State may scale
back Ka Iwi
parking plan

Critics say a smaller lot
won't reduce the impact
on the coast

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By Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com

The state, under pressure from community groups, has gone back to the drawing board to reduce the size of a parking lot for a Ka Iwi shoreline park.

Despite state efforts, members of the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board remain in opposition to the plan.

"It's one of the last coastlines in its natural state," said Wilson Kekoa Ho, chairman of the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board. "We don't see a need for it (parking lots)."

The state Parks Division is seeking a special management area use permit to construct two parking lots along the Ka Iwi shoreline. But the original proposal ran into opposition from the Hawaii Kai and Waimanalo neighborhood boards.

The plan includes one lot with 40 stalls near the Makapuu Lookout with space to fit five buses and another near the lighthouse.

The state would keep one of the 40-stall lots near the lighthouse, and offers two alternatives reducing the amount of parking space at the other lot by nearly half: One alternative is a 22-stall parking lot designed off Kalanianaole Highway with spaces for five buses, and a second alternative includes a 22-stall parking lot designed along the highway with space for three vans or oversized vehicles.

Kenneth Nagai of KN Consulting Services Inc., working with the Parks Division on the project, said, "We have the original proposal and the variations of it.

"Currently, the state is looking at alternatives to find the best solution to address the concerns expressed while meeting the requirements of federal funding."

However, the plan is "still a work in process," Nagai said.

Clyde Hosokawa, parks program manager of the Parks Division, said, "The Department of Land and Natural Resources was receptive to incorporate some changes."

Hosokawa said the state plans to present the original plan to the city Planning and Permitting Department.

He said the Parks Division will consider the other alternatives if told to do so by the city department.

Adrienne King, spokeswoman for the Ka Iwi Action Council, supported the downscaling of the lot near the Makapuu Lookout but still opposes parking for five buses.

"We just didn't want these big humongous buses dumping hoards of people all over," said King. "Everybody will jump and crawl all over the mountain."

King said the area along Makapuu Lookout is incapable of supporting an increased number of visitors stopping in large numbers.

"It's a small area," she said. "We're trying to narrow the trampling. You want people to experience that place in its natural state."

Ho and other Waimanalo Neighborhood Board members are drumming up opposition to the plan. A public hearing is scheduled on July 18 at 7 p.m. at Koko Head Elementary School.