Hale'iwa stalls sidewalk plan

By Will Hoover
Advertiser North Shore Writer

HALE'IWA — Three months ago local merchants walked away from a city and county beautification plan to put in walkways for the first time ever in Hale'iwa — a busy little town with no public sidewalks.

Pedestrians walk along Kamehameha Highway in Hale'iwa, where the city wants to construct permanent sidewalks. Area merchants say a sidewalk would require parallel parking in front of stores, reducing the number of customers. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

So while the city mulls over an alternative sidewalk proposal submitted by merchants themselves, Hale'iwa pedestrians continue to walk the edge of main street and negotiate an obstacle course of roadside puddles every time it rains.

It's not that folks in this rural North Shore community are opposed to footpaths. Most say walkways are long overdue. The bone of contention is that the city plan calls for parallel parking, which takes up more space than the head-on parking used in town today.

As a result businesses would lose parking in front of their stores. And that, they say, means losing money.

"The city has told them that head-on parking is illegal because you can't be backing out into a highway," said City Councilwoman Darrlyn Bunda, who represents the area. "I told the city, 'They're doing it now and they've been doing it forever.' "

"They keep saying they want to 'enhance the pedestrian experience,' " said Brian Jett, who has operated Storto's Deli & Sandwich Shop in Hale'iwa for two decades. "Well, people have been walking along this road for 50 years and nobody's ever been hit."

Like others, Bunda says head-on parking is an integral part of the community ambiance.

There is a "main street" look to small towns, she says. And that look traditionally includes store fronts with areas for cars to pull up and park. Parallel parking isn't a part of that tradition.

"That's the way it was prior to 1950," said John Moore, owner of Strong Current surf shop and museum. "That's what we're shooting for."

Even as Moore was speaking, a Hollywood production team was filming at the old Hale'iwa courthouse across the street. Moore says Hollywood and advertising agencies like Hale'iwa because of its old-fashioned appearance. The town has telephone poles, a two-lane main street and cars parked in front of stores. Hale'iwa's currency is its authenticity, he says.

Phase 1, the city's design plan in question, would stretch roughly one-tenth of a mile in either direction from the old Hale'iwa Court House along both sides of Kamehameha Highway, which runs through town. The first phase should take a year or more to complete, if and when it ever gets started.

Kalani Fronda, president of the North Shore Community Chamber of Commerce, formerly known as the Hale'iwa Main Street Association, said the sidewalk issue actually began about a decade ago.

Sidewalks were a main component of a town improvement master plan that was introduced by the association in 1991.

"The sidewalk concept was endorsed and fully supported by the local businesses and the general community," said Fronda. "However, a study was not conducted to measure the economic impact that it would have on the businesses during construction and upon completion of the construction."

According to Antya Miller, vice president of NSCCC, the city presented two sidewalk option plans more than a year ago, both of which called for parallel parking, trees, planters and a grassy buffer zone between the sidewalk and highway.

The city held a series of meetings with property owners about the plans but few merchants attended, she said. But when Bunda organized a Sept. 17 meeting and invited virtually everyone who would be affected by the proposed changes, reality sank in and tempers flared.

While sidewalks and shade trees might be appealing, many at the meeting were aghast at the idea of parallel parking.

"Nobody is ready to give up their parking," said Jett, who claims that his five business parking stalls would be reduced to two under the city's scheme. "If they go strictly according to the city plan, it'll put me out of business."

"This is all about parking," said John Moore, who drew up the alternative sidewalk plan that Bunda submitted to the city after she and merchants completed a walk-through tour of the area not long after the meeting.

Moore says the puddling problem happens because the road has been repaved so many times that it is now higher than the road sides, which attract the runoff when it rains.

"The plans we drew up would be for them to shave the roads down to where it's supposed to be, repave it so that the water flows toward the ocean and runs off into the swamp."

The merchants' idea is to repave the road as well as the roadsides. The road would remain the same width, and the newly paved roadsides would become pathways for pedestrians. Cars would continue to park in front of the stores the same as ever.

"There's no merchant who says he wants the city plan," said Moore.

Merchant Norm Fujioka, at least, could live with it because it wouldn't affect his business, Fujioka's Market, which is set back from the highway by a parking lot.

"I'm for the sidewalks," said Fujioka, who called the pedestrian situation "an accident waiting to happen," whether or not a foot traveler has ever been hit by a car. "I think everybody is for sidewalks, really. But not the original design — because it eliminates key parking areas.

"Head-on parking has been grandfathered in because that's how people have been doing it here for years. But if the city puts in a sidewalk, it has to conform with the law. That's the whole dilemma we're facing with the city."

Bunda said she has spoken recently with the city Department of Design and Construction, and has been told no decision has been made regarding the merchants' sidewalk design. She said there's little likelihood that a decision will be made this year, and no telling when the issue could be resolved.

But both Bunda and Fronda say the community needs to be vigilant to ensure that whatever is ultimately decided will be in keeping with the wishes of the majority of the townspeople. They disagree with those who say as long as the merchants don't sign on to the city design, it will never happen.

Miller, former president of Hale'iwa Main Street, is still smarting from the fact that some merchants blamed her for instigating the city's sidewalk design.

She says she was merely an advocate of sidewalks as outlined in the 1991 Hale'iwa plan, an idea that had wide community support. She commended the city for working hard on its sidewalk plan and agreed with Bunda that the design is a work in progress.

"A lot of people are worried that parallel parking will ruin the quaintness of the town," she said. "And that's a legitimate concern. But, like Mayor Harris has said, this is a design issue.

"We're trying to do something that doesn't adversely affect the rural quality of life that is also safe for pedestrians. It's a delicate balance. We can improve it, but we need to do it in a sensitive manner."

In the end, if the people of Hale'iwa don't like the sidewalk plan, "it isn't going to happen," she said.