The Department of Education is gearing up for the opening of the new Kihei High School in August 2022. A principal has been appointed. The Department of Transportation has begun work on a roundabout at the intersection of Pi\u2018ilani Highway and Kulanihako\u2018i Street, the mauka extension of which will provide vehicular access to the campus. The school buildings are designed to generate as much energy as they use, making Kihei High the DOE\u2019s first net-zero campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s just one hiccup: the requirement, imposed by both state and county agencies, that students and staff who walk to the school be able to access the campus by means of an underpass or overpass across Pi\u2018ilani Highway before the school opens its doors. The four-lane highway, with a speed limit of 40 miles per hour \u2013 observed mostly in the breach \u2013 separates the makai areas of Kihei, where most of the population served by the school live, from the school campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time the state Land Use Commission approved the DOE\u2019s redistricting request in 2013, most parties to the LUC proceeding seemed to regard the channels under the highway at Waipuilani gulch, on the south side of the proposed campus, and Kulanihako\u2018i gulch, on the north, as possible pedestrian routes. Failing that, a pedestrian bridge over the highway could be built. Zoning approvals at the county level imposed the same condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then the DOE began to finalize designs for the school and contracted for studies to show if a grade-separated crossing would be warranted. In consultation with the state Department of Transportation, the DOE did not move forward with any design of a grade-separated crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only in August 2020 did the Department of Education return to the commission with a request to be relieved of this requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than a year later, both the commission and the Kihei Community Association are questioning the substance of the request, as well how the DOE arrived at the decision to challenge the requirement for a grade-separated pedestrian crossing (GSPC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initial Plans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For years, high school students living in the Kihei area have been bused to Maui High School. As the community grew, the DOE began planning a high school to serve the South Maui area, settling on 77 acres on the mauka side of Pi\u2018ilani Highway, a site in the state\u2019s Agricultural land use district that was unserved by utilities or other infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2011, the DOE submitted to the commission a petition asking that the site be placed in the Urban district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its 2013 decision to grant the petition, the commission included conditions in its approval to ensure the safety of students and staff walking to the school. It required pedestrian route studies, the first to be done before the DOE executed a contract for the high school\u2019s design. After the school is built, at least three more pedestrian route studies are required, including one before occupancy and others following the school\u2019s opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of what the studies showed or will show, the commission included the requirement for a grade-separated pedestrian crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first required study, done in 2014, recommended that the Department of Transportation approve an at-grade crossing, and characterized pedestrian overpasses and underpasses as \u201clast resort\u201d measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DOT found the study incomplete and rejected a traffic study the DOE had prepared that argued for the DOT putting in a signalized intersection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DOT eventually accepted a report in 2017 by DOE consultant by Fehr & Pears, which concluded that a GSPC was not warranted before the school opened. Shortly thereafter, the DOT notified the county that there would be no grade-separated crossing in advance of the school\u2019s opening. That prompted the County Council in late February 2019 to file for a declaratory ruling from the LUC, reaffirming the grade-separated crossing condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commission did just that, reiterating in its ruling that its 2013 redistricting order \u201crequires that a pedestrian overpass or underpass be constructed before the opening of the first phase of the new high school in Kihei and that construction of the overpass or underpass was … not optional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commission noted that the DOE did not participate in the proceeding \u2013 a fact that members interpreted as apparent agreement with the county\u2019s position. Not really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Motion to Amend<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In August 2020, the DOE filed a motion with the commission requesting that the condition requiring a grade-separated pedestrian crossing be deleted. The department included a draft report from Department of Transportation consultants recommending that the Pi\u2018ilani-Kulanihako\u2018i intersection be converted to a roundabout. Pedestrian crosswalks would be on both the east and west approaches to the roundabout along Kulanihako\u2018i Street and across the southern entrance to the roundabout on Pi\u2018ilani Highway, with median islands in all three crosswalks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DOE also included a memo from state Highways Division chief Ed Sniffen to DOE assistant superintendent Randall Tanaka that included a chart prepared by DOT engineers purporting to show that grade-separated pedestrian crossings would not be used if it could be shown that at-grade crossings were faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on a study by the Texas Transportation Institute, the engineers stated that \u201cvirtually no one will use a pedestrian overpass if it takes 25 percent longer to cross compared to crossing at grade… Using an overpass at this location