HANALEI — Hanalei’s Black Pot Beach Park — closed since the storms of April, 2018 — will reopen July 22, but, for the moment, anyway, motor vehicles will be banned from driving on the sand.
The announcement was made Thursday night by Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami at a community meeting at Hanalei School.
The meeting was attended by about 100 people, but lasted less than an hour. There was scant reaction to the disclosure that beach driving will be prohibited. In the past, the issue has roused passions of those both in favor of and opposed to the practice.
Since storms flooded Hanalei and other parts of the island, Black Pot has been shut down for reconstruction of a portion of Weke Road that was destroyed by the raging water and massive repairs to the park itself, including replacement —not yet complete — of the comfort station and reconstruction of two boat ramps and parking facilities.
“I can understand the mounting frustration” in the community as the park’s reopening has been delayed, Kawakami said.
He acknowledged that the question of whether vehicles will ever be permitted to drive and park on the sand again is “the elephant in the room.”
Resolution of that question will await relaunching of the process to develop a new master plan for the park, which was interrupted by the storms.
Kawakami said the reopening would be a “soft” one because some work remains to be completed. Most notable, he said, will be construction of an unusual new comfort station, which will rely on two trailers parked at ground level under a canopy. The configuration was necessary to avoid a requirement to build the facility more than 10 feet off the ground because of tsunami considerations.
Work on the comfort station is due to begin in August, with completion in December, said William Trugillo, deputy director of the county Department of Parks and Recreation, which has authority over the Black Pot facility.
The reconfigured park will include two parking areas. The first, closer to the beach, will have about 55 stalls. A second parking area, slightly mauka of the first, will have about 80 spaces. There will be two boat ramps, including one with a parking area for trailers. Each parking area will be configured for parallel and perpendicular parking.
Because the new restroom facility and some other aspects of the park reconstruction are not yet complete, camping will not be permitted until all pending work is finished. The county will issue a notice when camping is permitted, Trugillo said.
Kawakami approached the issue of vehicle use of the beach cautiously, reflecting an understanding that the question is a sensitive one that has divided the community for many years.
“For the time being, we are going to prohibit driving on the beach,” the mayor said. “We ask that everyone keeps an open mind.”
Kawakami said the Black Pot Beach master plan process, which had begun several months before the storms but was then put on hold after the disaster, is intended to allow all perspectives on the parking-ban issue to be considered before final decisions are made. If parking is to be permitted again in the future, he said, it would be on land adjacent to the park that the county is in the final stages of purchasing.
“The only way we can give this a fair shot is to go through the planning process,” the mayor said.
Rory Enright, general manager of the Princeville Community Association, noted that there is a strong tradition of parking on the beach for tailgate parties and other social interactions.
But Enright said that, over the years, the area where vehicles parked became overcrowded and the site of disputes over parking spaces and other unbecoming conduct. As much as he misses the social interactions that used to occur on the beach, Enright said, he now supports the ban.
Maka‘ala Ka‘aumoana, executive director of the Hanalei Watershed Hui, expressed strong opposition to ever permitting driving on the beach to resume.
“If they allow it,” she said of the county, “I’ll sue them.”
Ka‘aumoana said there are both environmental and safety rationales behind the parking ban.
“Moving cars and running children on the beach don’t mix,” she said.
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Allan Parachini is a freelance writer, furniture-maker, Kilauea resident and retired public-relations executive who writes occasionally for The Garden Island.
