By CHELSEA JENSEN
By CHELSEA JENSEN
Stephens Media
A permit to construct the first 1,065 feet of a frontage road developers say will reduce traffic on Queen Kaahumanu Highway and increase public shoreline access to the Kohanaiki shoreline will go before the Hawaii County Leeward Planning Commission on Thursday in Kailua-Kona.
Property owners Kohanaiki Shores and Rutter/KW Kohanaiki LLC are seeking the special management area use permit to construct the first portion of the 2008 Kona Community Development Plan-envisioned frontage road, which, as planned, will someday stretch from Kona International Airport to Honokohau Small Boat Harbor and reduce vehicular access points to the highway.
Building the road will improve quality of life by “improving safety and traffic flow on Queen Kaahumanu Highway through the consolidation of access points” and by “improving public access to the properties makai and mauka” of the highway, particularly “to Kohanaiki Public Beach Park and the shoreline,” according to the project’s final Environmental Assessment released in March. The document received a finding of no significant impact from Planning Department Director Bobbie Jean Leithead Todd.
Kohanaiki Shores anticipates the 1,065-foot portion will cost about $1.35 million and take about 12 months to complete, according to its use permit application. The road will feature 10-foot lanes, 5-foot bike lanes, 5-foot shoulders and 10-foot landscaped swales to accommodate drainage.
It will be privately funded, run through Kohanaiki Shores-owned land makai of Queen Kaahumanu Highway and eventually be turned over to the county.
The project will be developed in three segments. First is extending Hulikoa Drive 511 feet makai of the highway, from the highway to the frontage road intersection. Second is creating a new intersection with the frontage road. That intersection, according to the application, will be signalized.
The final segment is building the frontage road to the existing Kohanaiki Way, to the north. Kohanaiki Way’s current access to Queen Kaahumanu Highway will eventually be closed, under the terms of a memorandum of understanding between Kohanaiki’s developers and state officials.
The request goes before the seven-member commission during its monthly meeting beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
Also on the agenda for commissioners to consider is a request by Kohala Wishing Well LLC for a special permit to turn a former chicken farm into a prekindergarten through eighth grade nonprofit country school and learning center for up to 50 students. The school would also provide adult education evening classes on the 3.35 acres of land located off Hoea Road in Hawi.
According to Kohala Wishing Well’s application, the permit is needed to build the small school on an agriculturally zoned parcel. Kohala Wishing Well also is requesting that it be allowed to use seven already existing structures for the school.
The commission will also consider Hawaii County Council Bill No. 255, which seeks to amend a Hawaii County Code currently restricting property owned by Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Gardens to a visitor center or visitor center-related uses. The bill, submitted to the council in late April by Councilwoman Brenda Ford, would allow for other types of development, including residential and commercial units, on the property zoned Neighborhood Commercial 7,500 square feet.
If given a positive recommendation by the commission, the bill will be referred back to the council where it will be heard within a committee. Following committee hearings, the bill, if given another positive recommendation, goes before the full Hawaii County Council to be adopted as an ordinance.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.