Permits needed to park in area of Kalihi

On-street parking in the Wilson Tract neighborhood of Kalihi Valley will be restricted to vehicles with permits from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily during a 30-day pilot project that begins today.

The city Department of Transportation Services, which is overseeing the experiment, put up signs Friday identifying the borders of what’s being called a residential parking zone, or RPZ.

The affected areas are Alu, Wilson and Jennie streets, and Alu and Wilson places.

Street parking is a lingering problem for the neighborhood, and the experiment is designed to gauge what impact a zone could have there as well as on surrounding neighborhoods. If the pilot project is successful, the zone might be made permanent, and such zones could be placed elsewhere on the island.

City officials said RPZs are employed on the mainland as a tool to help ease parking congestion on residential streets.

Only those who live on the streets are eligible for the permit, and applicants must show proof of residency. Each household can apply for up to two hang-tag permits for personal vehicles, for which they will need to provide license plates and descriptions, and two permits for guests.

City officials said that as of the close of business Friday, 143 of 193 households in the neighborhood had obtained permits. They estimate there are about 230 unmarked street stalls in the area.

The permits are free for the pilot project, but a nominal fee to cover administrative costs may be instituted if any zones are set up permanently, city officials said.

The Honolulu Police Department is expected to respond to complaints. It will initially issue warnings, but repeat offenders may be ticketed or towed, city officials said.

Chris Wong, chairman of the Kalihi Valley Neighborhood Board, said lack of street parking is an issue throughout the district. Wilson Tract was chosen because it’s a small, contained area, and there is “close to 100 percent” buy-in, he said.

While some outside the zone have raised concerns, there have been no complaints from Wilson Tract residents themselves, Wong said. “The main thing to underscore is that this is a community project,” he said.

Nearly 200 people attended a town hall meeting for the area about a year ago and identified lack of street parking as their top priority, Wong said. As with other older Oahu neighborhoods, a good number of Wilson Tract properties are home to several generations of the same families.

Both Wong and Mona Wood-Sword, a Wilson Tract resident, said a majority of the vehicles parked on the neighborhood’s streets belong to people living in the nearby Kalihi Valley Homes public housing project.

A crackdown on the number of resident vehicles allowed on the grounds of the 373-unit project pushed residents and their guests to park vehicles across Likelike Highway in Wilson Tract, Wood-Sword said.

Some of those parking in Wilson Tract have brought other issues, and HPD has reported a sharp increase in crime for the area in the last two years, she said.

Wong said the neighborhood board is working with the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to see whether the parking policy at Kalihi Valley Homes can be modified to allow more vehicles on-site.

Area Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga said the pilot project has been well received by the Wilson Tract residents, and the area’s neighborhood security watch went door to door to inform people about the experiment.

Besides assessing the results of the project, Fukunaga said, city transportation officials should study how other municipalities deal with the issue of neighborhoods with a lack of street parking.

It’s possible the rules could be adjusted from the pilot project’s guidelines if the parking zone is to become a permanent feature of the neighborhood, she said.

“Some people were concerned about permits, other people were concerned about costs,” Fukunaga said, and others suggested different times of the day the zone should be in effect. “But everybody seemed comfortable with the idea of giving this a try, and let’s see what we learn from this first, 30-day period. … This is really just the first step.”