Ensure Laie hotel accounts for traffic

Any development comes with potential positives and negatives, especially when it brings change to a rural community. That’s the dynamic that faces the City Council today, when a decision on the proposed redevelopment of a Laie hotel is due to be made.

On balance the construction of a 222-room Courtyard by Marriott, much larger than the 49-room Laie Inn it would replace, would be an asset to the community, and there should be a path for the Council to approve the special management area permit that’s required.

But there are valid concerns raised in the series of public hearings and community meetings held on the project that need to be resolved before construction begins. Time is tight for that, especially if the hotel’s Mormon Church landlord is to get it built by 2013, in time for the 50th anniversary celebration for another of its nearby holdings, the Polynesian Cultural Center.

One concern that the Council resolution does address is flooding, so it’s appropriate that the legislation includes a requirement for a storm water and drainage plan, as well as other provisions for sewage capacity.

But residents rightly have raised worries about how a larger hotel would affect traffic on Kamehameha Highway, the lifeline for all Windward Coast communities that is just two lanes wide most of the way. And so far that issue is not acknowledged in the resolution for the granting of the permit.

The environmental assessment prepared for the project in 2008 asserts that "improvements are recommended to alleviate existing and future traffic issues," specifying a separate left-turn lane from Kamehameha Highway into the project site at the Naniloa Loop intersection.

Eric Beaver, president and chairman of Hawaii Reserves Inc., the land management company that ultimately will contract with the hotel developer, said the dedicated turning lane is not in the immediate plans for the project but could be part of future developments. He noted that the Courtyard hotel is being planned in the context of a larger redevelopment scheme for the wider community, a master plan known by the moniker "Envision Laie."

The assessment also points out that the project would consolidate four points of ingress and egress — roadways and driveways — into two, reducing interference with Kamehameha traffic flow. And Beaver, who underscored that he is a Hauula resident and is sensitive to community concerns about traffic, added that the hotel would not add as much to the vehicular load as some might suggest. Most guests are expected to be visiting the cultural center or nearby Mormon temple or attending family functions, he said, so they would be coming out by car in any case. Traffic studies performed anticipate that most hotel traffic would avoid the rush-hour "pinch points" of mornings, evenings and weekends, Beaver said.

But it’s impossible to forecast these things with any precision, and it seems to make much more sense to invest in highway improvements at the front end. In any case, the resolution currently would require a signalized crosswalk at Naniloa Loop to enable beachgoers to access the shoreline. Providing for a separate turning lane at that point would add to the overall safety and flow.

The Courtyard project will bring short- and long-term jobs to the community, none of which can be easily ignored in the current economy. The hotel has the potential to bring added value to Laie, but that potential will only be realized if it’s developed with the concerns of the larger community in mind. And traffic is surely one such concern.