County of Hawaii: Kona Roads
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Kona Roads

Roads and Housing

To move toward solutions of the current West Hawaii traffic problem, we first have to identify root causes. Population growth is a big contributor, but something else is going on. From 1990 to 2000, the population of North and South Kona grew by about 24%, but traffic on portions of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway grew by more than 50%.

Why? The biggest reason is the commuting pattern. The long line of cars in Kona crawling north in the morning rush hour and south in the late afternoon mostly consists of people driving between their homes and work. (While people drive for all kinds of reasons, traffic in Kona is much worse in the early morning and late afternoon, when most people are driving to and from work.)

The commuting pattern, in turn, comes largely from the fact that ordinary workers cannot afford housing near their jobs. Most West Hawaii jobs are in the luxury resorts along the coast in South Kohala and North Kona, and in Kailua-Kona and Keauhou.

Few workers can live near the coastal resorts, and the median home price in North Kona has climbed past $400,000. Because they can’t afford to live closer to their work, employees commute from Oceanview, Pahala, Honoka’a, and even from Hilo and Puna. (Of course, many people choose to live in certain places because they like the area, or they have family there, or they grew up there, or for many other reasons, and accept the idea of commuting to work. Affordability is not the sole reason. People are free to live where they want, but the difficulty is that housing prices in North Kona and South Kohala especially are forcing people to live at great distances from their employment, even if they don’t want to. The census has a survey of how long it takes the typical person to commute to work. Residents of North Kona and South Hilo have significantly lower commuting times than those in other districts. This makes sense because most of the jobs are in North Kona and South Hilo.)

Most of this north-south commuter traffic moves on a single lane in each direction. Between Honalo and Captain Cook, the Mamalahoa Highway simply can’t carry large numbers of vehicles because almost every store and home has its own driveway opening directly onto the road. Each car stopping to turn left causes a wave of stopped cars rippling backward for miles.

Growth does more than add cars to the north-south commuting axis. As commercial development builds along the highway, side streets get busier, and soon you must add signal lights to safely move the traffic in and out. For example, Hina Lani had to be signalized in part because of Costco-generated traffic.

The signals, while making the intersections safer, cause further delays. In a few years, a driver on the main highway between the Kona Airport and the Kamehameha III intersection, a distance of about 12 miles, will probably encounter about 14 signal lights, versus 10 now, and only a couple twenty years ago.

The lack of connections between streets is a contributing factor. Most Kona subdivisions are on cul-de-sacs. Homeowners typically don’t want their streets to carry through traffic, but this disconnected pattern means that every trip uses the main highways. (While the County Planning Department and Public Works Departments are trying to implement street interconnectivity, this is often opposed by homeowners who want their streets to remain cul-de-sacs.)

Kealakehe High and Intermediate are the most glaring example of this lack of interconnectivity: they are only about 1.5 miles apart, but a parent dropping off a child at each school must make a detour of about 7 miles on congested roads.

The Road Ahead

The good news for Kona motorists is that the government has planned and funded several major road projects that will offer some relief. The bad news is that two of these projects are in trouble, all of them will take years to complete, and further growth will keep the roads congested despite new road construction.

The state, which is responsible for the major highways, should be signing a contract soon to expand Queen Kaahumanu Highway from Henry St. to the Kealakehe Parkway, to four lanes. This is a $35 million project. Phase II of the project—extending the four lanes to the Kona Airport—is a priority but is not yet actually funded.

(Some highways are state, under the state Department of Transportation, others are county, under the county Department of Public Works. Generally, state law gives the state the power to decide which highways will be state and which are county. The state is supposed to be responsible for major "arterial" highways, that carry the bulk of traffic from one region to another, and "intermodal" highways, that connect to other transportation hubs, such as airports and harbors. County highways are generally the local roads and "collector" roads that move traffic to the "arterials." In West Hawaii, Highway 190, the Mamalahoa Highway from Waimea to Kailua, is State, except that from Palani Junction to Kailua--Palani Rd.--it is County. The Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Kealakehe Parkway are state. The Mamalahoa Highway from Honalo junction (near Teshima’s) to the Napo’opo’o junction is County, while Highway 11, south of Kealakekua and continuing around Ka’u and on to Hilo, is state.)