will take 130 percent longer with stairs and 510 percent longer with ramps. … HDOT does not recommend building an underpass. In particular, use of Kulanihako\u2018i Gulch for an underpass presents security issues as well as concerns for pedestrian safety in the event of a storm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Community Weighs In<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The first hearing on the DOE\u2019s motion was held September 10, 2020. Members of the community, as well as the area\u2019s state representative, Tina Wildberger, argued against the abandonment of a grade-separated crossing requirement. Many expressed dismay that the DOE was continuing to plan for at-grade crossings despite the LUC\u2019s affirmation of the requirement in its decision on Maui County\u2019s request for a declaratory ruling, barely a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under questioning from commissioners, DOE representatives acknowledged that they may not have kept the community fully informed of decisions concerning pedestrian crossings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To address that issue, the DOE conducted a virtual meeting on October 27, 2020, with members of the Kihei Community Association. As summarized by Stuart Fujioka, the deputy attorney general representing the department, \u201crepresentatives of HIDOE and representatives of KCA discussed the motion and unanimously agreed that a roundabout is a viable, and perhaps the best and preferable available traffic safety and hazard mitigation measure. However, some representatives of KCA maintain that a grade-separated pedestrian crossing is also necessary … It is HIDOE\u2019s hope that KCA is satisfied with a roundabout, at-grade raised cross- walks, HAWK traffic control system, and ongoing assessment of pedestrian safety measures to allow for the opening of the school.\u201d (A HAWK system allows pedestrians to trigger a red light, signaling to drivers that they need to stop while pedestrians cross.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following month, the commission met again to consider the DOE\u2019s request to remove the grade-separated pedestrian crossing requirement. As before, the community members testified in support of its retention. Commissioners raised questions that the DOE was unable to answer at the time \u2013 including whether the DOE had ever included funds for design and construction of the crossing in its budget requests to the Legislature, and whether the DOE had objected to the condition when the LUC first ap- proved it in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Land Use Commission urged the DOE to work with the community, whose support for a grade-separated crossing was again stressed in a meeting with the DOE and DOT held in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Last Chapter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Following that meeting, DOE representatives pursued an agreement with the county that could be presented to the commission. But the proposed language fell short of what county planning director Michele McLean wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 6, Brenda Lowrey, with the DOE\u2019s Office of Facilities and Operations, emailed LUC executive officer Dan Orodenker, asking that he place the DOE\u2019s request to remove the GSPC condition on an agenda before the end of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Orodenker replied that he was \u201cnot disposed to put this matter back on the calendar until we have some kind of stipulation or agreement from the various groups as to a solution. The past two times the matter was placed on the calendar it was clear that the community and the DOE were still at odds. I do not wish to waste the commissioners\u2019 time or further cause undue concern unless there has been significant progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DOE followed up with a more formal request to Orodenker on April 29, this time from Assistant Superintendent Tanaka. The DOE, he said, was continuing to work with the Maui Planning Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also argued that a GSPC was not warranted by any traffic study and noted that the DOT does not support one. \u201cHDOT\u2019s position must be taken most seriously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On July 29, Fujioka filed with the LUC a \u201crequest for written findings\u201d on the DOE\u2019s motion to amend the 2013 decision. Orodenker then placed the mat- ter on the agenda for the commission\u2019s August 25 meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Chair\u2019s Recusal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On August 19, after the August 25 agenda had been published, the DOE filed an \u201cemergency motion\u201d to have the LUC chair, Jonathan Scheuer, recuse himself or be disqualified from any further deliberations on the Kihei High School matter. The DOE had evidence of what it described as \u201cimproper ex parte communication\u201d between Scheuer and a witness, Mike Moran, president of the Kihei Community Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The communication consisted of an email that Scheuer had sent to Moran. Moran had forwarded to Scheuer and Orodenker an August 10 letter from the Kihei Community Association, asking the commission to require the Department of Education to undertake an updated study of a grade-separated crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scheuer\u2019s email reads in its entirety, \u201cMike, Thanks for the letter and this other information. Did you ever see the DOE\u2019s response to our LUC letter? [referring to the eight questions] It can be found here: [LUC website]. I think the only way we are going to move the incredibly stubborn DOT and DOE is if we gain greater publicity for the issue and their obstinacy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moran then forwarded Scheuer\u2019s response to another KCA member, Andrew Beerer, who in turn forwarded it to Rep. Wildberger and a DOE employee, who forwarded it to Brenda Lowrey, who shared it with Fujioka, Sniffen, Tanaka, and a host of other DOT and DOE staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The LUC met on September 8 and 9 to hear the emergency motion and deliberate on the