The city has officially taken ownership of Leahi Avenue from a private owner after there was community pushback due to parking fees and food truck activity.

In October 2020, a resident in the area, Mary Moriarty Jones under Safe Leahi LLC, purchased Leahi Avenue for $10 through a quitclaim deed from the former owner King Lunalilo Trust.

Jones said her intention for purchasing the road was to make it safer for children as Waikiki Elementary School is on Leahi Avenue. Safe Leahi LLC banned parking along the mauka shoulder, adding white poles to demarcate it for pedestrians. The company also added paid parking stalls along Leahi’s makai side, where the public previously had parked for free. Safe Leahi LLC also allowed food trucks to operate in the area, which is not zoned for commercial activity.

The surrounding community pushed back against the activities urging the city to take ownership of the road to restore it to how it was before Safe Leahi LLC took it over. The Diamond Head-Kapahulu Neighborhood Board passed a resolution June 10 protesting the changes and demanding the city acquire Leahi Avenue.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed the quitclaim deed Tuesday, which officially made Leahi Avenue a city street.

“We came down here months ago, we drove around, we saw the circumstances, we wanted to do everything we could to make sure we heard the voices of this community,” he said during a news conference.

“I thank all the neighbors and residents who worked so hard, who were so diligent. It’s about doing the right thing and this is absolutely the right thing. We feel so good.”

The city used a state law that said if a street has been regularly used by the general public for over six months, the city has the right to take control of the road.

“We tried to work very closely with all of you in the community. We tried to work with Safe Leahi as well. I know that this situation was not done for any reason other than people trying to make their community better,” said city Department of Transportation Services Director Roger Morton.

“I know there’s … some dissension and some division over this, but everybody’s motive on doing this, I think, was pure.”

Arleen Velasco, a resident in the area who has been pushing the city to take ownership of the property, was relieved.

“The whole community kind of got together, worked hard to get the street back to a position where it was safe again,” she said.

“It’s actually safer for the keiki that they can walk on one side of the street and no cars are there. … It was a tough road. And we’re all glad it’s over and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief and happiness.”

The city did not have to pay any money to Safe Leahi to take ownership of the street, but Morton added that as with any public street, the city will have to pay for upkeep.

“Most people that have private streets, they have the liability and the issues of running the street, those are real costs,” Morton said.

Although the city has taken ownership of the street, some of the changes implemented by Safe Leahi will remain. There still will be no parking allowed along the mauka shoulder, which the city has signaled by installing delineators. This was to allow an unobstructed path for children to walk to Waikiki Elementary.

Parking on the unimproved shoulders on the makai side of the street is technically still not allowed by city ordinance. However, Morton said he does not expect that law to be enforced.

“It’s a matter sometimes of live and let live,” he said.

Laura St. Denis, a member of the Diamond Head-­Kapahulu Neighborhood Board, was happy that the city had taken ownership of the road, but thought more needed to be done. She was concerned about the lack of parking in front of the nearby community garden.

“We do have gardeners that are disabled,” she said.

“It’s not done yet. I want to get parking especially for one nurse who has a really hard time walking. She’s very slow, but she still gardens. And she grows food that she eats.”

Morton said the city taking ownership of Leahi Avenue could be just the first step to some improvements for the road.

“The first step toward improvement is to own the street and we own the street,” he said.

“I don’t want to give a false sense of how we are going to do things, but now it’s eligible for some of our programs like Safe Routes to School, and other programs that require public ownership.”

Safe Routes to School is a city program that aims to increase the amount of children who walk or bike to school by reducing traffic congestion through improvements such as extending curbs. The city is currently working on implementing this program on Kamehameha IV Road by Fern Elementary School.