short stretch, a quarter mile stretch for the TIGER grant? We do not have bike lanes and walkways in Wailua Homesteads. We do not have them in Hanapepe Heights. We cannot even finish the walking path that was there halfway twenty (20) years ago. A walking path got started down Hanapepe Heights and it stopped halfway. They cannot even finish that and we want to do more of these bike lanes and walkways. Some people want it, but a lot of people do not. I am just saying that when we have a lot of money at some point in time, when this County recovers from the recession, I think we should do a lot of those, but in all areas; not just pick certain streets here and there and waste millions of dollars, yet we have millions of dollars in backlog happening as we speak for bridges, roads and all of the infrastructure, and cutting Albizia trees. What is the priority? Is the priority only going to be bicyclist and walking paths? I used to walk from Hanapepe Heights to Ele`ele School and ride my bike. I did not have a walkway or a bike lane. Were there cars? Yes, Hanapepe Town was busy. It was a HT COMMITTEE MEETING 9 JULY 27, 2016 happening town in the `70s and '80s. The way we were brought up is you respect the vehicles because if the vehicles touch you, you are going to get severely hurt. So you are looking back, sideways, and all around because the courtesy goes to the vehicles and we could accomplish it because we were rural. We only have seventy thousand (70,000) people. We are not O`ahu with one million four hundred thousand (1,400,000) people. We do not have that volume of cars. Yes, it is dangerous. I hear you, Mariann. It would be good if we could accomplish both. I say let us use that narrow street, see where we can establish the walking paths, even with some of these walking paths are going to go on County rights-of-way really close to properties in that neighborhood, oh well. We are going to do a walkway, let us do a walkway, and let us take some of that right-of-way. Even if we have to move a few electrical poles or telephone poles, let us do it and create safety, but let us not try and accomplish bike lanes and walking paths on narrow roads. It does not make sense. You do it where you have a lot of the shoulder. To go from one-way to two-way, I think the thing is what is the compound effect? If you make that one-way, where are the cars going now and how is the congestion going to be then? I do not know. It is not an easy decision. Nothing seems to ever be. Thank you. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Chair, I just would just like to make a request to get a bit more of an update from the Administration, apparent from the testimony, that we should at least know the direction and what they are working on in trying to not only get data, but resolve some of these issues that are being spoken about today. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. The request was that we defer it to September 28. We can ask for a sooner date. I do understand that the community is frustrated because it appears that nothing has been done, I am guessing, because I have not talked to the Department of Public Works directly, but I am thinking that nothing has been done. I know that the Department of Public Works has been very busy with a lot of other projects, so I am guessing that they want this time from now to the 28th to actually get something done and I believe it includes meeting with the community. So they may come and tell us that. Maybe what I can do is get an updated timetable from them as to what they plan to do and circulate that, and if we want it on the agenda sooner, we can do that. Would that be satisfactory? Councilmember Chock: For me, it is more just about clarity, about what it is they are working on and how? Committee Chair Yukimura: Okay. Councilmember Chock: I understand that they need more time and that is okay, but I want to be able to respond to the community about what it is that HT COMMITTEE MEETING 10 JULY 27, 2016 they are doing. If it is about outreach or if it is about some of the problems that are arising in the discussion, I would like to make sure that is what we are addressing. I do not want to be here on the 28th and some of these things that are coming up have not been addressed. Committee Chair Yukimura: Fair enough. Council Chair Rapozo: I have a question. Committee Chair Yukimura: Let me just suggest something, and then we can just recess the Committee and have them come to tell us today what their plans are. Councilmember Chock: Again, that is not really what I am asking for. If that is within your purview, it can be in writing for me, as long as there is clarity and an answer that we can have for the community. Committee Chair Yukimura: I will recess and ask them. Chair, did you have a suggestion? Council Chair Rapozo: I had a question. Did we tell the Department of Public Works not to be here today? Committee Chair Yukimura: Yes, because I think they had nothing to report in terms of progress. Council Chair Rapozo: I understand, but you have questions from Councilmembers. Committee Chair Yukimura: