Iwish to call attention to a housing development called Kaiaulu o Kapiolani that is proposed to be built on low-lying land along Kapiolani Street, across from the Hawaii County Police Department. There are a number of unresolved issues associated with this project, which the developer seems unwilling to address in the final environmental assessment, published just last month.
First, and maybe foremost, there is the matter of drainage. Most of the lots on the mauka side of Kapiolani Street in the block extending from Kukuau to Hualalai streets are subject to a drainage easement, legally established around 2006. The easement receives runoff from hundreds of acres of homes upstream, including the Mohouli subdivision. The runoff is basically impounded along Kapiolani Street, which acts as a dam. As any passerby can see, the ground level of these drainage lots is considerably lower — from five to 10 feet or more — than the street level. And the soil is officially classified as “muck.” In essence, it is a swamp.
The developer, who has an option to purchase one of these lots, is proposing to deal with drainage by means of 25-foot-deep drywells and culverts diverting runoff to county-owned adjoining lots. Flows in heavy rains are estimated to be as much as 900 cubic feet per second. The county’s own study, however, determined that the geography of the site made it unsuited for drywells as a means of handling drainage, and that, therefore, development of any of these parcels was unfeasible.
When the county prepared its environmental assessment for the drainage easement, it did not expect that any of the lots along this stretch of Kapiolani Street would be developed. Instead, the entire area was intended to be acquired by the county to handle drainage.
For whatever reason, that did not occur, and so the lot where the Kaiaulu o Kapiolani project is intended to be built remained in private hands, unlike the adjoining lots. In fact, it changed hands after the drainage easement study, with the current owner paying $1,000 for a quitclaim deed. The developer is now proposing to pay that owner, Giampaolo Boschetti, $1.6 million for the land, according to project cost figures given to the Hawaii Housing and Finance Development Corporation.
Second, there is the matter of access to the proposed 64-unit development. As a condition of the development, access via Kapiolani Street is to be right-turn in and right-turn out only. Anyone wanting to head north on Kapiolani or anyone approaching the development from the south must enter or exit via a driveway on Kukuau Street.
As Hilo residents know, Kukuau Street, from its origin on Kilauea all the way mauka to Kumukoa, is narrow and substandard. There are no sidewalks. The street is far narrower than anything that would be allowed today. The sight distances are practically non-existent at some points.
And yet, this narrow, dangerous, substandard road is to be the primary entry and exit for residents of this project. Access and egress along Kapiolani Street, opposite the police station, will be right-in, right-out only. All other traffic will have to exit or enter by means of a narrow driveway intersection with Kukuau. Any resident wanting to head to Hilo Union schools, Foodland (the nearest grocery store) or the farmer’s market will have to exit onto Kukuau.
Anyone coming back home from the Puna direction will have to overshoot the Kapiolani drive and then make a sharp left turn onto Kukuau, an acute-angle intersection that is hard to maneuver in the best of times — and which, I might add, often floods during heavy rains.
This is advertised as an “affordable” housing project. Yet the developer’s own cost figures show the average cost per unit to be around $840,000, far above the cost of a decent single-family home in the Hilo area.
I and others have many more concerns about the project. Not least is the fact that the surrounding community has received very little notice about the proposal. Most of them do not read the bimonthly state Environmental Notice and would not have seen the absurdly long, puffed-up 700-page draft environmental assessment published in June 2021 or the even longer, 800-page final EA published in August.
The County Council gave brief consideration to this project in February 2021, when I did show up to testify, but approved it without serious questioning. The only notice to the neighbors consisted of a sign along Kapiolani Street, where there is no area to park in order to read it. And even then, that sign refers only to rezoning matters, not to the placement of a major housing development on the site.
The goal of providing affordable housing is a laudable one. I would note that the residents who will be most impacted by this development — those living in the apartments and homes along Kukuau as well as those living along the small driveways running from Kukuau back to Alenaio Stream — are for the most part living in low-income housing already, although it may not be designated as such. Almost all of these neighbors are unaware of the proposed development, lacking the time to participate in the few public hearings that were held.
There is still opportunity for public input. If the developer is to use drywells for drainage, the Department of Health must approve them, and a public hearing may be required on that application.
I am not at all opposed to affordable housing. But this is not an appropriate site for any development, and the county’s Office of Housing and Community Development should be challenged to explain why this project was approved and by whom.
The best use of the land along Kapiolani Street in this block would be as a county park, with walkways and an improved impoundment to receive the drainage. I would hope the developer and the county administration agree.
Patricia Tummons is the author of the monthly Environment Hawaii newsletter. Visit www.environment-hawaii.org for more information.
