The heart of Kakaako is expected to swell with new life under plans by two landowners to develop 29 condominium towers over the next decade or so. But there is much concern over whether the area can handle the traffic.
Kakaako’s two biggest private landowners recently started executing the first pieces of master plans to transform several city blocks on both sides of Ward Avenue, just above Ala Moana Boulevard, from a largely retail and industrial neighborhood into residential communities also filled with retail.
One landowner, Howard Hughes Corp., which plans to redevelop 60 acres encompassing Ward Centers with up to 4,650 residential units in 22 towers and 985,000 square feet of retail space by 2024, has submitted a traffic analysis to the state. The report concludes that the project will add more cars to the area and degrade the existing flow of traffic, but also that planned road improvements and new travel patterns will offset much of the impact and avoid clogging transportation arteries.
"With the development of the proposed multi-use project, traffic volumes along the adjacent roadways are expected to increase," the Hughes Corp. report said. "However, modifications to the existing roadway network in the vicinity are planned in conjunction with the proposed project that are anticipated to alleviate future traffic conditions."
Hughes Corp. also notes that most expected vehicle trips generated by its project will exit Kakaako in the morning and enter Kakaako in the afternoon, a reverse of prevailing peak commuting patterns for the area.
The other big landowner, Kamehameha Schools, which plans to redevelop 29 acres just Ewa of Ward Centers with up to seven residential towers and 2,750 units plus 300,000 square feet of commercial space, has not conducted a traffic study for its master plan. But the trust said in a statement that its project should have only a limited impact on traffic.
"Our belief is that by creating a pedestrian experience that is safe, shaded, interesting and green, residents and visitors will be eager to leave their cars and enjoy urban living," the statement said.
But not everyone is convinced that future traffic projections by engineers and developers are realistic.
Dexter Okada, a small-business owner in Kakaako, isn’t sure that consultants working for developers have sufficiently projected and addressed impacts from developing the two master plans.
The thought of adding 29 condo towers with 7,400 residential units worries Okada. "It’s kind of spooky," he said. "We have a lot of traffic going through Kakaako (now)."
Hughes Corp. submitted its traffic analysis report in October to the Hawaii Community Development Authority. The state agency, which regulates development in Kakaako, required the report before the landowner could seek development permits under its master plan approved by HCDA in 2009.
The report authored by local engineering firm Wilson Okamoto Corp. details anticipated impacts of the master plan dubbed Ward Village.
An initial phase with 1,600 residential units and 285,000 square feet of retail is projected to be done by 2017 and add 1,124 vehicle trips (coming or going) during the weekday morning peak travel hour from 7-8 a.m. During the afternoon peak hour of 4:30-5:30 p.m., phase one of Ward Village would generate 1,911 trips.
Those figures compare with 2011 trip counts of 2,138 in the morning peak and 3,235 in the afternoon peak, the report said.
To mitigate the increases, Hughes Corp. intends to primarily reconfigure road lanes during phase one, including adding a second left-turn lane onto Kapiolani Boulevard from Ward Avenue, a second left-turn morning contra-flow lane onto Ward from Kapiolani and a dedicated right-turn lane onto Ward from Kapiolani.
A second phase that adds 1,500 more residences and 450,000 square feet of retail by 2019 would generate an additional 1,434 morning peak trips and 2,612 afternoon peak trips.
Road improvements by 2019 would include a new makai gateway to Ward Village from Ala Moana Boulevard between Ward and Kamakee streets roughly where the middle of Ward Warehouse stands today. Other planned improvements include extending Halekauwila Street to Kamakee, realigning Auahi Street at Ward to intersect with Pohukaina Street, and adding second left-turn lanes onto Ward from Ala Moana, onto Ala Moana from Piikoi and onto Kamakee from Queen.
The report measured traffic flows at 29 area intersections and said flows will slow at 14 intersections during the morning peak and 13 in the afternoon peak by 2019 after completion of phases one and two.
Traffic flow is rated on a scale of A to F, with A being the best and F being unacceptable. Intersections with an A rating allow most vehicles to pass without stopping, while stopped vehicles are delayed by less than 10 seconds beyond a normal stop period. At the C level, the green light may begin to inadequately serve all stopped vehicles, and extra delays span 20 to 35 seconds. An F rating entails an extra delay of more than 80 seconds.
Existing intersection ratings in the Ward Village area comprise 25 A’s, three B’s and one C (Ward and Kapiolani) in the morning peak; and 19 A’s, eight B’s and two C’s (Ala Moana at Ward and Piikoi) in the afternoon peak.
The report projects that in 2019 there will be 18 A intersections, seven B’s, four C’s and one D in the morning peak; and 13 A’s, three B’s, 12 C’s and two D’s in the afternoon peak.
By 2022 the number of D’s would rise to three in the morning peak and to 11 in the afternoon peak — though there would be no E or F intersections, the report said.
The projections account for anticipated development in the area by other landowners but don’t factor any benefit from the city’s planned rail line. The report said rail stands to reduce vehicle trips, but such impact wasn’t considered because of the then-uncertain timetable for the completion of the rail line.
The city projects the rail line, which is planned with one station at Ward Village and one at the Kamehameha Schools project, will be finished by 2019.
The Ward Village master plan said the transit station location is at most a nine-minute walk to any part of the property.
"Excellent proximity and integration with the future transit system should serve to maximize transit ridership, helping to mitigate future traffic impacts and promote a culture of sustainable travel behavior in the neighborhood," the plan said, calling the mix of high-density development and transit a "watershed change" for travel behavior.
Another factor expected to reduce driving by future Ward Village residents is the availability of jobs and leisure activities in or near the neighborhood.
The master plan said 250,000 jobs, or 60 percent of all jobs in Honolulu, are in a 3-mile area between downtown and Waikiki. Plenty of shopping and dining options will be parts of the development that also are expected to reduce vehicle travel, the plan said.
Hughes Corp. notes that there are no residents living on its 60 acres now, though there are several thousand in towers on the outskirts of Ward Centers.
According to the Kamehameha Schools master plan dubbed Our Kakaako, the landowner plans no road network restructuring. While the trust did not prepare a traffic analysis for its master plan, one has been done for the first phase of work.
A draft traffic evaluation prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. for the first tower at Our Kakaako called The Collection concludes that there will be no significant negative impacts. A Hughes Corp. report for its first phase comes to the same conclusion.
Okada, the area small-business owner, agrees that changes to transportation infrastructure will mitigate some traffic impacts. But he also said the traffic analysis reports required from developers fail to address impacts outside the immediate area, such as existing afternoon congestion up Piikoi Street, Ward Avenue and South Street to freeway onramps.
"How does it affect things upstream or downstream?" he asked. "It affects us all."
Hughes Corp. and Kamehameha Schools are required to submit traffic impact reports for each phase of development before applying for permits, which will allow actual impacts from built phases to influence future projections and possible mitigation requirements.
"It’s a process of refinement," said Nick Vanderboom, senior vice president of development for Hughes Corp. "You’re continually measuring and updating as you go."