Correct. Council Chair Rapozo: The two (2) bills on the floor today are bills from the Administration. Committee Chair Yukimura: Okay. Council Chair Rapozo: I know I am not a committee member, but if it is a Department of Public Works bill or if it is a Planning bill and it is on our agenda, they should be here. It makes no sense. Now you have a question and you have to recess to get them over here. It is their bill; it is not our bill. I would just say to all of the Committee Chairs that if we have a bill, even if they are asking for a deferral, I think it is fair that they come up and tell us why they want a deferral, because maybe the Council wants to take some action anyway. In this case, I agree with the deferral. I would like the opportunity to tell them that what I am interested in is hearing more from people that are on Waikomo Road. I appreciate all of the testimony from Waikomo Road, but I can tell you that the people I have HT COMMITTEE MEETING 11 JULY 27, 2016 spoken to that have reached out to me from Waikomo Road does not support this. They tell me...all of the school and the teachers...I understand that, but not all of those teachers live near or around Waikomo Road that this is going to impact. This is going to impact all of the residents from Koloa, `Omao, Po`ipu, and Lawa`i. Rowena Cobb brings up a very important point to think about, about the medical response. Right now, the ambulance is right off of Po`ipu Road, you come up and huki left and it is right there. Right now, they can ride down Koloa Road and they are right at Waikomo Road. Now, they are going to have to go around the other way because it is a one-way street. In Honolulu, anywhere I go, whenever there is a one-way street one way, there is a parallel one-way coming the other way. This one, you are going to force the medics to go around and if you are the one waiting for medical help and now they have to go all the way around because we wanted to protect...anyway, that is what I wanted to convey to them and that will go across in a communication, but I want to see what their efforts were to outreach the residents that are going to be impacted and not just the school. Committee Chair Yukimura: Yes, I know that was our charge to them. I think they want to do it, but they have not done it yet. They are coming right now, so we will be able to talk to them. Councilmember Kaneshiro. Councilmember Kaneshiro: I just have something to say, too. I completely understand their reasoning for the one-way in trying to make the road safer for the children, and it is safer then it will probably get more kids that will actually walk on it. I did get one very legitimate concern about it and it was from someone that has a difficult time making the left turn by Chevron. They live on the west side and they come up that road because they work near Waikomo and they have to take the left turn and they said it is very difficult to take the left turn when it is really busy because you are looking for cars coming from the west side and looking at cars turning down to Po`ipii and you are looking at cars going back to the west side, so they said that they usually take Waikomo Road, go up to the three-way stop sign, take the left, and then they are able to just drive straight through. I think that is a legitimate concern. It is difficult because you have to look so many ways. That would be the same if you told them, "Well, how about you take the bypass road?" But the bypass road is the same way. They are still looking for cars coming from Lawa`i and you are still looking for cars coming from Koloa. There is a lot going on. So I would ask that the Administration look at that because I completely understand what they are saying as far as the difficulty in heading to the west side from that area. There is just a lot of traffic coming from every direction. That three-way stop is amazing. I think the first time they put the stop sign, I did not even see it and blew right past it. That was a very difficult intersection also because you could not see people coming from the Koloa way around Lapperts and there is just a lot of stuff going on. I could see why she takes that three-way stop and she is able to go right through past Chevron. Committee Chair Yukimura: Are you talking about the three-way stop between Koloa Road and Waikomo Road? HT COMMITTEE MEETING 12 JULY 27, 2016 Councilmember Kaneshiro: By Koloa Mill Ice Cream shop, yes. Committee Chair Yukimura: That was part of the Charlier Koloa/Po`ipu circulation plan that was implemented. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Yes, so she might not be the only person that is using that three-way stop as a safer route to get to the west side, rather than just turning left by Chevron. So I would like them to take that into consideration as we go through this. Committee Chair Yukimura: I think we have all been at that intersection of Koloa Road and Po`ipu Road and trying to turn left. Council Chair Rapozo: Real quick, if you want a visualization, when we made this road one-way, just imagine if we made that road one-way and we did not have Umi as the parallel. Can you imagine the traffic that would have built up at Umi. Do you know what I am saying? You have an alternate right now on Umi because you cannot come up this way, but you can go up on Umi. Imagine if you did not have Umi. Where would the cars go? I think that is the same kind of situation you would see if you make Waikomo a one-way because there is no alternative right now. You are going to have to go all the way around. That is all I am saying. