Hale'iwa downtown dream to begin with sidewalks
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser North Shore Bureau
HALE'IWA — When the Hale'iwa Main Street business association focused its energy on a plan to improve the area where people dine and shop, its goals were to re-create Hale'iwa as a gathering place, stimulate business and community activities and develop better infrastructure for motorists and pedestrians.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Three years later the grand vision is still there, but what is on the way is more modest: sidewalks.
Sidewalks and landscaping along Main Street are the agreed-upon changes that can be implemented while $1 million in city money is available.
Still, that's seen as a significant improvement in a town where pedestrians must navigate traffic, puddles and parked cars to reach many businesses along the main street.
A plan presented to the North Shore Neighborhood Board last week was a compromise to move the project along before the end of the year, when it would lose its $1 million city financing, said Antya Miller, president of Hale'iwa Main Street.
The plan did not include placing wires underground or creating a new drainage scheme as called for in the association's master plan. The city said both of those projects would be very expensive.
"The community is almost completely in agreement that we should have the walkways," Miller said. "Underground wiring was very controversial. We still requested that the underground wiring be kept in the master plan, but we're looking at 10 to 20 years down the road."
The Hale'iwa Main Street project calls for sidewalks and planters on about 900 feet of highway on both sides of the road from Fujioka Super Market to Sunahara Dental Inc. It eliminates some driveways and requires that parking be shared. Street-front parking would be reduced and converted to parallel parking.
Brian Jett, who runs Storto's Deli and Sandwich, would lose two spaces and isn't happy about it.
"All of these guys (that are losing parking) are going to go out of business," he told board members. Jett said he was not willing to share parking.
But after a transition period, the plan would get people out of their cars, strolling through town and shopping, said Mike Dixon, a North Shore resident. Plus the new landscaping would make the whole town more appealing.
"If the difference between survival and nonsurvival is the loss of three parking stalls, I don't think you'll survive," he said.
"There aren't many people walking in Hale'iwa because it's dangerous and it's ugly, full of potholes."
The plan shows meandering sidewalks and calls for the elimination of fewer than 10 parking stalls. A bus shelter at the courthouse would be moved to near Hale'iwa Supermarket, with a new shelter built near Fujioka's. Additional parking would be provided near Radio Shack to offset parking spaces lost along the street.
Conrad Shiroma, the city's consulting engineer for the project, said he had met with many of the businesses to discuss their needs and objections before coming up with the plan. Many were willing to share parking to eliminate driveways and improve pedestrian safety, he said, but he admitted that not all problems had been solved.
"Drainage will remain the same," Shiroma said, but the potholes will be filled so they won't collect water.
Joe Lazar, former president of Hale'iwa Main Street, said he is concerned about a lack of space for bicycles, and no plan to care for the new landscaping. Although the city indicated that businesses could care for the plants, he thought that was a bad idea.
He also had a larger concern.
"My biggest fear is the improvements will turn Hale'iwa into something we don't want," he said. "I could see the same thing here as in Lahaina: Front Street is lined with boutiques, art galleries and jewelry stores, and there's no room for the Aoki's Shave Ice."
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
