Department of Education petitions LUC for exemption from building an overpass or underpass at new Kihei High School

UPDATE 9/11/20  DEFERRED! LUC decides to wait for more information and for DOE to meet and discuss with Kihei Community, before agreeing on the imposed condition for safe passage to Kihei students. Stay tuned

UPDATE FOR TESTIMONY 9/2/’20   9/3/20 for link to PETITION (below) for S Maui Guys

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScx4-92dwMqy339oeKEKwzwOiUcO625gK_r3jixMH8_awT2cw/viewform?fbzx=-4792369010660309621

 

WHAT:  State Land Use Committee (LUC) meeting 

WHEN: to be held Sept. 10^th,  2020.

TOPIC: Kihei High School intersection at Pi’ilani Hwy and Kulanihakoi St. 

 The Department of Education (DOE) has petitioned for an exemption to the requirement to build an underpass or overpass prior to opening of the school.

TESTIMONY: Check back for link to the meeting agenda once it has been posted  UPDATE 9/2/20

LAND USE COMMISSION
NOTIFICATION OF LAND USE COMMISSION MEETING
A G E N D A
September 10, 2020 – 9:00 a.m.
Pursuant to HRS § 92-3.5, the Commission will hold meetings simultaneously by interactive conference technology.
PLACE: Zoom Webinar Virtual Meeting registration-use link below
Thursday September 10, 2020 Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_A4hBBWQCThiyIhHrEGp1vA   

Interested persons can submit written testimony no later than 24-hours (September 8, 2020, 9:00 am), in advance of the meeting, written
testimony will be distributed to Commission members prior to the meeting. To submit written testimony please email your testimony to:
dbedt.luc.web@hawaii.gov. To provide oral testimony at the hearing you are required to register for the Zoom webinar (see link above).

 

OVERVIEW: The Kihei Community Association has long advocated for a safe intersection design for the new Kihei High School at Pi’ilani Hwy and Kulanihakoi St.  We are laser-focused on designing an intersection and campus access that promotes the highest level of safety and efficient traffic flow. The roundabout and underpass are the two best ways to maximize this.

In a State Land Use Committee (LUC) meeting to be held Sept. 10^th, 2020. the Kihei Community Association will be asking the LUC to once again reaffirm its previous rulings, requiring inclusion of an underpass or overpass before the school will open.

KCA appreciates that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) has acknowledged that a four-lane roundabout with HAWK pedestrian signals and right hand turn-out lanes is the best solution to keep the intersection safe and traffic moving at a reduced speed.

As a condition of the original EIS in 2013, the State Land Use Committee “requires that a pedestrian overpass or underpass be constructed  before the opening of the first phase of Kihei High School”. This ruling was re-affirmed by the LUC Declaratory Ruling of 2019.

In accordance with the affirmed condition, the KCA also advocates for a pedestrian underpass at Waipuilani gulch where there is already a tall clearance and wide breadth of land. This solution has been recommended in the original Kihei High School EIS and numerous pedestrian/traffic studies that have followed.

The pedestrian/traffic studies conducted for this intersection recommend using the existing underpass while disfavoring the construction of an overpass as they are expensive and rarely used.

The Department of Education (DOE) has pigeon-holed itself by only looking at an expensive overpass and not pursuing the Waipuilani Gulch underpass as recommended. This may be partially due to the stubbornness of the DOT to not look at underpasses as pedestrian walkways.

Now that the DOT has acknowledged that the intersection will be a roundabout, the DOE is seeing this as an opportunity to circumvent the original condition to provide a safe overpass or underpass. The DOE clings to outdated data and says the underpass or overpass is not warranted. This is not correct.

The KCA will testify to encourage the LUC to stand firm in its ruling to require a grade separated pedestrian crossing (GSPC). The KCA also encourages the DOE and DOT to work on the already existing underpass at Waipullani gulch. This is the path forward, literally.