Redemption center location concerns some residents

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PUKALANI - A program to set up a HI-5 redemption center in Pukalani has residents of the area concerned over traffic on a busy stretch of highway and the appropriateness of the location within their residential neighborhood.

"We were shocked that there was a protest," said Roger Yamagata, general manger for Maui Disposal, which is operating the redemption center on a 1.65-acre lot owned by the Church of the Nazarene. The center opened Tuesday.

"We thought we were doing the community a service, saving the residents time and money by bringing the redemption center closer to where they live."

Paula Tavares, who lives just uphill from the site, said there is a serious traffic hazard in the location - on the Old Haleakala Highway just below the intersection, with Piimauna Street, a primary access road for a residential subdivision - where there is limited sight distance. She said the dirt driveway into the lot had been blocked off, but was reopened to allow vehicles into the redemption center.

She objected to the operations because of the traffic hazard, she said, "and it being in a residential area." Residents are circulating a petition asking the county to investigate whether the redemption center is an allowable activity.

The Maui News was unable to reach a representative of the church for comment after receiving complaints about the redemption center on Tuesday. But Yamagata explained that Maui Disposal has an agreement for use of the property on a month-to-month basis and notified the state Department of Health, which oversees the HI-5 Beverage Container Redemption program.

The temporary facility uses a mobile unit that the company has utilized at other sites, including at the nearby Pukalani Terrace Center, to count and store the containers turned in by consumers. It accepts glass, metal and plastic beverage containers for a 5-cent refund provided under the state redemption law.

"If it's successful and residents want to continue to pitch in, we would want to set up a permanent site," he said.

Tavares said neighboring residents had raised questions when the church applied for public/quasi public zoning for the 1.65-acre parcel four years ago. She said she understood that the church could not allow left turns into the property and was required to provide a road-widening lot and other improvements before it could proceed with any development on the lot.

Maui County spokeswoman Mahina Martin said that Pukalani Community Church of the Nazarene was granted zoning in November 2005 and planners are reviewing the situation to determine whether the redemption center is allowed as an accessory use.

Public/quasi public zoning allows churches, schools and similar community-use facilities. It does not allow business use but provides for unspecified "accessory uses" of the property. There has been no development of the lot.

Yamagata said the redemption operations were timed to avoid traffic conflicts, opening from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 8 a.m to 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed for lunch from noon to 12:30 p.m.

He said Maui Disposal is instructing customers that they cannot make left turns into and out of the property. On Tuesday, the workers placed cones along the roadway to prevent left turns into the property.

"They put up cones on the highway. But there are no signs," Tavares said. "It's a Mickey Mouse setup."