Bill could ease parking-stall squeeze

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Fitting into a parking stall may not be as tight a squeeze under a bill before the City Council, but large property owners may object because of the expense of restriping their lots.

Shoppers carefully exit their vehicle at Daiei on Kaheka Street. The City Council Zoning Committee postponed a decision on a bill to make parking stalls bigger until next month to allow public input. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"In more and more parking lots, cars are having more trouble getting in and out," Councilwoman Barbara Marshall said.

Because no one came to testify — particularly the property owners who would be affected — the committee postponed decision-making until next month to give the public another chance to speak up.

But some drivers yesterday welcomed the news that larger parking stalls might be on the horizon.

With his 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme wedged into a McCully Shopping Center parking stall, 55-year-old James Chong said he liked the idea. "That'd be good, so it wouldn't have to be a tight squeeze like this," he said.

Yvonne Stauring, of McCully, said her Saturn has been scratched several times by someone else's car door, so she and her husband now watch out when they park next to two-door vehicles because the doors open wider. She supports an increase to the parking stalls.

The bill was introduced at the request of former state District Judge Russell Blair, who e-mailed testimony that accused the Council of reducing the standard-size stall from 8 1/2 feet to 8 feet 3 inches without apparent justification. "Cars are getting bigger ... so parking spaces should not be getting smaller," he wrote. "Smaller stalls result in property damage and make it difficult for drivers to back out of the stall safely."

Eric Crispin, director of the Department of Planning and Permitting, said the department advised the previous Council not to reduce the size of the parking stall as much as it did.

However, now that the smaller standards have been in place for seven years, it would be expensive to resize the stalls, particularly at high-rises and shopping centers, Crispin said.

Ron Yoda, general manager of Kahala Mall, said the proposed changes could have a big impact on property owners with large parking lots.

"The change is only three inches, but you multiply that by a few thousand and it is substantial," he said. "Not only in materials and time, but there's a lot of planning that would be required. You may have to move some spaces around to make things fit. It's a lot more than just restriping the stalls."

Yoda added that the proposal could also lead to a loss of parking stalls at some locations, which leads to other problems.

"If you lose parking, you lose business," Yoda said.

He said he hoped any changes would include a "grandfather" provision that allows businesses to retain their current parking setups until they do some other substantial work on their lots.

'Aiea resident Shannon Nakamoto, 27, said yesterday he had few problems parking his Nissan Altima, but "I notice that a lot of my friends do. My mom, for instance, she has a hard time getting into parking stalls. I think if they were a little bigger, they'd be a lot easier."

Advertiser Staff Writer Johnny Brannon contributed to this report. Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.

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