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. I want to say a few things. It is clear that the concern of the community has not been addressed and I think that is probably because nothing has happened. I believe the Department of Public Works has an intention to actually be in communication with the community to solicit more input and data, and then come back with recommendations. I do not know what those recommendations will be, but I think they have been very busy so they are trying to be conscientious and not try to come and say that something has been done when they have not had the time to do that. I think the deferral is well-taken and I also understand the concern of the community, because nothing has happened as far as you are concerned. I just want to reinforce Ms. Tabuchi's point that children are not walking because it is not perceived to be safe, either by the child or the parents of the child. So it is hard to say that we do not need more pedestrian facilitation and safety on that road just because people are not using it. It is sort of "the chicken and the egg." That is the whole purpose of Safe Routes to School, that you would create safe routes for walking to school. That is a single purpose and the community is bringing forth all of the other purposes that the two-way Waikomo Road serves all of those other purposes and they are saying that we have to think about those, too. My perception is that we are trying to solve the problem by changing one small part of the system when actually what we need to do is to reduce car traffic in the Koloa/Po`ipu area, which is the goal of the Multimodal Transportation Plan. If we had the Koloa/Po`ipu shuttle, which we are planning right now, where people would be able to jump on a shuttle and go back and forth between Koloa and Po`ipii without a car, that would be one way. If we had more HT COMMITTEE MEETING 13 JULY 27, 2016 frequent and convenient bus service from the west side into KO loa and Po`ipii so that workers could come in without a car and they could make their work times and leave as they need to, then there would be less car traffic in that area, as well as fewer parking problems in the area. We cannot put bike lanes or sidewalks everywhere; that is absolutely true. We are thinking to put it in the towns to make town walking and biking easier, and then have bus service between the towns. That is our overall plan and you have to do that if you understand and agree that reducing car traffic is one of the solutions to many of our problems here. Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. For me, it is not so much about if there is a need or not; it is apparent to me that there is a need. Committee Chair Yukimura: For? Councilmember Chock: For something to help our pedestrians through it. I remember in the '70s I walked to Koloa Elementary School on that road and it was not an issue. I understand that things have changed significantly. What I think needs to happen is how it is addressed. Obviously, the community outreach, but also if there are other options to consider in this process that need to be explored. It seems to me those need to be talked about as well. I just wanted to urge that we continue to look at those options. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. Are there any other comments before we go to the Department of Public Works for questions? Councilmember Kagawa: To address Ms. Tabuchi's concern about reckless driving and speeding, I remember several personal requests that we have done for King Kaumuali`i Elementary School and the police have been very responsive to monitoring speeding concerns raised by the residents. In that case, I would say that I could do a request, and perhaps on those first Wednesdays that they have those walks, I could have the police there giving some tickets. Another way we could lower the speed is lower the speed limit on that entire stretch, especially by the narrow stretch by the bridge where she said is very dangerous. Those are other ways we can accomplish reducing the speed. It will not build a sidewalk, but I think traffic tickets help in reducing speed and I think that is a good way of at least helping the problem a little bit. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. We have the Department of Public Works and the Planning Department here. Thank you for being here. