Residents of fire-prone Waikōloa Village were hopeful that they would get a new evacuation route this year. Work on an egress road started under former Hawaiʻi County Mayor Mitch Roth, but now the new mayoral administration is casting doubt on the project.
Waikōloa's risk of wildfire is slightly higher than that of Lahaina, according to the analysis by the Hawaiʻi Department of the Attorney General.
Concerned advocates have long been pushing for another evacuation route that would help the village's 7,500 residents escape in the event of a disaster.
Last May, that route seemed within reach. Roth, alongside state officials, held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new road that would connect Kamakoa Drive down to the main highway below the village.
Bob Yuhnke with the Wildfire Safety Advocates of Waikōloa said there was a commitment from the Roth administration that the route would be ready in 2025.
"We were promised last year…that this emergency road, which is not the full highway, but it's a way out in case of emergency, would be available by this summer before we get to the peak fire season," Yuhnke said.
But officials have disputed that deadline. State House Rep. David Tarnas, who represents Waikōloa Village and was present at the groundbreaking, said he "did not hear any specific date that this would be done."
"I can totally understand why Waikōloa residents are very concerned, but the timing on this is really up to the county and to the private developers," Tarnas said.
Roth said he had a handshake agreement with a private developer Somers West, owned by Charles Somers, to complete an emergency access route that residents could use in case of a disaster.
Somers was footing the bill for the construction of the route, which would ultimately be developed into a permanent two-lane road, at which point the county was interested in taking possession of it.
Roth told HPR this week that during his tenure as mayor, he worked to get other landowners in the area to allow the new route to go through their property.
While Roth said no formal timeline was a part of the county's agreement with the developers and landowners, he believed that based on the status of the project when he left office, the emergency route could be usable sometime in 2025.
"It could be ready this year," he said. "My understanding is it is drivable from point-to-point, but it's not in the condition that I think they were looking at an emergency access road."
New mayor walks back timeline on evacuation route
Roth lost his bid for reelection to Kimo Alameda last fall. In the handover from one administration to the next, it appears that some communication around the road project fell through.
Mayor Alameda told Waikōloa residents at a town hall meeting last week that he was working to understand what exactly the county and the developers agreed to.
"We gotta have a talk story with the developer, and say, hey, what did you agree with the prior administration?" he said. "Was it a shake-hand agreement? Because I don't know, I don't see one in writing."
Alameda claimed that the Roth administration did not make every landowner in the area "completely aware" that a new road was planned in their backyard. He described the groundbreaking last May as "very political" and said that Waikōloa residents have been "misled" about the reality of the project.
Roth disagreed with that characterization and said he had been working actively to address this issue with stakeholders since 2021, when he called on Waikōloa residents to evacuate their homes due to the threat of the Mana Road fire.
Roth said he and the leadership of his administration made themselves available to Alameda, but that "there wasn't a lot of communication after the election."
The former mayor made it clear that his door is open to Alameda.
"I want his administration to succeed in everything that we were working on, and in other things, to make our community a better place to live," Roth said. "Even to this day, if he has any questions or anything like that, I'm always happy to go sit down and talk to him."
Alameda, meanwhile, said that he is following up with the developers in order to get further details on the project. He added that he understands the evacuation route is a top priority for Waikōloa residents, and said he'd like to see the project get done — but it may happen along a different timeline than some residents were expecting.
"It would be really nice if we could complete it within my four-year term," he said.
