Edward Hirata, head of the city Department of Transportation Services, said the decision to modify the project comes after a failure to reach a compromise with members of the community — and in recognition that safety issues on the stretch of road between Keolu Drive and the bridge near Papalani Street must still be addressed.

"The primary purpose was to reduce the amount of parking that would be lost by the project," said Hirata, adding that a mediation session was fruitless when neither side would budge. "So we've come up with what we think is a middle-of-the-ground solution."

Wana'ao is a main thoroughfare between Enchanted Lake and Kailua Town that is used by Kailua and Waimanalo residents. The traffic-calming project came from the Kailua Vision Team, which worked on it for six years.

Wednesday night, Hirata told a group of about two dozen people that the city for now will eliminate all bulb-outs — curbs that extend into the street — and three of the medians.

Instead, the city will install temporary medians made of plastic and use striping to slow traffic at a cost of $10,000, he said. After three months, the city will meet with the community to gather comments, then decide on going forward with the project, modifying it or stopping it, Hirata said.

People at the meeting were not happy with the decision and said they couldn't understand why the city is moving ahead with even this modified version since 82 percent of the people living in the affected area oppose the project, said John McCarthy. He lives in Enchanted Lake and drives on Wana'ao daily. A vote was taken at the meeting, and everyone in attendance voted against the project, McCarthy said.

"There's 51 residents that are directly affected and over 80 percent are against it," he said. "Of the 10 homes remaining, only five are for it and the other five were not home when they did the polling."

McCarthy called the modified project a waste of money.

There's also concern that in two years the city will be back on the road to fix the sewer line, and that would mean ripping out some of the newly installed measures, he said.

But Hirata said he checked with the wastewater section and that the traffic-calming project shouldn't be affected by the sewer project. He said he thought it was unfair to hold up the project.

"We felt there was a need to move rather than wait," he said.

Iwalani Keawe, a resident of Wana'ao for 40 years, said that before the project was proposed, residents were asked if they wanted to reduce speed on the street. Everyone was for that, but since the design came out, people have objected to the loss of parking and the narrowing of the road, especially after hearing complaints from Kihapai Street residents about the traffic-calming project there, Keawe said.

"All of those bulbouts and medians, people are still going to speed," she said, adding that neighbors think the bulbouts and medians are dangerous.

Keawe said people who attended the meeting are contacting friends and neighbors and asking them to e-mail the mayor to request the project be halted.

In light of Mayor Mufi Hannemann's promise to cut spending, she said cutting this project could save the city thousands of dollars.

"It feels like it's being shoved down our throats," Keawe said.