A City Council bill that would enshrine a Residential Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) in Kalihi into law and open the door to setting up RPZs throughout Oahu has gained momentum, heading to its final committee hearing on May 23. Bill 20 has been introduced with good intentions, but the Council should not pass it forward.

Bill 20 makes official a pilot RPZ that bans overnight parking by nonresidents in areas bordering Kalihi Valley Homes, including the Wilson Tract, across Likelike Highway from the public housing project. News reports on the pilot RPZ, established in 2017, show that residents believed public housing residents were parking unregistered vehicles in the neighborhoods’ on-street areas because they weren’t allowed on project grounds. Residents also reported that people were sleeping in their vehicles, leaving trash behind, and raising fear of crime.

However, state law already prohibits sleeping in cars on public streets at night, and unregistered vehicles can be towed — so enforcing current laws is the most direct solution. If crime or litter are concerns, increased police enforcement and an active Neighborhood Watch group might be deployed.

This RPZ bill would give residents exclusive access to public streets — dubious public policy — while imposing cost burdens on the city for implementation and enforcement that aren’t covered by the proposed parking fees. The bill currently suggests $80 annually for a first permit, though the bill’s sponsor, Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, suggested that could be reduced even further. The estimated cost of the program is $200 per parking space restricted.

Further, Bill 20 aims to give the city’s transportation director direct authorization to set up more restricted parking zones throughout Oahu without any further City Council action. That shields Council members from public pressure over future RPZs, plus eliminates a key opportunity for public participation in these decisions. Meanwhile, guidelines for approving an RPZ are exceedingly vague, with no specific measure of crowding or availability specified.

Several potential RPZs have already been identified — in Haiku, where residents object to sharing street parking with hikers, as well as Kaimuki, Liliha and McCully-Moiliili. Two areas where parking is famously a frustration — Lanikai and Manoa, near the University of Hawaii — may not be far behind. Areas where the city currently anticipates adding additional RPZs should be specified in this bill, so that residents of those neighborhoods — and the people the zones would allow excluding — can have their say on this matter.

A study on Kalihi’s Wilson Tract showed that with the pilot RPZ, about 40% of 220 spaces typically remain open overnight. Leaving 88 spaces open night after night seems lamentable, and unfair, for nearby residents without permits who could use the street parking.

Enshrining the restricted parking policy into law also deserves more discussion in connection with Honolulu’s newly revised islandwide roads and transportation policy, the Transportation Demand Management Plan. That plan aims to give people more transportation choices, “reduce vehicle miles traveled, and to increase walking, bicycling, rideshare and transit use on the island.” Bill 20, on the other hand, gives preferential access to residents who employ multiple cars within a household.

Unless the problem is truly at crisis levels, the lean should be against such measures, particularly if the RPZ is used to establish a city-managed, city-enforced and city-subsidized “gated community” for one neighborhood at the expense of another. Don’t go down this road of privileging one politically active neighborhood’s parking needs while exacerbating similar concerns just a few blocks away.