Work on the parking garage behind the new Longs Drug Store in Kailua is expected to be completed in August. In the meantime, two Kailua residents have filed an appeal with the city, protesting a plan to use part of the structure to store new and used cars. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We just dressed it up," Bremner said. "We don't want it dressed down."

The city is completing projects to beautify the center of Kailua, including installing a tree-lined median and placing utility wires underground.

Kane'ohe Ranch Co. Ltd., which manages much of the business district in Kailua for the Castle Family Trusts and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, has also spent millions of dollars fixing up its properties.

Kane'ohe Ranch is building a new store for Longs and for months toyed with the idea of building a parking garage before deciding to proceed. Many residents in Kailua opposed the structure, saying it was unnecessary and would change the character of their beach community.

The Longs project was delayed by a late start to construction and the cement strike, but the store is expected to open at its new location by the end of July, said Kimo Steinwascher, vice president of Kane'ohe Ranch. The parking structure should be finished by the end of August, Steinwascher said.

Auto dealer Mike McKenna agreed to lease the top deck of the three-level parking structure short-term to store new and used cars, Steinwascher said. The income would offset the cost of building the structure, which is larger than necessary but allows for expansion of businesses in the community, he said.

"When you build a parking garage it's hard to build it incrementally," he said, "so you usually build more than you need. It's only a temporary use and it seems to me parking cars and parking cars is the same use."

Tomar, an attorney who has questioned the need for the parking structure, said she and Bremner are appealing a conclusion by the city's planning and permitting director, Eric Crispin, who stated in a letter to the Kailua Neighborhood Board that the storage use proposed by Kane'ohe Ranch was allowable under the Land Use Ordinance because it was merely parking.

But the Land Use Ordinance distinguishes between parking and storage, she said, and that is the basis of their argument to the city's Zoning Board of Appeals. A hearing on the appeal has not been set.

The city did not respond to a request for comments.

"It is not a temporary parking of cars but a long-term storage use, filling the open deck of the new parking garage with new cars for long periods of time," Tomar said.