JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
The city Department of Facility Maintenance will restrict parking on five streets in Salt Lake, including this section of Likini Street, for two hours twice a week beginning Aug. 2 to facilitate street sweeping. CLICK FOR LARGE |
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Salt Lake streets to get sweeps
The new program will restrict parking beginning on Aug. 2
Salt Lake residents who park on the street will have to play musical cars every Thursday and Friday for the next year.
Beginning Aug. 2, the city Department of Facility Maintenance will be restricting parking on five streets to enable street sweepers to clean curbside areas usually blocked by parked cars.
Likini Street (between Ala Napunani and Ala Lilikoi streets) and Ala Ilima, Ala Lilikoi, Ala Nanala, Ala Nanu streets will be restricted: one side of each street each Thursday, and the other each Friday, from 9 to 11 a.m.
"Federal regulations have become increasingly strict to reduce the pollution washing down our storm drains and into our streams and ocean," said Laverne Higa, director and chief engineer of the Department of Facility Maintenance. "We're asking for the public's cooperation and understanding, particularly during the initial phase of this program. The end result will be cleaner streets and a cleaner environment for all."
Vehicles that are parked in the restricted zones at those times will be ticketed for illegal parking.
According to Higa, the city has federal requirements from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System to keep the streets clean. The heavily populated area of Salt Lake makes it hard for the city to keep the streets clean because the sweepers do not have access to the curbs where most of the soil and trash accumulate.
This yearlong pilot project will allow the city to see if it wants to implement these parking restrictions in other highly populated neighborhoods. Ala Wai Boulevard is one of the places that has parking restrictions so that the street sweeping can occur regularly, Higa said.
"We hope that it won't inconvenience the residents too much," said Lennard Pepper, chairman of the Aliamanu/Salt Lake/Foster Village Neighborhood Board. "It's happening during business hours."
The neighborhood board and City Councilman Romy Cachola have been encouraging the city to do this for a while.
Thomas Strout, a neighborhood board member who lives on Ala Lilikoi Street, said people in his building have only one assigned stall.
"We keep one car parked on the street," he said.
Strout said some residents might be resistant to change at first, but when they see the clean streets, they will be more understanding.
"The big benefit would be to get rid of some of the cars that don't move," he said.
At the end of the month, the city will be hanging notifications on doors and handing out fliers to Salt Lake residents.
"We really hope that it won't come as a surprise," Pepper said. "We hope people will accept it in the interest of being good neighbors."
For more information about the project, call 768-3600.