State transportation officials have until Monday to remove the barriers that have blocked parking at Laniakea Beach, according to the coalition of North Shore community members and activists that sued to bring them down.
At a court hearing Tuesday, the state and the city failed to reach a deal with barrier opponents to keep most of the barriers up along Kamehameha Highway and allow some cars to park behind them, said Bill Saunders, attorney for the Save Laniakea Coalition. Without a deal, all the barriers need to come down by the Monday deadline per Circuit Judge Gary Chang’s order issued in June, Saunders said.
The state Department of Transportation did not comment on the developments late Tuesday.
The city, meanwhile, owns the designated park land mauka of the highway where the vehicles had been parking before the barriers went up. Corporation Counsel Donna Leong said the city “supports the state Department of Transportation’s efforts to make access to Laniakea safe.”
Leong said in an email statement Tuesday, “Once the state has decided on a traffic management plan, the city will review the plan to determine which city permits, in addition to any state requirements, will be required.”
Saunders said that on Tuesday, Save Laniakea proposed that the city remove fencing from the parking area that’s been the center of so much dispute and provide public access to the overgrown pasture beyond. Volunteers could remove the growth there and potentially provide more parking, Saunders said.
City attorneys at Tuesday’s hearing said they would bring the idea back to parks and recreation officials, according to Saunders. He added that Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell “has got to think of it as a policy issue and work with the community on it.”
The city, state and barrier opponents had agreed to extend the deadline to remove the barriers by two weeks in order to try to hash out an agreement.
The state DOT installed the barriers along a 1,000-foot stretch mauka of the road more than a year and a half ago, blocking parking for some 50 to 60 cars there. Save Laniakea sued days later to remove them. The group, which includes prominent surfers such as Keone Downing, Mark Cunningham, Reno Abellira and William Martin, argued that the barriers unfairly blocked beach access there and that the state lacked the proper permits to install them.
The local community and visitors, they argued, deserve a better solution to the traffic that’s been getting worse on the North Shore, often stemming from the chaos of parked cars, tour buses and pedestrians at Laniakea, which is a popular surf and turtle-watching destination.
The state’s move followed years of study, community discussion and $1.7 million in state funding but little action.
State transportation officials have said the barriers could remain in place for just one month or for years, depending on how effective they proved at improving traffic flow and curbing safety issues while the state pursues a long-term plan to realign the highway farther back from the shoreline area.
