Hilo Bayfront Trails Phase 1: Planning
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Hilo Bayfront Trails Phase 1: Planning Public Meeting 2 April 16, 2008 Hawai‘i Tourism Authority County of Hawai‘i Helber Hastert & Fee, Planners Aloha kākou. This morning our plane flew right over the Hilo Bayfront Trails project area, and we were re-inspired by the incredible beauty of the bayfront. You all have a great amenity. We are very glad to be here tonight. Thank you very much for coming tonight and showing your interest in the trails project. We see many familiar faces from the first public meeting last October. And a big mahalo to all who made tonight’s meeting possible. Thank you to Beth for her great introduction. And thank you to Alice Moon & Company for all the arrangements they made. We have a lot to cover, so let’s get started. 1 Agenda • Recap of Public Meeting 1 • Overview of Community Input from Public Meeting 1 • User Survey Responses • Presentation of Draft Conceptual Trails Plan • Small Group Trail Activity • Small Group Presentations • What’s Next? Wrap Up The primary purpose of tonight’s meeting is to present the Draft Conceptual Trails Plan and have you let us know what you think of it. It is a draft. The plan is the result of community input from the first public meeting last October and responses from a user survey that was distributed at the meeting and made available online. The plan has also benefited from subsequent site studies and advisement from our project Stakeholder Advisory Committee. Before we present the plan, we’d like to provide a recap of the first public meeting and share what we learned from you, the community. We’ll also discuss the results of the user survey. After presenting the Draft Conceptual Trails Plan, we’ll break out into five small groups so everyone has a chance to review and discuss the plan. A representative, or representatives, of each group will then share their group’s comments plan with all of us. Before concluding our meeting tonight, we’ll review what the next steps are in the trail planning process. 2 Recap of Public Meeting 1 • Venue: Aunty Sally’s Luau Hale • Total Attendees: 89 from throughout the Hilo area (as indicated by dots on the map). • Returned User Surveys: 51 On October 9 last year, a total of 89 people signed in, most of whom stayed for the small group activity and 51 of whom completed and returned user surveys. 3 Hilo Bayfront Trails Project Area Map We started with this parcel plan of the Hilo Bayfront Trails project area, as a blank slate. After a presentation describing opportunities and constraints of the project area, community members formed five small groups and discussed and recorded their preferred trail alignments, which could be multimodal paths, pedestrian sidewalks, dedicated bicycle lanes, and signed shared roads for bicycles. 4 Small Group Activity & Discussion Group 1 Group 4 Group 3 Group 2 Group 5 Each group comprised 10-12 people and was assisted by a trained facilitator, two of whom are back again tonight. The groups were given 1 hour to document their preferred trail alignments. 5 Small Group Presentations Group 1 Group 4 At the end of the hour, each group selected a representative—or representatives— to present their plan to everyone at the meeting. The group plans are on display this evening. You will recognize at lease one component from each group plan in the Draft Conceptual Trails Plan. 6 Hilo Bayfront Trails Group 1 Plan Group 1 members proposed a pedestrian path loop in Downtown Hilo. They also suggested a mini-park at Kaipalaoa Landing with a proposed pedestrian crossing at the Bayfront Highway-Kamehameha Avenue-Waianuenue Avenue intersection. This crossing was also recommended by Groups 2 and 5. [Note: The following items are included in the plan, but time did not permit sharing all the details of the plan.] Group 1 indicated multimodal paths in red and pedestrian paths in blue. Group 1 showed a trail alignment on the makai side of the Waiolama Canal, and like Groups 2 and 5, they proposed additional parking on Ponahawai Street adjacent to the Waiolama Canal area. Trails on Group 1’s plan that are common to all five group plans are the alignments across the Wailoa Bridge, through Bayfront Beach Park, and along Pi‘opi‘o Street in Wailoa Park. 7 Hilo Bayfront Trails Group 2 Plan Group 2 suggested a bimodal loop path at Bayfront Beach Park. [Note: The following items are included in the plan, but time did not permit sharing all the details of the plan.] Group 2 indicated multimodal paths in blue and red, pedestrian paths in purple, and dedicated bike lanes in black. They also recommended a loop from Kalaniana‘ole Street including Huipu Street, the abandoned railroad right-of-way, and Kuhio Kalaniana‘ole Park. Group 2 proposed a double off-road alignment on the Naniloa Golf Course side of Kamehameha Avenue. Like Group 1, Group 2 recommended a pedestrian crossing on Kamehameha Avenue near the Mo‘oheau Bus Station. Group 2 was one of two groups to propose a trail loop around Waiakea Pond and through Waiākea Villas, recommending bridges over Moho‘uli Pond and the Wailoa River near Kilauea Street. One of the most unique recommendations from the public meeting was their overhead pedestrian bridge over Kamehameha Avenue near Bishop Street. 