HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

244

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

ENCOURAGING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A FERRY SYSTEM FROM THE HOAKALEI RESORT AND MARINA IN EWA BEACH TO DOWNTOWN HONOLULU.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, in the 1970s, the vision of the City and County of Honolulu was the creation of a second city in Kapolei as a second urban core on Oahu to relieve congestion in east Oahu by distributing population growth westward; and

 

     WHEREAS, this long-term land use decision gave rise to major developments on the Ewa plains for commercial, office, residential, and industrial uses for both the government and private sector; and

 

     WHEREAS, Kapolei has experienced enormous population and job growth, rising from approximately forty-three thousand residents in 1990 to about eighty-four thousand in 2005, and the population is projected to grow to roughly one hundred seventy-three thousand persons by 2025; and

 

     WHEREAS, Ewa is also a dynamically growing area, with more than seven thousand housing units added to the Ewa plains area in a comparable time period, and thousands more on the drawing board; and

 

     WHEREAS, the growth of Kapolei and Ewa is expected to provide more than sixty-five thousand jobs by 2025, making this area a regional commercial center and attracting customers from all parts of Oahu; and

 

     WHEREAS, both the Ko Olina and Hoakalei Resort and Marina are projected to include over three thousand seven hundred visitor units per year by 2020; and

 

     WHEREAS, in addition to the increasing number of jobs and homes, other new developments will also contribute to the traffic congestion experienced in the Ewa region, including the new University of Hawaii at West Oahu campus, a major super regional park, the Ko Olina Resort and Marina, Kalaeloa, a major deep draft harbor and industrial center at Campbell Industrial Park and Barber's Point, the Hoakalei Resort and Marina, the Salvation Army Kroc Center, and a planned film studio and supporting industrial complex; and

 

     WHEREAS, all of these new developments are anticipated to result in increased vehicular flow between the Ewa region and Honolulu; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Ewa Development Plan acknowledges that, despite the projected increase of Ewa residents who live and work in the Ewa region, the majority of Ewa residents will commute to jobs in Honolulu and recommends that transportation plans should provide adequate capacity for commuting to work from Ewa to the primary urban center in Honolulu; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1992, a consortium of developers and landowners prepared an Ewa Region Highway Transportation Master Plan as part of a process to assess the need for highway improvements and estimate the portion of costs to be contributed by each developer vis-a-vis agreements under which each agreed to pay its fair share of necessary road development; and

 

     WHEREAS, current and planned transportation improvements enhance the flow of vehicles within the Ewa-Kapolei-Makakilo-Kalaeloa corridor, but not the commute between the area and the primary urban center in downtown Honolulu; and

 

     WHEREAS, common experience demonstrates that congested conditions exist for the Ewa region because of insufficient capacity on the corridors leading from the Ewa marina, up Fort Weaver Road to the H-1 interchange, and from the H-1 interchange to downtown Honolulu; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization's 2020 Oahu Regional Transportation Plan, the traffic congestion already experienced daily by Ewa residents will be exacerbated by a projected sixty per cent increase in vehicular volume on the H-1 Freeway at Waikele as well as a projected ten per cent increase at Aiea by 2020; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Ewa Development Plan recommends a reduction in the reliance on private passenger vehicles through inclusion and implementation of transit-oriented development and alternative transportation methods, as well as strategic planning for a "more mobile, less automobile-dependent community"; and

 

     WHEREAS, a Honolulu Public Transit Authority study on bus system expansion from 1994 to 2006, showed in an increase in buses assigned to the Ewa service area from thirty-five to eighty-eight buses, of which forty-five were high-capacity buses; and

 

     WHEREAS, to encourage and facilitate bus ridership, the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Transportation Services has proposed a park-and-ride facility in Ewa near the future North-South Road and Kapolei Parkway intersection; and

 

     WHEREAS, two pilot ferry programs have been funded by the federal government, while TheBoat, a ferry program currently operating out of Campbell Industrial Park, has been extended beyond its initial one-year demonstration period; and

 

     WHEREAS, the tremendous growth in the Ewa Beach region merits an alternative means of transportation to Honolulu to alleviate congestion on the H-1; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, that the Department of Transportation is encouraged to engage in and facilitate discussions with the City and County of Honolulu Department of Transportation Services, private developers, and other stakeholders to explore the possibility of establishing a ferry operation from the Hoakalei Resort and Marina to downtown Honolulu; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the respective parties are encouraged to request assistance from Hawaii's congressional delegation to identify possible funding sources for this ferry system; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Transportation, the Director of the Department of Transportation Services for the City and County of Honolulu, the President of Haseko (Hawaii), Inc., and to each member of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

Report Title: 

Hoakalei Resort and Marina; Establishment of a Ferry System