Free parking along Ala Wai Canal at risk

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Budget items before the City Council could eliminate free parking along the Ala Wai Canal and replace it with one or two municipal parking lots.

In its budget for fiscal year 2004, the city administration has asked for $2.525 million to acquire a parcel on Ala Wai Boulevard between Lili'uokalani and Ka'iulani avenues and design a parking lot.

The issue came up during the second day of budget hearings before the council Budget Committee, which is spending the week reviewing $288 million in construction requests from the various city departments, before moving on to the city's $1.178 billion operating budget proposal next week.

Acquiring the Ala Wai parcel has been controversial because an elderly housing project had been planned there before the city targeted it for a parking lot. Councilwoman Barbara Marshall asked whether the project had foundered as a result of the city's plans.

Eric Crispin, director of the city's planning and permitting department, said the city was "not kind of moving ourselves in or bullying ourselves in," but rather was working on a joint venture that could put both parking and elderly housing on the land.

Marshall also asked why the city was moving ahead with the parking lot before the Ala Wai parking was eliminated. "I would also question whether we're not putting the cart before the horse here," she said. "We're saying we might need more parking because we might do another project, and shouldn't we just wait and see if we need more parking after we do the other project?"

Crispin argued that if the city does not move to acquire the lot now, another adequate parcel may not be available when needed. With the parking crunch in Waikiki, even if the bike lane is never constructed, "we can pretty much tell that this project is very much needed," Crispin said.

He said that a single-level parking lot on the almost one-acre parcel could hold about 100 cars.

Crispin also said this lot would work in concert with another Waikiki park and parking lot project planned on Aloha Drive. Councilman Charles Djou, who represents the Waikiki district, did not oppose the projects but warned that the community would protest taking away the Ala Wai parking.

Cheryl Soon, director of the Department of Transportation Services, testified yesterday afternoon about a $5.546 million request for five bicycle-improvement projects, which includes $1.2 million for improvements along the Ala Wai.

Soon said the bike lane will run along the mauka side of the canal from Kapahulu Avenue to just before McCully Street. Since the administration did not ask for enough money for the whole project, the first phase could be just painting a stripe on the road to make a bike lane.