UH files draft study on parking expansion
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
For decades, parking has been a sore point with University of Hawai'i-Manoa students.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
With 20,000 students, faculty and staff and only 5,447 parking spaces, there clearly are not enough stalls for everyone.
UH hopes to replace this gravel parking lot on Dole Street near the Center for Hawaiian Studies with a four-story parking structure for students living in dormitories.
The situation is so bad that some students show up as early as 5:30 a.m. to make sure they get a parking spot, then sleep in their cars till their first class.
But help is on the way, albeit small.
The university this week filed a draft environmental assessment with the state Office of Environmental Quality Control for a new Dole Street parking structure that would add 273 student stalls. The $2.7 million structure is earmarked for students living in campus dormitories and will be the first of 10 parking structures planned in years to come.
The university's Long Range Development Plan, updated in 1994, includes parking structures scattered across the sprawling campus. Those structures would replace several existing ground-level parking lots on campus used by faculty and staff. The plan is to "eliminate vehicles from the heart of the central campus," according to the development plan.
Rodney Sakaguchi, interim vice chancellor for administration at UH, said one of the objectives of the long-range plan is to make the campus more pedestrian-friendly.
• To comment on the draft environmental assessment for the Dole Street Parking Structure write to: Ron Lau, University of Hawai'i-Manoa, 2444 Dole St., Honolulu, HI 96822 by May 23. Include copies for the consultant and the state Office of Environmental Quality Control.
"The parking structures are not something that we will definitely accomplish, but it is something that guides us as we operate from year to year," Sakaguchi said.
To comment
The four-level Dole Street structure will replace a gravel parking lot near the Center for Hawaiian Studies that is used by students and staff. The lot has 98 stalls and users pay $2 a day to park there.
The gravel lot and about 25 on-street parking spaces would be eliminated by the structure, creating a net gain of only 150 parking spaces.
Darryl Zehnar, director of student housing, said about 3,000 students live in dorms on campus and many of them have cars but are forced to park on the streets because no campus parking is available.
"Parking is horrendous," Zehnar said. "Students are parked as far as the eye can see. There is a tremendous need out there because the parking garages are full. What little parking we have adjacent to the residence hall is always full. My sense is, if you build it they will come."
Mary Vorsino, editor of the UH student newspaper Ka Leo O Hawai'i, said she would rather see the university focus on alternative transportation than building parking structures.
"I know the bus can be just as hectic and frustrating as driving your own car, but I really feel that if the university works toward making the community more bicycle-, walking- and mass transportation-friendly, then people can keep their cars at home or car pool and relieve the problem that way," Vorsino said. "I just don't see how that many parking structures can make the university better."
There are no historic sites at the Dole Street location, according to the environmental assessment, and the structure will not infringe on using the adjacent Kanewai Hawaiian Cultural Garden for cultural activities and programs.
Consultant Wilson Okamoto & Associates prepared a traffic impact report for the assessment and expects no significant impacts on traffic from the project. According to the report, with or without the parking structure, there would be little difference in the number of vehicles using Dole Street.
The university expects to file a Finding of No Significant Impact and a final environmental assessment before moving forward with construction.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
