Kailua Beach rules reasonable

Kailua Beach, long renowned as one of the world’s loveliest stretch of shoreline, is a treasure to residents and visitors alike. Unfortunately, that universal appeal is precisely what puts it at risk, so the City Council has taken the right first step in guarding it against overuse.

The Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to approve Bill 5, which Councilman Ikaika Anderson introduced more than a year ago in an effort to curb commercial activities at parks. The original version of the bill would have set aside Sundays as a commercial-free zone at all public parks but in the final version, only neighboring Kailua and Kalama beach parks were specified.

Anderson said other members of the Council were uncomfortable with such a broad crackdown; the resolution was to define an area where vendors — kayaks and windsurfing businesses, for example — had caused a particular problem with traffic congestion and crowding out recreational beachgoers.

The restricted area extends from Lanikai to Castle Point and includes all beach rights-of-way and city easements. That definition, Anderson said, was designed to cover areas such as the easement across from the beach, adjacent to Kaelepulu Stream, where some vendors had gone to get out from under city Department of Parks and Recreation rules.

Those rules already governed commercial activities for which permits were required at city parks, he added, and they already barred activities starting at 1 p.m. Saturdays through 6:30 a.m. Mondays. However, some businesses were getting around the ban by using a 15-minute drop-off provision of the rules to carry on with rentals, he said.

The bill adopts the same hours for the restriction and eliminates that drop-off period. "Recreational stops," meaning the use of city beach parks by commercial tour companies, would be covered by them, which means tour buses can’t drop off visitors at the beach parks, either.

Mayor Peter Carlisle should sign the bill. The only concern raised by his administration so far involved the film companies that need weekend hours and leave a relatively light footprint in park usage. The final bill carves out an exemption for them, assuming they’re observing the rules set by their permits and paying a fee.

There are people who don’t think the new rule goes far enough. Charles Prentiss, who chairs the Kailua Neighborhood Board, said in his written testimony that "the parking lots overflow while the commercial tour buses, vans, kayak vendors and trailers compete for space with individual visitors and residents on their non-work days.

"If it is logical to do this on Sunday, it is just as appropriate and necessary to do it on Saturdays and holidays," he said.

The adoption of the 1 p.m. Saturday closing time for vendors was a reasonable, partial accommodation of this complaint.

Among the opponents, Lawson Teshima of PHT Inc., doing business as Polynesian Hospitality Tours, was one who raised the issue of fairness to visitors.

"If activities at public parks on Sundays are forbidden, PHT will advise the clients that the parks are closed," Teshima said in his testimony. "The park closure should apply uniformly to all visitors and residents alike and should not be targeted to the visitors and residents that charter equipment."

However, this protest overlooks a practical concern: Kailua and Kalama beach parks were not designed to accommodate the comings and goings of tour buses. And on weekends, which is when most working residents want to use the park, seeing it overwhelmed by commercial activity is discouraging. Given that these are public parks, that’s not fair, either.

The most desirable recreational resources need to be shared by Hawaii residents and visitors, and Bill 5 has created reasonable allowances for both.