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. LYLE TABATA, Acting County Engineer: Lyle Tabata, Acting County Engineer. What was the question again? HT COMMITTEE MEETING 14 JULY 27, 2016 Committee Chair Yukimura: The question is why are you asking for a deferral, what has been done, and what do you plan to do? Mr. Tabata: Okay. I will let Lee respond because he has been working with Engineering. Basically, it is the summer break and students are out of school. So part of it is trying to gather more data, which we are asked to, but we could not do it with school out. The part about setting up the meeting, I will let Lee answer that. LEE STEINMETZ, Transportation Planner: Thank you, Lyle. I am Lee Steinmetz, Transportation Planner with the Planning Department. Yes, there were a couple of things that the Council requested of us. One was additional traffic information, as Lyle just mentioned. We want to get some additional information, but it is difficult to do when school is out of session because it does not necessarily reflect actual, during school traffic conditions. The other thing that you requested is that we host another community meeting and making sure that we really notify all of the Koloa community to make sure that everybody is informed of the meeting and can come to the meeting. Again, we did not want to do that during summer because a lot of people leave and go on vacation and different things happen. So we realized that we would really like to schedule that when school is back in session. We are looking at a couple of dates in August, which I do not want to announce the meeting date yet because we still have to confirm the meeting location, availability, and everything. Our plan is to send notices out to the entire Koloa community...well, basically from the western bypass to the eastern bypass, Po`ipu Road down by the roundabout, up past Koloa Road. So everybody within the core of Koloa Town is notified, plus do some press releases for anybody else who might be interested. Anyway, we are looking at hosting that meeting in August, so that is why we are requesting a deferral so that we can come back to you with the information that you requested. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. So the reason you are asking for a deferral is because you are waiting for school to start. I have a question about that. Yes, it is true that you need school open to have data about kids walking, but not necessarily about traffic. In fact, summer traffic may be a good time to see what the traffic patterns are like. Are you collecting data about car traffic, as well as people traffic on that road? Mr. Steinmetz: We have some data already that is collected, but we also want to look at how school pick up and drop off affects traffic in that area, which we can only do during school time. Committee Chair Yukimura: Okay. That is true. Other questions? Council Chair Rapozo: I have a question. Thank you for running over here. As far as the traffic counts and study, who is doing that? Do you folks HT COMMITTEE MEETING 15 JULY 27, 2016 use the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) to do that? I know they have some fancy equipment that can track speeds, cars, and numbers. MICHAEL MOULE, Chief of Engineering: Michael Moule, for the record, Chief of the Engineering Division. Per your request, and I agree with the request, the most relevant data is turning movement information at the intersection. That is what we previously presented to you, just some general counts along Waikomo Road. The response was, and rightfully so, this does not tell us people are turning here and there. The counts that we do, which we have done some already, is to actually have people out there, my staff, physically counting the cars making turns. That is the standard way to count intersections. It can be done via video nowadays and there is technology to do automatic counts, but we do not do enough counts to make it worthwhile for us to do that, so it is literally staffing people out there, counting the cars making the turns, and analyzing that traffic. For example, northbound traffic on Po`ipu Road, going into Koloa Town, making the right turn to Waikomo Road—the biggest diversion is going to be that traffic, right? That is what came up the last time we were here in front of you. We have counted that traffic and all of the other through movements at that intersection and we have done the same thing at the intersection at Koloa Road and Po`ipu Road. What we will be doing prior to the public meeting that you have asked us to hold and prior to when we come back to you in September, to look at this Resolution again is to analyze that traffic and analyze what happens if all of those cars that are making that right turn onto Waikomo Road instead, going up in the town and using Koloa Road to get into town. That is the analysis that we have not done at this time, but we will do that analysis in-house. We have the capability to do it. Council Chair Rapozo: Typically, how many hours do you keep that person out there counting cars? Mr. Moule: In this case, because we had some counts of the daily traffic, we knew when the peaks were on Waikomo Road, so we did not have to send them out there for twenty-four (24) hours. For a typical morning and afternoon count, you would do two (2) hours in the morning and two (2) hours in the afternoon. In our case, we did two (2) hours in the afternoon, because the afternoon count is a little harder to determine because the school peak is a little different than the normal commute peak, and for the morning count we did five (5) fifteen (15) minute periods, from 6:45 a.m. until 8:00 a.m. In the afternoon, we did from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Council Chair Rapozo: Okay, so you did not do the school time? Mr. Moule: We did not because it turns out that the traffic volume overall is lower at that time based on the general counts in the area. