Trial run: Ali‘i Drive being turned into one-way road for creation of free public parking in Kona

Hawai‘i County is moving forward with its plan to temporarily turn a portion of Ali‘i Drive into a one-way road to create much-needed free parking spaces for the public in the Kona Historic Business District.

Starting May 1, the oceanfront roadway, from Kailua Pier to Hualālai Road, will be open for southbound traffic only. The northbound lane will turn into street parking for about 50 vehicles.

Mayor Kimo Alameda announced this plan during a community meeting on April 12. This new traffic pattern will be in place on a trial basis for 90 days, however, the mayor said the county will be watching how it impacts the traffic flow.

“We’re just moving lines not reconstructing,” Alameda said.

The parking will be free, however, Alameda said the county might put up two-hour parking signs if they find vehicles in the stalls overnight.

“If it’s working, we may move it to a permanent solution,” Alameda said.

For decades, Ali‘i Drive has been the hub of tourism and entertainment for locals and visitors, with Kona Inn Shopping Village at the center of the well-known downtown strip.

Over time, the village has become rundown, with several businesses in the once vibrant open-air shopping area going out of business. The businesses in the entire downtown area were dealt another blow when more of the privately owned parking lots started charging in 2022.

All parking lots are now paid, ranging from $12 to $21 an hour, and are operated by Parklinq or Diamond Parking.

It has resulted in limited free parking, mostly in a county lot that has about 100 stalls.

Beyond changing the traffic pattern, Alameda said Kona residents and business owners expressed the need to pass a county ordinance that would force the parking lot owners to put a cap on prices.

“The paid parking is a private property dilemma,” Alameda said. “It’s hard to regulate.”

The mayor has already had discussions with county attorneys who have said it would be difficult to legally enforce a cap, but the county will be looking into other options that are yet to be fleshed out.

Alameda said there were a variety of ideas presented to him as a way to address the expensive parking fees, including building a county-run parking structure. Creating more free stalls by turning Ali‘i Drive into a one-way thoroughfare was an idea the county could take immediate action on.

If congestion and parking issues get worse with the one-way traffic pattern, the county will revert the road back to a two-way street, Alameda said.

Ross Wilson, executive director of the Kailua Village Business Improvement District, was at the parking meeting and thought the sentiment from the audience was that they were happy something was being done.

“The mayor promised to have another meeting to come back and look at what works and doesn’t work,” Wilson said.

Wilson thought a 90-day trial is a good amount of time to get the traffic lights at Kuakini Highway’s intersections Palani and Hualālai Roads synchronized.

“It will take a few weeks for the public to get akamai (smart) on how the road is working,” Wilson said. “I imagine it will cause a bottleneck in the beginning, but I’m anxious to see if it works, and I hope it does work.”

Kona resident Julie Ziemelis, founder of the Fix Paid Parking in Kona Facebook group, has been at the forefront of creating space for people to have a dialogue on the paid parking issue for the past six months. While she wasn’t sure this one-way road would solve the root of the problem, she said the mayor had a point: “We got to try something.”

“Even if you don’t like the one way, it’s getting eyes on the problem,” Ziemelis said.

Ziemelis said the government and business community need to be looking at this issue and finding a more permanent solution.

“We were told these things take time, but we’re running out of it,” Ziemelis said. “I’m hoping whatever solution is chosen, they get to it quickly to save downtown.”