Unlike on some of the smaller islands, where people still live in 150-year-old plantation villages or compact company towns, many of the residents on Hawaii island live in sprawling subdivisions connected by a single, two-lane belt road.
That's what makes the Big Island synonymous with long-distance driving. And distances have only increased in recent years due to a shortage of worker housing near the island's resorts, with people commuting hours weekly to work, school, grocery stores and doctors.
Now, the county's proposed general plan, which is nearing the finish line after more than a decade-long process, calls for cutting down on that drive time by reinvigorating what remains of the Big Island's villages and bringing more density and amenities to its subdivisions.
Michelle Galimba, a county council member who was part of the planning process that fed into the general plan, points to the towns of Pahala and Naalehu, company towns of Hawaiian Agricultural Co. and Hutchinson Sugar Plantation Co., as examples of what could be brought back to life.