LIHU‘E — The specifics for what a visitor parking fee may be at three county beach parks will continue in discussions next month with the Kaua‘i County Council.
At its meeting Wednesday, the council passed a resolution allowing the county Department of Parks and Recreation to establish visitor parking fees at three county-owned beach parks, and approved at first reading a bill that would create a fee schedule.
Last July, the department studied parking habits at Black Pot Beach Park in Hanalei, Lydgate Park in Wailua and Po‘ipu Beach Park, and found that creating an enforced parking structure may be a solution to eliminate over-use of park grounds.
Draft Bill No. 2843 lists a $10 price point, which is in line with rates at state parks, including Ha‘ena State Park and Waimea Canyon State Park, and would not be applicable to Kaua‘i residents.
This is a “psychological price point where people would be willing to pay and not seek another means of parking their car,” County Managing Director Michael Dahilig said.
How the implementation of the bill, which is up for a public hearing in February, would come to fruition, is still up in the air, and may well be determined by a request for proposals for vendors to implement the parking plan in the future, Dahilig explained to the council.
Conversations on whether the fees would be hourly or flat rates, whether this will be metered or as a phone app, are also forthcoming.
“We don’t necessarily believe that we would want to constrain a specific type of technology in an RFP (request for proposal) process simply because we’re not clear whether all of the conditions for meeting that type of objective,” Dahilig said. “We want that to be fleshed out via a proposal rather than us necessarily saying how to do this.”
Councilmembers were generally in agreement about the visitor fee, pointing to limiting overcrowding in these areas and potentially making more space for locals to enjoy these spaces.
Councilmember Billy DeCosta, who previously worked in Koke‘e, said he often noticed that locals would avoid scenic overlooks because there weren’t parking spots.
“Once (the state) put in those parking fees, there were spots for locals to enjoy,” DeCosta said. “Yes, there was some overflow parking by tourists on the side of the road, but that’s an easy fix if we have some kind of official checking on it.”
Councilmember Felicia Cowden expressed that she would like more outreach to be done before moving ahead, especially with the business community that may be affected by visitors parking in their lots to avoid paying.
“What happens is somebody comes to your business to get the product that they’re going to take to the beach and then they simply walk to the beach?” Cowden asked. “So what then happens is those parking lots that are paid for and maintained by the businesses that have the commercial lots … those end up housing all that leftover parking.”
Cowden’s motion to defer the resolution ultimately failed to receive a second.
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Sabrina Bodon, editor, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
