Boat owners in Hawaii Kai soon will have a new option for storing vessels in a public boat storage lot that will be the first for a community developed more than 50 years ago around a marina.
Charlie Hunter, a local attorney and Hawaii Kai resident, plans to start renting out boat parking spaces at a long-vacant lot on Keahole Street across from Costco in the next month or two after receiving a city permit and arranging to lease the 2-acre site from Kamehameha Schools.
Hunter said his endeavor doing business as HK Marine LLC grew out of frustration over storing his own boat.
“There really is no alternative,” he said. “I looked.”
The Hawaii Kai Marina Community Association supports Hunter’s operation and said it gets regular inquires, sometimes weekly, about whether there is any public place in the community with roughly 11,000 homes to store boats and trailers.
“There is no public boat or trailer storage within Hawaii Kai,” said Robin Jones, the association’s vice president.
Some Hawaii Kai condominiums have limited boat parking areas, while one neighborhood of single-family homes, Mariner’s Cove, has a boat storage lot for its residents.
Jones said much of the demand for boat parking is from residents who live in condos that have little or no boat storage.
Parking a boat on public streets isn’t illegal, but can cause issues among neighbors and with the city’s abandoned-vehicle ordinance. Also, boat trailers that extend from private driveways onto sidewalks can be cited by police.
Hunter, who outlined his plan at a Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board meeting Tuesday, said he hopes his storage lot will help alleviate such problems. “I see it as an amenity for a boating and marina community,” he said. “There are boats and trailers parked all over the neighborhoods.”
HK Marine’s site, which is next to a city park-and-ride lot and bus terminal, is designated for “general preservation” use under the city’s zoning code, which allows “marina accessories” with a minor conditional use permit. The city has granted the permit.
Around 20 years ago the parcel was part of 14 contiguous acres slated for commercial development along the marina and also fronting Kalanianaole Highway as part of a proposed legal settlement between Kamehameha Schools and the city over development rights in Hawaii Kai.
But the 14 acres, which also include a dog park and a grassy area fronting the highway, remained zoned for preservation.
About a decade ago Costco eyed the 2-acre parcel for a potential gas station, but that plan wasn’t advanced.
Hunter has put up a new fence around the property and planted naupaka that he said will grow to screen the site from the street to alleviate visual impacts. He also said he isn’t going to pave the property or allow maintenance or boat washing on the site. Hours of operation will be 7 a.m. to sunset.
“It’s a very low-impact use,” he said. “It will look a lot better from the street side.”
Hunter said he hasn’t determined rental rates for what he estimates could be room for roughly 50 boats, but intends to make them affordable and attractive as a community service that doesn’t make much if any money.
While boat owners are expected to welcome the facility, some people would rather keep the open space or have some other use on the waterfront site.
“It would be a shame if we had boat trailers on a really nice property that fronts the marina,” Jeannine Johnson, a Kuliouou-Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board member, said during the recent meeting.
The Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board could not formally take a position on Hunter’s project because it was presented as a brief community announcement instead of a formal presentation listed on the recent board meeting agenda. Hunter plans to make a formal presentation next month, though he has all necessary permits to open the boat storage yard.
