A city plan to install manned gates by early December at the large municipal parking lot in Kaimuki is getting mixed reviews from merchants and residents, and some predict the move may worsen longstanding parking woes.

The Kaimuki Neighborhood Board unanimously voted in May to approve the plan as a short-term solution. But now some board members say they're not convinced the gates will improve parking.

"There's been some reservations," said board Chairman Mike Abe, a proponent of a plan to build a $7.5 million parking structure atop the municipal lot. Putting in gates "doesn't solve the parking lot issue," he said. "I think it's going to make it worse."

The board will take up the parking issue again at its meeting tonight, but the city says it does not intend to change its plans to install the gates.

Toru Hamayasu, chief planner for the city Department of Transportation Services, said the city could put out a request for bids in the project next month. The city wants a parking concessionaire to install the gates and attendant booths at the parking lot bounded by 11th and 12th avenues. The vendor also will make improvements to the lot, including redrawing parking spaces and new paving.

In exchange, the company would take a percentage of the revenues from parking. For its part, the city will spend $250,000 to make the lot's sidewalks wheelchair-accessible.

Hamayasu said that if the gates improve parking — by freeing up its 271 spaces faster and encouraging employees of local businesses to park elsewhere — Kaimuki's smaller municipal lot will also switch to an attendant setup sometime in the future. The smaller lot has 110 stalls.

Both lots now have metered stalls, which Hamayasu said are relatively cheap and encourage people to stay longer than they normally would. He also said a large number of workers park at the lots throughout the day, though Abe disputed the claim.

Under the city plan, parking fees at the lots would increase after the first few hours.

Randolph Hack, a member of the Kaimuki Neighborhood Board, said he backs putting attendants at the municipal lots as a cheap, quick solution. If it doesn't work, he said, the city can move forward with plans for a parking structure.

"I believe that an incremental approach to the parking problems is best," he said. "Also, we have to think about the beauty of the community. The proposed structure was going to be not aesthetic at all."

Parking in Kaimuki has been a problem for more than a decade. Customers frustrated by circling the lots, merchants say, leave and eat or shop elsewhere.

Some merchants invite the installation of attended gates at the parking lot, even if the move doesn't change anything.

"The attendant lot is not going to work, but I'm not speaking out against it because we have to do something," said D.J. Colbert, owner of Prosperity Corner on Wai'alae Avenue.

Colbert said the parking problems threaten to drive out Kaimuki shops and eateries.

"It's affected everybody's business," she said, adding sales at her shop are down 30 percent. "We can barely hang on to the clients we have because there's no parking, and unfortunately, the rent continues to go up, utilities go up, electricity goes up."

Michele Acedo, owner of A Taste of New York Deli & Market, said she was disappointed when she heard the city would proceed with the attendant parking. The plan only stalls a proposal for a parking structure, whose costs will continue to increase, she said.

And, Acedo said, the attended parking "is going to wreak havoc on the traffic flow" as cars back up to get into the municipal parking lot. "People come from all over the island to Kaimuki to eat and shop," she said. "I think the structure is the only long-term solution."

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.