Groups rally against proposal to block parking at Laniakea

A hui of North Shore community members gathered near Lani­akea Beach on Sunday to protest the state Department of Transportation’s proposal to stop traffic snarls and safety problems in the area by blocking off access to a strip of land along Kame­ha­meha Highway that beachgoers use as a parking lot.

The department announced in late September that it would likely place 20-foot-long concrete barricades along the mauka side of the highway by the end of the year. As that deadline draws near, community members opposed to the plan are increasing their efforts to rally against it.

Members of Oahu’s chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, the nonprofit group End Turtle Traffic and dozens of others lined the highway throughout the day Sunday, waving signs that said "Honk if You Love Lani’s," "Ocean Access Is a Right," and "Please Don’t Block Our Beach."

Stuart Coleman, Hawaii coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation, said blocking off the 75 or so parking spaces would essentially be limiting access to the shoreline, which he said is unacceptable given Hawaii’s strong beach access laws.

"There are some issues of safety and traffic concerns, which everybody knows we need to address, but blocking off beach access is not the way to do it," he said.

Solutions proposed by Coleman and others include:

» Enforcing existing laws designed to prohibit tour buses from illegally parking and loading and unloading large groups of tourists.

» Limiting uncontrolled pedestrian crossings by placing barriers on the makai side of the highway and eventually adding a crosswalk.

» Revamping the parking lot to include orderly entrance, exit and turn-around areas.

» Planning a bypass road so that all parking can be relocated to the makai side of the road.

The city and the state have been at odds about how to solve the parking problem, which annually now draws an estimated 600,000 tourists and residents hoping to catch a glimpse of a honu or surf. The state owns the highway, while the city has control of the land that surrounds it.

The department has said that building a parking lot isn’t within its responsibilities and would be costlier than barrier opponents realize.

Most of the 100 or so North Shore residents who attended the September meeting balked at the barrier proposal, and only seven out of 19 members of a task force formed in 2011 to study possible solutions voted for the plan.

"Fix-it, don’t restrict it," North Shore Neighborhood Board member Blake McElheny wrote on his Facebook page Thursday to draw support for Sunday’s event, which was originally set for Dec. 1 but had to be rescheduled because of weather.

Coleman said turnout for the rally was better than expected, with about 100 people showing up at one time.

He said he is also alarmed that more than 500 letters sent to the department have not gotten a single response.

"We’re not anti-DOT by any means," he said. "We’re just saying, ‘Hey, respond to us. The public is asking, and now we’re going to be demanding your attention. You can’t just ignore us.’

"We just want to work with them. … There’s better solutions than this."

Coleman said the group plans to hold sign-waving protests, possibly in front of the department’s building on Punchbowl Street.