The county has secured funding for the first phase of Alii Parkway, from Keauhou to Lako St. At $45 million, this is the most expensive public works project ever undertaken by the county. The county will also widen Kuakini Highway between Palani St. and Hualalai Rd., at a cost of $11 million.

Collectively, these major public projects will cost about $91 million, which is about $3000 for every resident in North Kona.

In addition, the Hokulia developer, Oceanside 1250, has been building a bypass highway from Keauhou to the Napo’opo’o Junction, as a condition of its zoning permits. This road—60% completed in September 2003—is the only project that can significantly relieve the Honalo-Captain Cook bottleneck. (Currently, the southbound traffic through this bottleneck in the late afternoon moves so slowly that it ties up traffic behind it for miles. There is no way to greatly improve the Mamalahoa Highway through this area because existing homes and stores are so close to the right-of-way. The County is investigating some relatively small improvements, such as the left turn lane to the Kona Hospital that the County installed, but no major capacity upgrade is feasible without destroying much of what is currently along the roadside. With a Bypass Highway, most of the traffic that has a destination south of Napo’opo’o, such as Ocean View or Ka’u, will probably take the new highway, as well as motorists who are already in Keauhou or along Ali’I Drive, thus relieving the Mamalahoa Highway corridor.)

A few months ago, the completion of these projects seemed certain. But now, the Alii Parkway must again get approval from the Hawaii Island Burial Council, because a burial site had been mismapped. (The Burial Council has a veto over the relocation of "known" Hawaiian burials. It had previously authorized very limited relocation, but now the County has to get approval for the relocation of the mismapped site.) And Judge Ibarra, in September 2003, issued an injunction against the further construction of the Hokulia bypass highway within the project as a result of a suit against the legality of the project’s land use approvals.

(The concept of a road being "certain" requires explanation. A number of steps have to occur before a major public road is built. After the general need for the road has been identified, there have to be preliminary studies, including archaeology, preliminary engineering, and environmental assessment/impact statement. These studies need to be funded. Then, the project often needs land use approvals, such as an SMA permit, or Burial Council approval. Finally, the project needs construction funding. When the current administration came into office in December 2000, the Alii Parkway had gone through its major studies. The current administration secured 80% construction funding from the state, the remainder from the county, and obtained Burial Council approval. From a planning point of view, one normally considers projects that have gone through all necessary studies and land use approvals, and have funding committed to them, to be "certain", in comparison to the long list of projects that may be desired or planned but have not been funded. For example, the second phase of the Queen Kaahumanu widening--from Kealakehe to the airport--is a priority for the state but funds have not yet been appropriated for it, so it cannot be considered certain.)

Will these projects, and others currently planned by the county and state, "solve" the current traffic problem? They will help, but if traffic continues to grow, we will at best be back to the current level of congestion, but with more and bigger roads. At the current growth rate, traffic on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway will double again by 2020.

So if the Queen Kaahumanu Highway gets congested at four lanes, why not just expand it to six, then to eight, and keep building more roads everywhere? There are practical reasons against this strategy, but on a very basic level, we have to think about the kind of community we want to live in. The scenario of ever-expanding highways is the path of Southern California and so many other Mainland areas. Our long-time residents, who cherish our lifestyle here, our newer residents, many of whom moved to Hawaii to escape development on the Mainland, and our visitors, all want us to retain our uniqueness.

I attended a talk where the chief planner for the National Association of Governors made a couple of ominous statements, based upon the experiences of hundreds of communities on the Mainland: that once you have traffic congestion, you always have it, and you can’t just build your way out of it. One reason: new highway construction induces demand by encouraging people to live where they can use the new highways. (The message also is that the only way out is to integrate land use planning with road planning. Good land use planning puts homes closer to workplaces, reducing the roads necessary.)

(Besides the strictly economic and lifestyle reasons to be skeptical of policies that depend upon ever-bigger highways, global warming is an observed reality, and the production of greenhouse gases from autos can cause global warming. At some point--probably when it’s too late, because of the influence of the oil and auto lobbies--public policy will have to deal with global warming.)

