Mayor Kirk Caldwell said Wednesday he will use the newly enacted sidewalk nuisance law to keep members of (de)Occupy Honolulu from camping on sidewalks around Thomas Square.

"No single person has a right to occupy any sidewalk in the City and County of Honolulu; they were built and designed for everyone to travel on, safely," he said.

Caldwell made the comments as he opened the refurbished mauka sidewalk of Thomas Square that now features planter boxes with pink hibiscus bushes on the Beretania Street side and newly planted ficus shrubs along the park-side edge of the concrete.

"I feel very good about it," the mayor said. "I feel we’ve got a lot of positive feedback from the residents from the area, the users of the (Hono-lulu Museum of Art). They’re saying, ‘Finally, finally something is being done and we have our access back.’"

The new features would not physically stop someone from camping between the planters, but they would make it difficult.

The planter boxes and ficus hedges, features to be duplicated on the makai-side sidewalk, cost the city about $33,500, city spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said.

Members of (de)Occupy Honolulu set up their camp along the mauka sidewalk when they first settled at Thomas Square in November 2011 to protest government policies.

While the campers, like all park users, are allowed to be in the park until 10 p.m., they must move to the sidewalks after park hours.

But the city’s Thomas Square improvement project last month forced the relocation of the camp, first to the makai sidewalk of Thomas Square. When that was shut down last week, the campers moved across King Street to the sidewalk in front of the Blaisdell Center Concert Hall lawn.

The existing stored property ordinance allows the city to remove items from sidewalks, but only after they are "tagged" 24 hours in advance.

(De)Occupy Honolulu member Chris "Nova" Smith said city workers tagged the group’s tents in front of Blaisdell on Wednesday morning.

The new sidewalk nuisance ordinance signed by Caldwell would allow city workers to remove the items without notice. The city is developing rules for the ordinance and anticipates enforcement beginning July 1.

The mayor said he fully expects the city to remove items placed by (de)Occupy campers in front of Blaisdell, for which no planters are now planned.

"I believe the bill will make a difference," Caldwell said. "Because what happens now is they make a mockery of the stored property ordinance. We give them 24 hours, and they put out a different-colored tent, and they come back."

Smith said the sidewalk laws criminalize homelessness and violate free assembly laws.

The group has taken the city to court on the stored property ordinance and said it will do the same with the new law.

Caldwell’s 2014 budget includes $1 million in additional Thomas Square improvements that are being devised in consultation with neighbors, including the museum and Straub Clinic & Hospital.