Public access to Kee Beach, Haena State Beach, Kalalau hiking trail and other beautiful natural attractions on Kauai’s North Shore has been intensely discussed and debated for more than the last several years.
The crux of the matter, which most Kauai residents are well aware of, is tremendous growth of visitors to Kauai and especially to these North Shore scenic attractions. This has caused a great diminishing of enjoyment and use of what used to be a very enjoyable experience for residents and visitors alike.
This issue has temporarily ceased to exist due to the destruction of parts of the only access highway by the April 15 storm. Currently the only people able to enjoy these scenic attractions are residents who live beyond the highway control point at Waikoko. Only residents with the government issued vehicle placard are allowed beyond the control point.
An approach, which has the potential to limit the number of non-residents while allowing residents and visitors alike to enjoy the scenic delights as they used to be enjoyed, involves two simple concepts.
The first concept is continuation of a placard control approach for Wainiha/Haena residents.
he residents with placards would have unlimited access to the area for perhaps 12 hours or more per day. The second simple concept is that all other people could access the area only by bus.
Shuttle bus access to this area has failed in the past because anyone could still use their cars to access the area and the vast majority of people choose to use their cars.
However, a local resident placard access control system would force everyone else to use the bus. This would include Kauai residents who are not residents of the Wainiha/Haeana area.
Unlike most bus transportation on Kauai, this bus route would easily be financially self-sustaining. The bus fare for non-Kauai resident riders could be made quite high, say $10 to $20 per person for a round-trip with discounts for students, keiki, and kapuna.
Kauai residents could be charged a fare of $1 to $2 a round-trip.
The combination of steep fare and number of buses could be designed to limit the number of people accessing the areas to say no more than 900 people a day, a number that is in county planning.
The revenue from this bus route should be able to pay for the bus route, pay for the gatekeeper, and perhaps even help support other bus routes.
There are plenty of details to be worked out. Examples include where to locate bus stops with available automobile parking, human gatekeeper vs. coded card key operated gate, how to handle access for vacation renters in the area (e.g. rental property owners provide them with placards stamped with access dates) and access for workers/trades people and many other details.
Now is a great time to start planning to implement this approach since the highway will be closed for several more months.
Also, with Kauai elections fast approaching, it would be great to see council and mayoral candidates espouse implementing such an approach.
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Peter Nilsen is a resident of Princeville.