Costs and Funding

The development pattern of people commuting long distances to work has severe hidden costs. At a certain point, we exceed the capacity of existing roads—they go from busy to intolerable—but adding new capacity is very expensive. (We have been living on a network of roads that, while in many cases substandard, served a small population reasonably well. As the population has grown, and with more commuting, we have to add capacity, and this is expensive.)

A new two-lane highway costs about $6 million per mile, sometimes much more in difficult sites. (This figure is an average of highways recently built on the island of Hawaii. Alii Parkway is much more expensive, partially because of some design amenities, and the privately-built Hokulia Bypass has an estimate of more than $8 million/mile. The actual costs of highways will vary with terrain, acquisition of rights-of-way, bridges, etc.)

If you divide the cost of a highway by the number of cars that can use it, you find that the real cost of building highways to serve commuters is at least $2000 per commuter per mile. Put another way, each individual who lives 20 miles from his workplace and commutes will create the need for $40,000 in highway construction. This one real cost of the lack of affordable housing near the job centers.

(This estimate of $2000 per commuter per mile is a rock-bottom figure. The real cost is probably higher. The $2000 figure comes from dividing $6 million per mile by a capacity of 1500 cars per hour, in one direction, because commuter rush hour traffic is mostly in one direction, and assuming a 2 hour "rush hour." In the real world, 1500 cars per hour is probably more than our highways will achieve. The Queen Kaahumanu Highway, for example, is badly congested with only about 1000 cars per hour in one direction at rush hour. Also, a 2 hour "rush hour" means that a highway would be at peak usage from, say 6 am to 8 am. There are areas where new highway capacity would cost much more than $6 million/mile, for example, the whole Hamakua Coast north of Hilo or Highway 11 south of Kealakekua. Finally, this analysis assumes that the added highway capacity is fully used. The real cost of adding capacity is probably more like $4000 per commuter per mile and perhaps more.)

(This tremendous cost of adding highway capacity means that a sprawling growth pattern is not financially sustainable--it will create huge highway costs in the future. Whenever a planner looks at a new housing project that is far from any employment center, or an employment center such as a resort that has no housing for its workers in the vicinity, the planner should factor in the eventual cost of improving the highways between the two. While affordable housing may require public subsidies, a commuter-based growth pattern will also require huge public subsidies in the form of highway construction.)

We can predict future funding reasonably well, and there isn’t enough to pay for major capacity increases, unless we choose to raise all the money from local sources, such as by increasing taxes. In Hawaii, as in most places in the U.S., the state and county governments use federal highway aid funding (from gas taxes) to pay for most major road improvements. Federal aid covers 80%, leaving only 20% to be paid locally. (It is a misconception that the county builds roads with real property taxes. Typically, the county and state are taking the 80% federal funding and using state and county fuel taxes to make up the remaining 20%. The county also uses fuel taxes to pay for its ordinary road maintenance program.)

The states, like Hawaii, get these funds according to a formula, and within the state, our island competes for funds with the other islands. Given historical funding levels, our share will be about $375 million in federal funds for this island between now and 2020. With the local match, that equals about $470 million. (This does not include the Saddle Road funding that comes from a different federal source.) (The Saddle Road improvements are being funded by a program for highways to military bases.)

(This analysis is based upon the state receiving about $150 million per year in federal highway funds, and the county receiving about 16% of that. 16% is actually more than our share based on our share of population--about 12%--or of vehicle miles traveled. A reauthorization of the highway bill is pending in Congress. Although it would increase funding somewhat, the federal government is currently running huge deficits, and is projected to keep doing so in the future. The federal government currently collects only about 80 cents in taxes for every $1.00 it spends. How long can this go on? Highways are separately funded through gas taxes, but the overall budget picture will have to affect highway funding.)

Most of these funds have, in the past, been spent on safety improvements to existing roads—guardrails, shoulder widening, curve realignments, and bridges—rather than on new roads or new lanes that increase capacity. (About 20% of the funds must go for bridges, by federal rules.) (So even if we increased the proportion of these funds that were spent on new highway capacity to about 50%, there would be perhaps $200 million available for this between now and 2020).