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 16 JULY 27, 2016 Council Chair Rapozo: For this Safe Routes to School project, does that funding rely on this Resolution passing? If this Resolution does not pass, what happens to the grant fund? Mr. Steinmetz: This is not funded by a grant. We have our Safe Routes to School Special Fund, which are funds that are received through the speeding tickets that is given to the State, and then proportionally given to all of the counties. We are planning to use that fund to do this improvement. If the resolution does not pass, then we will look at using those funds for some other project. Council Chair Rapozo: Okay, so it does not impact the overall funding for the project? Mr. Steinmetz: Correct. Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Yukimura: It does not affect overall funding for Safe Routes to School, right? Mr. Steinmetz: Yes, it is not related to any grants that we have received. Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Committee Chair Yukimura: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Chair. My question is about have we looked at...you folks have talked about it and presented some of it, but other viable options to present to the community moving forward...we talked on sidewalks and how we would get that done with the costs, traffic calming solutions...Council Vice Chair talked about enforcement, maybe one-way in the opposite direction. Have we looked at all of these things and what can we do the engage the community in that discussion? I think what I am hearing is that they do not like the option as well. Mr. Steinmetz: Yes, we can certainly present options at the community meeting and let people provide their input. We did that previously and felt like this was the best option, but we can certainly do that again. This might be something also that is looked as phased. Sidewalks is certainly a possibility, but then we would have to look at the historic impact of sidewalks in the historic district and the cost and time of getting that constructed and where the funds might come for that, because that is beyond the funding that we have in this Special Fund. The reality is that is a much longer term type of project and if we are trying to do something sooner for the school, that may be a long-term option, but not a good HT COMMITTEE MEETING 17 JULY 27, 2016 short-term option. Those are the types of things that we can certainly discuss at this meeting so that everyone understands what those options are. We absolutely want to hear what suggestions people have to make the project better; by all means, we want to do that. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Committee Chair Yukimura: Councilmember Kagawa. Councilmember Kagawa: Councilmember Kaneshiro brought up a point about making a left-turn from Po`ipu Road to Koloa Road as being problematic for some drivers, during busy hours especially that want to go west. You folks talked about a roundabout there as a solution several times and I am wondering when the projected construction date for that is. Committee Chair Yukimura: You are talking about Koloa Road and Po`ipu Road intersection, right? Councilmember Kagawa: Yes. Mr. Moule: There are no current plans to do a roundabout for the intersection of Po`ipu Road and Koloa Road. Councilmember Kagawa: Nothing planned? I think you folks discussed looking at a roundabout as a possible solution for that. Mr. Moule: It is certainly something that could be looked at. Councilmember Kagawa: I thought you folks brought it up. It was not me. I did not make that up. Mr. Steinmetz: I think what we said is we are looking at intersection improvements at that location as part of the Po`ipu Road design charrette. Councilmember Kagawa: But not a roundabout? Mr. Steinmetz: Not necessarily a roundabout because there is kind of limited space there, but we did look at how we could modify the left-turn lanes and the right-turn lanes, so absolutely intersection improvements at that location as far as the Po`ipn Road design charrette. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think we are looking at some improvements there as part of the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) project that we have currently, which would take the recommendations from the design charrette and incorporate that. