HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0490.001 2022-2024P lGouncil
N1 81
Cot Aq0
From: Janice Glennie �� _-
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2023 2:31 PM -
To: Council Testimony; Villegas, Rebecca
Subject: Bill 81 - gentrification, lack of public shoreline access-
-o
Aloha council members,
e'
Mahalo for your efforts to help enhance public safety. At the same time, Bill 81 teeters on a slippery slope of
inadvertently making public shoreline and parks the playground of the rich while limiting the general public's access. If
we were a community developed around public transportation, I wouldn't be as concerned, but we are not and likely
will not be in my lifetime. That's why I feel strongly that other options to protect the public should be pursued
while parking in public space should not be limited at any time of day or night, especially on the shoreline.
Bill 81 puts a tiny bandaid on a gushing wound (i.e., increasing congestion and lack of parking on Ah'i Drive) when
the next bandaid could be years or decades behind it.
Eliminating much of the parking on Ali'i Drive strongly favors shoreline access for residents who live near the
shoreline which often means that wealthier people can access the shoreline any time, day or night while the
general public cannot.
Many people want to be by the ocean when it's dark and often it's most tranquil. I've personally enjoyed
countless moonlit evenings at Kahalu'u, White Sands Beach and other spots as well as joined my husband and
friends for moonlight surfs. Limiting the enjoyment of nature "off' hours can steal from individual and societal
balance. Getting arrested for seeking it would itself be criminal.
Unless we're going to limit roadways to hundreds or thousands of feet from the shoreline, environmental
concerns about having more parked cars on Ali'i Drive are moot.
"Public parking solutions" like at La'aloa (aka White Sands Beach) often don't work because, like at La'aloa, a
commercial vendor (Magic's restaurant) relies heavily upon what's meant to be public parking which limits the
public during "business" hours.
We make far too many rules without having fair or logical enforcement to back them up. For Bill 81 to be fair,
Kahalu'u needs patrolling from Sp to 5a since there are countless people who can come there by foot. Not only is
that unwanted, unlikely, and exorbidantly expensive, there are far more serious crimes like stolen cars, home
theft, illegal abuse of natural resources, etc elsewhere that more urgently need to be addressed by DLNR or the
police. How, then, will lawmakers make Bill 81 fair to the general public?
Surfing, fishing, diving, etc are viable after 8:00p. WIII only people who don't live within walking distance be kept
from the shoreline til S:OOa? If the answer is "yes", then is eliminating public access during those hours pono—
even legal (see PASH)?
Overnight public parking options between 8p-5a allows impaired drivers to take alternative transportation home
instead of fearing that their car will be ticketed or towed (a significant negative outcome from limiting overnight
parking in kailua town several years ago; another throw out the baby with the bathwater "solution" to
homelessness that had farther reaching, negative ramifications.)
Comm. N
Ref. To:
Ref. DateNOV - 1 2U23
Multi -pronged, coordinated solutions that are fair and deal with the bad apples and potential risks directly and distinctly
rather than penalizing the general, tax -paying public and its overall quality of life ore needed. Some ways to help
alleviate the stress and dangers on AIi'i drive Include:
Enact a law that excludes commercial vehicle parking in the public roadway at certain hours Instead of limiting
parking for everyone. (Maybe this should include Turo rentals.)
Enforce driving infractions like running Ali'i Drive red lights and stop signs, driving over the speed limit, texting
and talking on the phone. How about arresting them any obviously intoxicated drivers leaving places like White
Sands beach to eliminate huge potential danger to pedestrians?
Pursue mauka-makai connector roads and the AlFi Parkway concept which would take up some of the slack.
Turn the portion of proposed Ali'i Parkway into a bonafide alternative walking and biking trail to Ali'i Drive while
exploring options for expanding that non -motorized access throughout subdivisions connecting to AIN Drive (and
beyond. See KCDP.)
Without adding significant danger to environmental or cultural resources, explore creating additional public
parking at Kahaldu and other publicly favored Ali'i Drive shoreline.
Rethink and possibly end commercial use of areas like Kahalu'u including schools. (The pretense of a surf school
not being "commercial activity' because money isn't exchanged on site makes a mockery of our laws.) Surf
schools have made a great living for the handful of owners for decades, but are adding a huge, unnecessary, and
exclusive burden to our increasingly overcrowded public parking and shorelines.
Mahalo especially to council rep Villegas for always looking at ways to prevent individual tragedy from happening while
having an eye on her constituents' overall quality of life. Hopefully through my testimony, you'll all think further about
how the loss of public shoreline access can create a collective tragedy. Access to Hawaii's shoreline has been depended
upon for generations as a way to connect with, subsist on, and be uplifted by the ocean's bounty. That's why I'm asking
you to look for other ways to limit traffic and pedestrian safety that don't include gentrification of our manini shoreline
areas or limiting access to "park hours'. Ali'i Drive and the area from Kailua Village to Keauhou needs a "package" of
solutions, if you will, that won't penalize those who don't live within walking distance of the ocean or aren't healthy
enough to bike up and down hills to get to it.
Mahalo for your open-minded consideration of my views,