The new or widened roads that have been identified as essential far exceed this funding source. The state’s official plan for highway improvements, the 1998 Hawaii Long Range Transportation Plan, lists 20 projects as top priorities for the 1998-2005 period, with a combined cost of $400 million. Given recent construction costs, this real figure is probably $600 million.

Only three of these projects were actually under construction by May 2004. The plan also lists about $387 million in "short-term" safety upgrades that do not add capacity.

(The State is currently updating the Hawaii Long Range Transportation Plan. In my view, the list of priority projects in the current plan is too Hilo-oriented.)

Some rough estimates of high priority projects that hopefully will be done in the next few years: Phase II of Queen Kaahumanu widening--$35 million, Waimea Bypass, from Mud Lane to Kamuela Racetrack--$50 million, Alii Parkway completion-- $30 million. The conclusion: federal funding will support only a handful of major road projects between now and 2020. (And we can probably predict what most of these projects will be.)

Not all the money can be spent in West Hawaii, of course. Puna added as many people in the 1990’s as North Kona, South Kona, and South Kohala combined, has over 40,000 vacant lots where people can build homes, and has a similar long-distance commuting pattern.

(Another aspect to this conclusion: although we may be able to significantly increase capacity on some main roads, like the Queen Kaahumanu Highway through Kailua, by expanding it to four lanes, there will not be enough funds to expand capacity on the many smaller highways, such as Highway 11 south of Napo’opo’o or Highway 190 through Kalaoa. These roads will become increasingly congested. In particular, Highway 11 between Napo’opo’o and Ocean View could become much busier and there is no feasible way to significantly increase capacity.)

We can raise money for roads locally, beyond the federal funding. Minor roads don’t qualify for federal funds, and we have to finance these ourselves, but we could also try to fund major roads locally. This means that we pay 100%, though, rather than 20%.

(The County administration recently proposed a fuel tax increase to improve maintenance on county roads. Naturally, the administration has a priority of properly maintaining the roads on its inventory. Delayed maintenance can increase the long-term costs. Part of the fuel tax increase was also for the bus system. The Council did not pass the fuel tax, although it did increase the weight tax, but only enough to raise about half of what the administration proposed. In the recent budget, the Council has also authorized a $40 million bond for road projects, with $23 million earmarked for Kona and $10 million for South Kohala; the remainder for Puna. Although this is an important step, the public will find that even $40 million does not buy a lot of road. A bond does not involve an immediate tax increase, but it does mean that funds have to be committed to pay the bond in the future.)

Roads and Land Use

If growth is the problem, why don’t we stop allowing new development?

Although you need a permit to build a house, or change the use or density of land, there is no permit necessary for someone to move to the island. The constitutional right of travel makes it impossible to directly control the number of new residents.

The island has added about 29,000 residents each decade since 1970. About 65% of this increase results from people moving to the island. (The remainder is the excess of births over deaths.) Most people move here because they find this island an attractive place to live, and we hope to keep it attractive. (In the last 3 years, since the 2000 census, the Census Bureau estimates that the island continued to grow at a pace that would add about 30,000 new residents in the next decade.)

Through zoning and other land use laws, we potentially have a great deal of control over where people live on the island, but it’s difficult to regulate the ultimate number by limiting the areas zoned for development. There are, for example, about 10,000 vacant lots in the Ocean View area that people can move to.

We can and must channel development to protect environmentally and culturally sensitive areas, but we also have to choose where to put the population growth that is going to occur. That means, in part, zoning areas for new homes near the job centers, such as in Kailua-Kona. Otherwise, we push people to live farther away, with more impact on the road system.