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 18 JULY 27, 2016 Councilmember Kagawa: One of the points brought up was that the one-way limits traffic going the other way and I am thinking when you fix that intersection, what if you need to close one-way and you will have no way of going the other way, because Waikomo could be used as an alternate source of traffic, but if you make that a one-way you cut out that option and when you are doing construction, where is everybody going? Are they going to have to turn around? Mr. Steinmetz: Let me suggest that as part of the community meeting that we discuss the impacts of other locations and when we come back to you that we also discuss the impacts of other intersections and how we see that working. Councilmember Kagawa: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Yukimura: Councilmember Kaneshiro. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Just a follow-up, and you folks may have been walking over when I mentioned it, but I did have people concerned. They said they feel much safer going down Waikomo Road, taking the left at the four-way stop sign, and then taking the left at the three-way stop sign next to the Koloa Mill Ice Cream shop and driving straight across that intersection by Chevron, rather than turning left at that intersection because they said during the busy time, it is very difficult because you have to look at traffic coming from the west side and you have to look at traffic that is going to drive down Po`ipu Road and you are looking at traffic that is driving straight through to the west side. They said they were not comfortable there, so they felt a lot safer using Waikomo Road, and then driving across. That would be the same also if you told them to use the bypass road, but even at the bypass road they said they have a difficult time because they have to look at so much traffic. That is just one of my concerns. I completely understand because I take that left all of the time and some cars go to take the left at Po`ipu and they will wave you on when there is another car coming behind them heading west, and that is an accident waiting to happen. There is all kind of confusion at that intersection. That is just something to consider as you think about how the traffic is going to be moving around the area. Committee Chair Yukimura: As a follow-up to that, I would like to say, if there is not enough room for a roundabout at Koloa and Po`ipu Road, why not a roundabout at the western bypass and Koloa Road. Councilmember Kaneshiro said that people do not see the bypass for going west as an alternative because of problems going out of the bypass onto Koloa Road. To me, it is not as problematic as it is down Po`ipu Road. If that is a problem, then put in a roundabout at Koloa Road...what is that name of the eastern bypass? Mr. Moule: Ala Kalanikaumaka. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 19 JULY 27, 2016 Committee Chair Yukimura: Ala Kalanikaumaka. Thank you. So I will ask the second part of my question, which is why not also do the punch through from Po`ipu Road to Ala Kalanikaumaka, which is already in our plan which will facilitate the connectivity that we say is so important? For those of you who are wondering, it is the road just below Pa'anau Road that is right now a cul-de-sac, but that would provide an access to the bypass road before Waikomo Road so that people going west could have that option. I am really beginning to see as people speak that we are talking about a system down there and when you move one part of the system, i.e. make Waikomo Road a one-way road, it causes all of the other parts of the system to get different impacts. That is what the community is asking you to address and I think they deserve to have really good working answers to that. Did you want to respond anymore to that question about the Po`ipii Road/Koloa Road intersection problems and how that moves a lot of traffic onto Waikomo Road? Mr. Moule: I will just say that the analysis that we will be doing of our traffic counts will tell us in theory, at least, what the traffic delay is at that intersection. When my staff did the counts, I had them kind of identify when they saw fairly long backups there and they did not see backups of ten (10) cars trying to make a left... Committee Chair Yukimura: On Po`ipu Road? Mr. Moule: From Po`ipu Road onto Koloa Road. Committee Chair Yukimura: I think that defies all of our experience. Mr. Moule: I am not saying it does not happen sometimes, but when they are out there counting they did not see very long backups for long periods of time; I will put it that way. The analysis will show how it is supposed to work in theory, and honestly, there is a good chance that the analysis will show it being worse than the actual conditions out there because of what Councilmember Kaneshiro was talking about. You will kind of wave people out when someone is making the left into Po`ipu Road to let someone out. I suspect that the analysis is actually going to show a longer queue than what we actually observed in the field. That means there is going to be times when that queue does occur when no one is letting somebody out, if that makes sense. Our analysis will include that and as part of...I do not know if a roundabout at that location makes sense in the long-term because of the fact that the bypass road is the long-term solution. However, getting two (2) well-identified lanes approaching that intersection on Po`ipu Road, so you have a longer dedicated right-turn lane and longer dedicated left-turn lane, so that right-turners are not backed up or prevented from getting into the intersection by left-turners. That is something that we will be looking at as part of the STIP project that is going into design right now. