Posted on: Monday, May 30, 2005
Kaimuki plan may cost more
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The city plans to spend $200,000 on parking improvements at its municipal lots in Kaimuki — doubling what it had planned to spend on the project.
Kaimuki residents and the city have been working for years to come up with an answer to parking problems in the busy retail district. If the funding is approved, the area's two municipal parking lots would be shifted from metered stalls to attended lots. The plan is to charge users more per hour after the first few hours in the lot, which would limit the number of area employees who fill the stalls and free up space for customers.
The city Department of Transportation Services this month had said it was willing to spend $100,000 to make improvements at one lot, hire a vendor to run it and leave the other lot metered. City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who attended a community meeting last week, said about 50 residents and business owners reviewed that plan and said they wanted another option.
"They voted to have attendants at both parking lots, so we added another $100,000 to the budget," Kobayashi said. "We've got to do something about Kaimuki parking."
Kobayashi is talking with DTS officials about increasing the request for the project to $200,000 before the city budget is finalized next week.
The Kaimuki business district has two municipal lots with metered parking stalls between Wai'alae and Harding avenues. During the lunch and dinner hours, customers are forced to hunt for open spaces in the crowded lots.
In 2003, the city hired Urban Works to develop both short- and long-term plans to alleviate parking problems in the busy shopping area. The study looked into several possibilities for increasing parking, including garages, restriping the municipal lots and creating a valet service, but not ways to pay for them.
The city paid $75,000 for the master plan.
The city's original plan, approved by the Kaimuki Neighborhood Board last year, would have created attended parking in the lower portions of both lots and left meters in the upper areas near Harding Avenue.
Kenneth "Toru" Hamayasu, chief engineer at DTS, said it was deemed too expensive to divide the lots.
Hamayasu said that if $200,000 is approved, the sidewalks around the lots will be widened to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
"We didn't think it would be fair to make the concessionaire of the operation do the ADA ramps around the sidewalks," Hamayasu said. "If you touch something, you have to do the ADA improvements, so the city was going to do those improvements."
The project to convert the lots would be put out to bid this year and the winning vendor would be required to make improvements including resurfacing and restriping, adding larger medians, new sidewalks and better lighting at an estimated cost of $400,000.
Hamayasu said the vendor's investment would be recouped through parking fees. The lots currently bring in about $600,000 a year, he said.
Kobayashi said some business owners want the new vendor to include valet parking during peak hours.
Valet proved a success during the 2003 holiday season when D.J. Colbert, owner of Prosperity Corner, organized a pilot project to use a small area of the lots for the service. Colbert said a section with 15 metered stalls was able to accommodate 40 cars. The $2,500 cost for the valet service was paid for by Colbert and merchant Bead It Inc., with support from the Greater East Honolulu Community Alliance and merchants who validated parking.
Hamayasu said the valet service would not be needed because converting to attended lots would force employees to find alternative parking and free up plenty of room for customers.
Kaimuki resident Ginny Meade said after years of talking, it feels like something is finally being done to improve parking.
"It's a feasible, workable plan," Meade said. "It is a first step and I think the city is really trying. I feel much more like they are on our side."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
