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COURTESTY KUHIO HIGHWAY REGULATION
Volunteers with the newly formed Kuhio Highway Regulation counted cars and talked to visitors headed to Haena State Park on Fourth of July about new visitation and parking regulations.
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The renowned citizen activism of Kauaians has resurfaced, this time on guard against over-tourism on the Garden Island’s North Shore.
A newly formed citizens’ nonprofit, Kuhio Highway Regulation, is filling the education and enforcement gaps it perceives about state and county efforts falling short on a touted plan to reduce impacts around Haena State Park. Access to Haena involves a new reservation and parking process since the area reopened in mid-June, after being mostly closed to the general public since April 2018’s flood-related damage and repairs.
The new reservation-voucher system aims to cut visits to 900 people daily from a pre-flood estimate of 3,000 visitors. But Kuhio Highway Regulation volunteers say that since reopening under the new system, operations on the roughly last two miles of highway, leading into Haena State Park, have been crowded and confused.
The volunteers are taking it upon themselves to monitor cars, and to inform unaware visitors of the process and of a respectful code of conduct. Also sure to underscore that this is a new era for Kauai North Shore visitation: a new state law raising illegal parking fees in special no-parking zones, such as the area’s Kuhio Highway, from $35 to a whopping $235.
All this should bring down numbers once word starts getting out. Potential visitors might forego the hassles altogether and stay away — which would be just fine with some residents. Hawaii remains the land of welcoming aloha, but perhaps a little less now on Kauai’s North Shore.