Campground fees will go into effect in January. Parking fees for tourists at the eight parks won't take effect for a year.

DLNR CRITICIZED

When officials first broached parts of the plan earlier in the year, many criticized the DLNR for considering fees at the eight most popular parks statewide, including the Ka Iwi Scenic Shoreline, a small, 30-stall parking lot leading to the Makapu'u Lighthouse in East Honolulu.

Yet, the Sierra Club and the Trust for Public Lands endorse the plan, said Laura H. Thielen, state DLNR chairwoman.

"We hope that people who are concerned about the fees will understand that the fees will go to maintain the parks," she said yesterday.

Thielen had warned that at least five state parks would have to close if the original Recreational Renaissance plan was not approved.

The DLNR is charged with maintaining 69 state parks, an intricate trail system and small boat harbors, and the effects of budget cuts have been showing.

In March, volunteers rebuilt a road to West Kauai's premier state beach park, Polihale, after it was washed out by heavy rains late last year and the state DLNR said it didn't have the money for repairs. In June, the DLNR blamed budget cuts when it announced that it would end hatchery operations that had supplied Nu'uanu and Koke'e State Park on Kaua'i with catfish and trout, respectively, for decades. In July, the catfishing season at Nu'uanu Reservoir was nearly canceled because the DLNR didn't have the money to staff the activity.

Yesterday, officials said the new or higher fees are necessary to keep state parks facilities operating.

Parks fees are not new to Hawai'i. Since 2000, the state has charged $1 a head to enter the Diamond Head Monument for all walk-in visitors, plus a $5-per-car fee.

No admission fees are being discussed for other locations at this time because they would require additional manpower and construction of toll booths.

But parking fees of $5 per vehicle will be charged — only for visitors to Hawai'i — at eight high-use parks: 'Akaka Falls State Park, Hapuna Beach State Recreation Area, Makena State Park, 'Iao Valley State Monument, Ka Iwi Scenic Shoreline, Nu'uanu Pali State Wayside, Ha'ena State Park, and Koke'e and Waimea Canyon state parks. A $10 to $40 fee will be charged for commercial vehicles. At Nu'uanu Pali, the fee will be $3 per vehicle because most people don't spend a lot of time at the vista area.

It will take more than a year before the parking changes would go into effect, Cottrell said.

BIDS TO BE TAKEN

Officials plan to seek bids from businesses to take over the parking operations at the parks. Parking fees would be collected with the swipe of a charge card, which has embedded ZIP code information.

With increases to camping fees come other changes as well, including an online camping permit system. Camping rates on O'ahu will increase 140 percent when nightly rates rise from $5 per night per site to $12 a night. For nonresidents, the camping rate will be $18 a night. Come January, the Web-based permitting system will be up and running, officials said.

The process will be entirely online. Presently, campers must come in person or mail in camping permit requests.

With the online process, "we can do a much better job at communicating with the public," Cottrell said. "We have a cumbersome permit process."

Even with the increases, camping in Hawai'i is a bargain, he said. A survey of other state parks in the U.S. showed that Hawai'i charges the least and doesn't charge a reservation fee or other service fees. The lowest camping fee is $6 a night in Wyoming and the highest is $74 a night in New Hampshire.

"What we are doing is similar to what the National Park Service does, share revenue with other parks and use the balance to keep up the parks generating the revenue," said Dan Quinn, state parks administrator. "Ultimately through this, we'll look at using revenue to increase the level of staff and repairs and maintenance."

For boaters, registration and mooring fees will rise in addition to parking fees that will now go from 25 cents to $1 an hour at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor. The free parking spaces will be limited to six-hour periods. Last year when the first of the parking fees went into effect, residents were upset when 229 stalls that had previously been free were now costing 25 cents an hour. Those stalls are in addition to the 300 that will remain free.

Eventually, the state would like to extend the plan to the Big Island's Kailua, Kona small boat harbor, said Ed Underwood, state boating director.

"Everything will be the same at the Ala Wai," he said. "The only exception is that we'll be charging $1 an hour instead of a quarter."

After the parking vendor takes his cut, what's left of the parking and increased camping and boating fees would go toward paying to replace broken toilets, paint over graffiti, replace broken picnic tables and if there's extra, add to the park experience with interpretative exhibits, Cottrell said.

Some of the rule changes approved by the board still will need to go before the community. The land board also required DLNR officials to include public input as much as possible in the selection of a parking vendor.

"My support on any plan stems from the support in the community," said Sen. Gary Hooser, D-7th District (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau). "My district has several parks in the plan and the concerns in the community need to be addressed. Every park has a community that it's important to. Our job is to listen to them and respect them and accommodate them."