(The current administration is trying to implement a policy that directs growth toward the infill of areas that are already largely urban, and trying to preserve open space along the coastline. Most of the construction and development occurring now in the Kona area is on sites zoned many years ago. During this administration, in the last 3 ½ years, the number of potential new residential units added by rezoning is about 500, almost all of them in Kailua-Kona. The major residential rezonings were the "Alii Cove" project, which added 117 units to the previous single-family zoning, the "Bencorp" project above the "University of Nations" (100 units) and 160 units for an unbuilt elderly housing project near "The Pines". There have been no significant residential rezonings elsewhere on the island, and none near the shoreline. There is a huge amount of growth that can occur within existing zoning, however.)

(The island actually grew much less in the 1990’s than had been predicted in the late 1980’s. The model of the island developing in the mode of the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa mega-resort collapsed with the end of the Japanese "bubble economy" and the recession that followed the first Gulf War. Many of the resort areas then sold single-family homesites to wealthy buyers, at a much lower density than permitted by their zoning, such as Kuki’o or 49 Black Sand in Mauna Lani. Our current road woes would probably be much worse if we had kept on the growth pattern of the 1980’s.)

Solutions

--Create housing affordable to the average worker near the employment centers, to reduce commuting. The county council is currently considering changes to Chapter 11 of the County Code, which contains the requirements for developers to build affordable housing in new developments. Currently, Chap. 11 is far too weak because the council can allow developers to buy out of any affordable housing requirement by paying $472/unit. The result: developments that cater almost exclusively to the second home market and other non-resident, upscale buyers. (The administration submitted a proposed revision to Chap. 11 to the Council in May. The Council will have a workshop considering it in Kona at the King Kamehameha Beach Hotel at 2 pm on June 16.)

--Create housing opportunities in and near Kailua-Kona through new zoning, but it must include meaningful requirements for moderate income housing.

--Develop residential communities for low-and moderate income families on the county’s 270 acres in Waikoloa Village and on state land in Kealakehe and Keahuolu (north of Palani Rd.) (The County received about 300 acres for housing in Waikoloa as a condition of various resort zonings in the Waikoloa area. The county developed the Paniolo Estates and other housing projects on a portion of this area. Recently, the county administration funded a new study to re-start housing development there. This will require a considerable investment in infrastructure, however. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the state’s plan for affordable housing in the Kailua-Kona area was to build communities in Kealakehe--the "Villages of Lai’opua". The Kealakehe Parkway and Kealakehe High School were built as part of the plan. The project is on hold, however, pending a lawsuit that asserts that these lands cannot be sold to homebuyers because they are "ceded" lands. Judge McKenna on Oahu has ruled that the lands can be sold, but this decision is on appeal to the Hawaii Supreme Court. The adjacent Keahuolu state lands are not ceded.)

--Encourage mass transit. Because of our dispersed population and low density, buses and jitney-type services, not rail, are the feasible transit options. (Transit systems, like a bus system, typically require a public subsidy to be viable. If the subsidy saves you from having to build more roads, however, it may be far cheaper than subsidizing road construction in the long run.)

--Encourage higher-occupancy vehicles through programs such as ridesharing and vanpools. Most cars have only one occupant—the driver. Doubling the number of people per car doubles the capacity of the highway without new construction.

--Implement "concurrency" by linking the occupancy of major new developments to the actual construction of necessary road improvements. We have often approved development assuming that planned improvements will follow.

--Don’t be a growth-boosting community. Growth creates some major problems and the necessary infrastructure, such as new roads, is hugely expensive. Although people will continue to move to the island, encouraging growth should not be the goal of zoning and land use policy. Rather, we should try to absorb growth in an environmentally sound manner. The proposed revisions to the County General Plan would protect some sensitive areas from development and reduce some growth-generating development. These revisions have been pending at the County Council without action since January 2002. (The proposed revisions from the administration include deleting resort areas next to Spencer Park and the Pu’ukohola Heiau in Kawaihae, O’oma, and the "Hawaiian Riviera" project in Ka’u. The Council will hold further workshops in the General Plan, including discussion of a "Draft 2", at the councilroom in Hilo at 6 pm on June 14, and at the Ohana Keauhou Resort, at 6 pm on June 15.)

--Implement the road projects that have been funded, and continue with new projects that make sense. Because of development that has been allowed in the past, increases in road capacity are necessary, and wise allocation of resources can eliminate some current and future bottlenecks.

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