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 20 JULY 27, 2016 Committee Chair Yukimura: So you may also have been coming over while I was talking about how the real goal is to reduce car traffic in the Koloa/Po`ipu area, which goes back to the primary thrust of our Multimodal Plan, which is mode shift and the role that transit has to play in Koloa/Po`ipu. I hope that you folks include that solution in the overall transportation planning that we are doing. If we are only trying to figure out how to accommodate cars, we are not going to solve the problems. Any other questions for the Department of Public Works? Council Chair Rapozo: I just have one question. You said your analysis did not really show a problem of traffic backup by the Chevron gas station. Is that what you said? Mr. Moule: What I said is that with our physical observation we did not really see long periods either during the morning or the afternoon peak where there was a long backup on Po`ipu Road. Again, we counted for a short period of time. We did not count every single day for a week or a month or whatever. We have not done the analysis to see how the analysis shows the backup is going to be, but what I said is that I suspect that the analysis will likely show it to be worse than what we observed in the field based on the fact that we did not observe what Councilmember Kaneshiro mentioned, which is people sort of allowing people to pullout, when someone making a left from Koloa Road onto Po`ipu Road allows the driver to make the left out of Po`ipu Road before they make their turn and kind of wave them on. Our analysis cannot really consider that. Because of that, I suspect that the analysis may show worse backups than what we observed, but we did not observe a significantly long distance or significantly long backups at that intersection, partly because of the that "waving people on" situation. Council Chair Rapozo: Have you spoken with local residents in the area that deal with that traffic on a daily basis? Maybe you can start with some of them that were here this morning. Mr. Moule: I think that the public meeting that we propose to have before we come back to you is a place where we intend to get more of that input. Committee Chair Yukimura: How did your analysis take into account that the backup is not that long because people are going on Waikomo Road? Mr. Moule: Again, we did not do any analysis yet. That is one of the challenges. Committee Chair Yukimura: But your analysis will not factor in the fact that people are going on Waikomo Road and if we make Waikomo Road one-way, they are going to then start trying to go through Po`ipu Road west and go through that intersection. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 21 JULY 27, 2016 Mr. Moule: Yes, I did not hear the testimony this morning and the first time I had heard about people going one-half mile out of direction to avoid that left-turn was when I heard it from Councilmember Kaneshiro a moment ago. That is something that is extremely difficult to address in an analysis, to try to figure out what is the latent demand for certain movement or what would people do if a road was closed. It is something that we will look into. It is very difficult to figure out what those numbers might be. Committee Chair Yukimura: Maybe to reduce it to a mathematical formula might be difficult, but the reality is that even when there is no big backup, people are thinking in their mind, "I have to get somewhere by a certain time and that intersection is probably going to be jammed up, so I am going to take Waikomo Road." It is about perception. It is going to happen when you make Waikomo Road one-way. The community is saying that it is going to happen, so tell us how it is going to be addressed because otherwise it is going to be a problem caused by the one-way road. Those who are proposing a one-way road have to address that concern of the community. Mr. Tabata: Councilmember Yukimura, let us do the analysis that Mr. Moule is speaking of. We have traffic counts and they did the turning movements, but we just have numbers, no analysis has been completed. Everything that you members are mentioning, we cannot answer to because the analysis has not been completed. Let us do the analysis. We have traffic counts on Waikomo, as we stated earlier. Let us complete the study. Committee Chair Yukimura: We want you to do that and we will allow you to do that. The thing that is coming out though is that the analysis may not tell you what the community is telling you. I guess that is the reason for having the meeting with the community and really taking them seriously and seeing that they are actually talking about something real. So not only will you come back with the analysis, but you come back with solutions that will address what the community is concerned about. Mr. Tabata: Yes. Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you very much. Mr. Moule: What we talked about doing, what we are thinking about doing at this point is that the right-turn volume from Po`ipu Road to Waikomo Road...my thinking prior to this discussion was that we would suggest that most of those cars would become right-turners on Po`ipn Road onto Koloa Road, but it sounds like from this testimony that we have heard that some of those cars should become left-turners onto Koloa Road. That is an analysis that we could do. We could do some hypothetical scenarios saying, "Okay, one hundred percent (100%) goes this way; now let us say sixty percent (60%) goes that way and forty HT COMMITTEE MEETING 22 JULY 27, 2016 percent (40%) goes this way and see how that affects the intersection." That is something that could be done in the analysis and we could do an extra analysis like that. Again, I have not heard of that significant detour prior to today. Committee Chair Yukimura: I will tell you that even those of us who do not live in Koloa, but have been around for a long time know that problem. It is real and I appreciate that you are going take a look at that. Councilmember Kagawa. Councilmembef Kagawa: I had this idea from a member of the community who has been concerned about our shifting into more bike paths, walkways, and permanent types such as Hardy Street and what have you, but their suggestion for Waikomo was, "Why do we not eliminate the construction needed to pass a resolution, do it on a trial basis using paint and restripe, even if we wanted to turn it into a one-way, and look at the impacts and then decide if the construction is necessary later as the solution?" When I heard that, that way it will show the evidence that the construction part was needed and was not hurtful, as far as traffic, by just using repainting and restriping as a mechanism to implement the plan you want and not doing the permanent stuff. It will be hard to go back once you do the permanent stuff like the curbs and installing of poles to separate vehicles and bicyclist/pedestrians. Is that an option? Can we just use paint, which if we saw the impacts and we do not like it, we can go back to how it was? Is that some type of option that we could look forward in the future of maybe massaging some of these conflicts that we have when we are trying to satisfy two (2) sides and worrying about the future impacts? Let us just use the minimal cost at the outset and see what the impacts are as we put in the construction features for the long-term. Mr. Steinmetz: That is absolutely an option we can consider. We would still need resolutions from the Council because there is nothing in our ordinance that says we can try something on a temporary basis without resolutions. So we would still come back. Councilmember Kagawa: I understand. Mr. Steinmetz: If that is something that the Council would want to entertain, the resolution could be for a particular period of time. What I think we would want though is just to make sure that it is a long enough time of a trial period so that we can really see how it works and people can get used to it. It will change people's driving choices, so there needs to be a little bit of time for people to just try it. That is an absolutely possibility, to do something on a trial basis that we evaluate, do more counts, test it, and decide whether it is successful of not. Councilmember Kagawa: My point is that when we do not have a consensus agreement, that may be the best feasible way to really determine what the facts and impacts are. Thank you. HT COMMITTEE MEETING 23 JULY 27, 2016 Committee Chair Yukimura: Thank you. I also have a request that you check with the Transportation Agency on the shuttle study that they are doing for Koloa/Po`ipu because I think it is supposed to be coming out around September sometime, in terms of what the plan is. If people could go, for example, from Po`ipu to Kalaheo Coffee Company by bus, because it is frequent, you would cut down so much traffic that way. Workers could come from `Ele`ele or Waimea to work at the Grand Hyatt Kaua`i or Kiahuna without a car and that would begin to reduce traffic as well. Thank you. Other questions? If not, thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate your presence and your answers. Is there any further discussion? If not, may I have a motion to defer to September 28? Councilmember Kaneshiro moved to defer Resolution No. 2016-39 to the September 28, 2016 Committee Meeting, seconded by Councilmember Chock, and carried by a vote of 4:0:1 (Councilmember Kuali i was excused). There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:55 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Codie K. Yamau hi Council Services Assistant I APPROVED at the Committee Meeting held on August 10, 2016: Jr NN YUKIMURA/ air, HT Committe-