8 Hilo Bayfront Trails Group 3 Plan Group 3 recommended a trail segment connecting Waiakea Peninsula with Hoolulu Complex via Manono Street. [Note: The following items are included in the plan, but time did not permit sharing all the details of the plan.] Group 3 indicated multimodal paths in red and pedestrian paths in purple. These group members first identified important sites in the project area (circles in pencil) and then developed their trail system to connect these sites. Group 3 also indicated trail connections to Government Center. Similar to Group 4, Group 3 shows a multimodal trail along Wailuku Street that continues in the direction of Wailuku River State Park. 9 Hilo Bayfront Trails Group 4 Plan Group 4 indicated in pink a bicycle/pedestrian trail along the abandoned railroad right-of-way from Hilo Harbor to Reed’s Bay Beach Park, including a bridge at Ice Pond. [Note: The following items are included in the plan, but time did not permit sharing all the details of the plan.] Group 4 indicated trails in blue. The pink trail segment is a bicycle/pedestrian trail along the abandoned railroad right-of-way from Hilo Harbor to Reed’s Bay Beach Park, including a bridge at Ice Pond. Unique to this plan are a proposed boat ramp on the makai side of the Wailoa Bridge and a loop around Government Center. Both Groups 4 and 5 indicated trail extensions toward the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo via the Wailoa River flood control channel. 10 Hilo Bayfront Trails Group 5 Plan Group 5 indicated a multimodal path on the golf course side of the banyans along Banyan Drive. [Note: The following items are included in the plan, but time did not permit sharing all the details of the plan.] Group 5 indicated multimodal paths in red, dedicated bicycle lanes in solid black lines, and shared roads for bicycles in dashed black lines. Unique to their plan were the multimodal path on the golf course side of the banyans along Banyan Drive, the suggestion of an overhang path at Wailoa Bridge, a tunnel under Kamehameha Avenue on the Keaukaha side of Manono Street, a mauka trail segment in the Waiolama Canal area, and a downtown alleyway segment. I wish there was more time tonight to detail all of your insights, but I will say that I was impressed with how well you know your home. 11 Group Preferences General • Keep the trails on the bayfront. • Trails can be accommodated predominantly on public lands. • Trails should respect athletic fields. • Trails should retain Wailoa Park arching bridges. • Trails should support bicycles. After the meeting, we carefully reviewed the plans and notes of each group. We observed a general consensus that: •The trails belong in the bayfront. All trail alignments—except those indicating future destinations for the trails—are well within the project area. Except for one trail alignment on Kilauea Street from Pauahi Street to Aupuni Street—for the purpose of crossing the Wailoa River—all trail alignments are on the bay side of Kilauea Avenue. •The trails can be accommodated predominantly on public lands. The only encroachment on private property identified in the group plans was at Waiākea Villas, where two out of five groups indicated an alignment along the shoreline to complete a loop trail within Wailoa Park. •The trails should respect athletic fields. All five groups unanimously aligned trails outside of the athletic fields at Mo‘oheau Park, Waiolama Canal Area, and Wailoa Park. •The Wailoa Park arching bridges should be retained. General consensus in group presentations was to retain the arching bridges at Wailoa Park. However, an assessment of group trail alignments indicates that this preference may be mainly for historical and visual purposes. Three groups did not align trails over the three arching bridges. One of these groups—Group 4—even suggested improving the double arching bridge for ADA accessibility. Group 2, which aligned a multimodal trail over the double bridges, stated that the arching bridges could be part of the bike pathway “—just walk across it,” but this group also suggested that additional “friendly” bridges would make Wailoa Park better. •The trails should support bicycles. All groups embraced the coexistence of pedestrians and bicycles on multimodal paths, dedicated bicycle lanes, and/or signed shared roads for bicyclists.