DOE\u2019s petition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As soon as the emergency motion came up, Scheuer announced that, \u201cafter thoughtful consideration, I have decided to recuse myself … from any further deliberations on this petition. … I do not agree with petitioner Department of Education that my recusal is required under the law. However, I do believe their motion for recusal is itself a distraction, so my withdrawal will eliminate the distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that, vice chair Dan Giovanni took over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frustration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If Fujioka and others with the DOE thought that by getting Scheuer off the panel, the way to approval of their request would be clear, they were quickly disabused of that notion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commissioner Gary Okuda asked the representative the DOE had sent to defend its case, Brenda Lowrey, if she had read a study that the DOE said supported its decision to forego a grade-separated crossing. She acknowledged she hadn\u2019t read all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This study, Okuda said, actually supported grade-separated crossings, \u201cwhere the number of pedestrian-motor vehicle conflicts is high and\/or risk to pedestrians is great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIsn\u2019t that true that that\u2019s the situation we have right here, with the highway?\u201d Okuda asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy understanding,\u201d she replied, \u201cis we could open the school without the grade-separated crossing and then do studies \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okuda interrupted her: \u201cNo, the motion is to modify a LUC condition, which a lot of people have relied on including the [Maui] County Council.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to further questioning from Okuda, Lowrey acknowledged that she had heard members of the public testify that Waipuilani Gulch was regularly used by pedestrians to get from one side of Pi\u2018ilani Highway to the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[W]e have huge liability issues and concerns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Had the DOT ever stated \u201cabsolutely and under all circumstances that it rejects the building of some type of improvement under the bridge at Waipuilani Gulch?\u201d Okuda asked her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DOT did not recommend it, Lowrey replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s correct. They do not recommend. Where do they say they\u2019ll reject it?\u201d Okuda asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lowrey acknowledged that the DOT stated only that they did not recommend this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maui commissioner Lee Ohigashi asked Lowrey if the DOT had the final say in the matter of a grade-separated crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lowrey said that the DOE made reports, but the recommendations in the reports \u201chave to be approved by the DOT.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re the petitioner,\u201d Ohigashi reminded her. \u201cDepartment of Education. You\u2019re the ones who came here. This is a condition for an off-site improvement. Like any other developer, the petitioner will be required to do it. … Is it your final say whether or not you\u2019re going to do this work?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not me,\u201d Lowrey replied. \u201cI have at least three bosses above me. … And then we have the Legislature. We have to get funding. And then we have the Board of Education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ohigashi asked Lowrey who did have the final say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause the studies have to be approved by DOT, I think it\u2019s DOT, in conjunction with our assistant superintendent with the Office of Facilities and Operations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ohigashi\u2019s frustration grew over the course of several more exchanges with Lowrey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMaybe I\u2019m totally off,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I just want to say somebody has to make a final decision on what position the DOE is going to take. And you\u2019re telling me all these mid-level managers are making these decisions? Well, then, I want to make sure that the superintendent knows and the head of DOT knows and they are fine if we continue with this course that we are on. My question is simple. Who made that decision? Was it made at the highest levels?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a short break requested by Fujioka, Ohigashi resumed his questioning, directed now at the DOE attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the question is, in terms of whether to build a grade-separated crossing or not,\u201d Fujioka said, \u201cit came down to, when the DOT was not going to recommend it, or not approve it, then the DOE found itself unable to proceed at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For hours, the questioning of Fujioka and Lowrey continued, with commissioners\u2019 frustrations \u2013 and anger \u2013 growing over the inability of the DOE to commit to a grade-separated crossing, even if studies showed it to be warranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 3 p.m. on the second day of the September meeting, the commission was going to lose quorum, but members were not prepared to vote on the DOE request. The LUC will resume its deliberations at a future meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Patricia Tummons<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Department of Education is gearing up for the opening of the new Kihei High School in August 2022. A principal has been appointed. The Department of Transportation has begun work on a roundabout at the intersection of Pi‘ilani Highway … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338,488],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-13876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-land-use","category-october-2021","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}