Big Island Council Rejects $1 Million From State To Plan A Lower Puna Traffic Relief Route
Highway 130 is the only route out of the fast-growing community, and is jammed with traffic each day. One critic called the council vote ‘a slap in the face’ for Puna residents.
The Big Island County Council unexpectedly rejected $1 million in state funding that was earmarked for a study of the options for building a new highway to relieve traffic on a dangerous and congested road in Lower Puna.
Council members voted 6-2 to decline the state funding after hearing hours of emotional testimony from residents on Hawaiian Home Lands in Panaewa and Keaukaha. The homesteaders said they will fight any plan that might route a major new highway through the homelands or near their properties.
That council vote left some Puna residents seething because it apparently forecloses on the possibility of even a study to determine where a reliever road might be built. Former state Sen. Russell Ruderman called the council action “a slap in the face” for Puna residents who are stuck in traffic day after day.
“To say they we’re not going to do the study because it might not come out the way we want it to come out, it’s just insane,” Ruderman said.
Highway 130 is now the only highway in or out of Lower Puna, and while the state has added lanes to portions of the highway, traffic continues to back up for miles in the mornings and afternoons. Ruderman said a fatal accident can close the highway for hours and trap residents in Puna.
The Puna Makai Alternate Route, or PMAR, has been discussed as a potential solution to Puna’s traffic woes for decades, but the idea has never amounted to much more than some lines on maps in various East Hawaii community plans.
In the meantime, home construction has boomed in the large undeveloped rural Puna subdivisions, and the population in Lower Puna has surged as people move there for some of the most affordable housing in the state.
State Rep. Greggor Ilagan, who lobbied his colleagues in the Legislature to commit the $1 million to the Puna project in 2022, said the whole idea of the study was to talk to all of the stakeholders to “figure out a solution that we all can live with.” The state money was to be matched with $500,000 from the county.
Ilagan said the PMAR project was the top priority for his Puna constituents in a dozen town hall meetings he convened in his district, and he expended political capital to get money for the study inserted into the state budget two years ago.
“That money is gone now. Them saying no — it’s gone,” he said.
Hawaiian critics of the project said an array of undesirable development has already been erected on or near the homesteads in Hilo, including the Hilo sewer treatment plant, the Hilo airport, the now-closed Hilo landfill, and the Hilo drag strip.
Maile Lu’uwai, a representative of the Keaukaha-Panaewa Farmers Association, said the association members oppose the state funding for the study because “we cannot be assured” that highway won’t cross Hawaiian Home Lands.
“If you include the DHL trust lands in this study, you guys are going to be wasting money. You know why? Because you cannot force a road through our community. These are federal trust lands,” she said.
Hilo resident Terri Napeahi described the PMAR plan as “an act of colonialism and racism” that pits Hawaiians in Puna against Hawaiians in the Hilo area. “That is not pono,” she said.
She also warned that that building PMAR on Hawaiian Home Lands would be a breach of trust that would surely trigger lawsuits. “If you want to go to litigation, let’s do it,” she said.
As for the tens of thousands of people who live in Puna today, they moved there “knowing there’s only one way in and one way out. You made that decision,” she said.
Ruderman, who has advocated for the PMAR project, said he believes PMAR could be done without impinging on Hawaiian Home Lands. However, Illagan said he thinks homelands would almost certainly be needed for the project.
Tiffany Edwards Hunt, another longtime Puna resident, said the issue on Wednesday was simply about accepting money for a study, and “the people of Puna deserve that study. We need to know what would be the optimal route. We’ve been waiting for a long time to get a route that is beyond Highway 130.”
She said Lower Puna is prone to natural disasters including lava flows, and people are still moving in. Residents have to drive to Hilo for work and health care, and the council members “had no solution, and they have no idea what we go through in Puna,” she said.
“We look like total fools,” she said of the council action.
The County Council initially approved Resolution 416-24, which urged Mayor Mitch Roth and county Director of Public Works Steve Pause to exclude Hawaiian Home Lands from consideration in the PMAR study.
But that resolution is not legally binding on the administration. The discussion then turned to Bill 107, which would have accepted the $1 million, and the council discussed whether it could be amended to prohibit consideration of Hawaiian Home Lands.
Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance advised the council that inserting that kind of policy statement into the bill would be legally questionable, and a majority of the council then rejected Bill 107.
Voting against the bill were council members Cindy Evans, Holeka Inaba, Michelle Galimba, Rebecca Villegas, Sue Lee Loy, and Council Chair Heather Kimball.
Voting to accept the state funding was Jenn Kagiwada and Ashley Kierkiewicz. Councilmember Matt Kaneali鈥榠-Kleinfelder was absent.
