MEDIA RELEASE

Plans are proceeding for the proposed Ane Keohokalole Highway in Kona.

A 6 p.m. public meeting will be held Tuesday, June 23, at Kealakehe High School to discuss current planning for the highway project. (A project summary sheet is posted below.)

Mayor Billy Kenoi and federal, state and county officials will address questions about the project at the meeting. Members of the planning and design teams from project consultant Belt Collins Hawai‘i also will attend the meeting.

The meeting also marks the release date of the draft Environmental Assessment for the project.

For more information, call Bobby Command, executive assistant to Mayor Billy Kenoi, at 327-3602, or Warren Lee, Director of the county Department of Public Works, at 961-8321.

SUMMARY SHEET: ANE KEOHOKALOLE HIGHWAY

WHAT WILl THE HIGHWAY DO?

Also known as the Mid-level road, the Ane Keohokalole Highway is designed to:

Relieve Kona’s nightmarish traffic congestion.
Create affordable housing opportunities for all Hawai‘I Island residents.
Create homesteads for Native Hawaiians.
Allow bus routes to connect homes, jobs, recreation, education and health facilities, furthering the goals of the Kona Community Development Plan.
Lay groundwork for orderly growth in Kona.
Develop an interpretive site that will protect and stabilize the rich cache of Native Hawaiian artifacts in the area.
Provide income to The Queen Liliuokalani Trust (QLT), which deeded the property for the road, to continue its children’s programs in Hawai‘i County.

HOW DO WE PAY FOR THE HIGHWAY ?

The proposed highway would be funded by federal stimulus funds, $35 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act if the project is “RTA,” or ready to advertise, by October. If the county can satisfy federal requirements, construction can begin in early 2010 and the road could be open by 2013.

Most of the $35 million will pay for phase one of the highway, two northbound lanes from the intersection of Palani Road to just makai of Kealakehe High School where a small section of the highway exists and leads to the future West Hawaii Civic Center.

About $5 million will be used to improve Palani Road between Henry Street and the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, but it is an additional $1 million that will make this highway project unique to others in Hawaii County, and possibly the state. That money, which the Federal Highways Administration has agreed to set aside, will be used to perpetuate a 15th century farm site north of Palani Road.

ARE BURIAL REMAINS IN THE WAY?

The Queen Liliuokalani Trust (QLT), which deeded land for the highway to the county, has long known about this remarkably well-preserved remnant of the Kona Field System. But the area is also known by black marketers for its rich cache of Hawaiian artifacts. If the stimulus money can be secured, the area will be turned into an interpretive site which will not only serve to stabilize and celebrate it, but also prevent further looting.

The county has consulted with many lineal and cultural descendants of the area, and most of them have offered their support. Additional archaeological studies have identified four burials in the study area, one of which is in an area of potential impact. The county has briefed the Hawaii Island Burial Council of its plans to preserve these remains in place and in August will present a burial treatment plan to the council.

Not only will Alii Trust lands be protected, QLT will also benefit because the highway – named after the mother of Liliuokalani – will allow development and an income stream to support its children’s center programs across the state.

WHAT’S THE PLAN AFTER THIS?

Future phases of the Ane Keohokalole Highway will eventually extend the road from the civic center to Hina-Lani Street, and then to Kaiminani Drive and beyond where developers of the Palamanui subdivision will build the first increment of the new University of Hawaii-West Hawaii Center campus.

In addition to QLT, the Ane Keohokalole Highway will facilitate a state affordable housing project being built by Forest City, expansion of Hawaiian Home Lands housing at Laiopua, a commercial park development by Lanihau Properties, and market-value homes in Kaloko being planned by Stanford Carr Developments.

The Hawai‘i County Department of Parks and Recreation has asked the state to modify an executive order by the governor to allow a regional park at the former site of a proposed municipal golf course. An organization known as Laiopua 2020 will develop a community center adjacent to the park and has a commitment from Kamehameha Schools to establish a preschool at the facility.

HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE?

A 6 p.m. public meeting will be held Tuesday, June 23, at Kealakehe High School to discuss the highway project.

Mayor Billy Kenoi and federal, state and county officials will address questions about the project at the meeting. Members of the planning and design teams from project consultant Belt Collins Hawai‘i also will attend the meeting.

The meeting marks the release date of the draft Environmental Assessment for the project.

For more information, call Bobby Command, executive assistant to Mayor Billy Kenoi, at 327-3602, or Warren Lee, Director of the county Department of Public Works, at 961-8321.