KAILUA — Known for decades as the dump road, Kapa'a Quarry Road could have a new name to match its emerging image by this time next year.

Landowners, community groups and residents who have spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to improve the landscape along the Windward route that borders Kawai Nui Marsh now want to change the public attitude about it, said Jim Wood, who's helping to organize competition for a new name.

Wood said that the present name detracts from the beauty of the natural landscape.

People have until Saturday to send in nominations that will be screened to meet city standards, then some sort of public vote will be held, said Wood, who works with the Windward Ahupua'a Alliance that organizes quarterly cleanups on the road.

"I want to orient people's minds to the marsh and to the beauty of the environment around it rather than to the necessary but negative features there: the transfer station, the former dump, the industrial area," he said.

Details of how the vote will be arranged will be announced later, Wood said.

Wood said the area still has problems with illegal dumping, despite the community's effort to keep the area clean.

The public had fought to protect the marsh from development as far back as the 1960s and now people are working to restore significant archaeology sites there. This year Kawai Nui, along with nearby Hamakua Marsh, has been designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty designed to identify and protect the world's important wetlands.

John King, who owns several businesses in the industrial area off Kapa'a Quarry Road, had backed the name change for more practical reasons. The addresses of his businesses are on Kalaniana'ole Highway, which is about a mile away from the businesses, King said.

"People couldn't find me," King said, adding that he wanted to change the name of the road in front of his business to Kapa'a Quarry Place so people would know where to look.

When Shannon Wood, Jim Wood's wife, suggested changing the name of Kapa'a Quarry Road and involving the public in the change, King said, he jumped at the idea and saw it as an opportunity to get people to stop calling it the dump road.

"Then maybe we can start getting rid of that stigma," said King, who owns a large portion of the land in the area and cleared the view plane to Mount Olomana on the north end of the marsh.

There are rules that must be followed, which City Council member Barbara Marshall has provided to the group. Among the rules is the name must be a Hawaiian word or phrase that is appropriate to the historic, cultural, scenic and topographical features of the area. However, it can't be longer than 18 spaces in order to fit on a standard street sign.

The name also can't duplicate any other street name in sound or spelling, so Kawainui can't be used because there is a street with that name in Kailua.

Marshall said her office has been asked to submit a waiver request should the public choose Kawainui, but she would wait to see what is decided before taking action.

"I don't want to change the rules until we know what we're changing them for," Marshall said.

Wood said about 50 names have been submitted so far. People have come up with Kawainui Kai Road, Ala Kawainui, Kawainui Road and Ala Nenelu, which is translated in Mary Pukui's Hawaiian Dictionary as flabby fat; soft plumpness; marshy, springy, swampy; mire, bog, marsh.

The final three to five names will be announced at a July 30 Community Stewardship Workday. The public will than have a chance to vote.

King said he thinks a name could be selected and put in use by next June, in time to list it in the new telephone book.