Retailers who pay top dollar to rent space in one of the nation’s premium shopping districts have joined Waikiki residents in pushing for a city ordinance to limit the number of street closure permits issued for Kalakaua Avenue.

The city allows up to 15 events to close the busy thoroughfare annually, said Jon Nouchi, the city’s deputy director of transportation services. That’s in addition to “legacy events,” such as the Honolulu Festival, that have been in Waikiki for at least 15 consecutive years, and events whose participants are exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech, religious practice and peaceful assembly.

The street closures for nonspecific events are usually awarded by a lottery, but one business owner, David Millwood of Millwood Ohana Productions, has been getting most of them from year to year. The Waikiki community cried foul when his company secured permits for 11 out of 15 events planned for 2017, all selected by lottery. After considerable pushback, some of Millwood’s events were canceled.

The city Department of Transportation Services also changed its rules to limit applicants to two events each year in an attempt to address community complaints that it wasn’t fair for one business to have a near monopoly on free Waikiki space, which most stakeholders felt should be reserved for nonprofit use or functions such as parades and sporting events with a broader community benefit.

“The rules aren’t working,” said Waikiki Neighborhood Board Chairman Bob Finley. “(Millwood’s) found loopholes to get around their intent.”

Last year Millwood secured six spots by getting other organizations to hire his company to run their events. This year the city gave out 13 permits, and Ohana Productions’ website is advertising that it got nine of them.

Millwood did not return a call from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser seeking comment.

Nouchi said Millwood applied for two events, and five other applicants — Uncle’s Ice Cream, Four Caterer’s LLC, From Above Entertainment LLC, Hawaii Events Unlimited and Island Sandwich Creations — hired Millwood to run their events.

Nouchi said a lottery wasn’t held this year since the city received five or fewer lottery applications per trimester. The city also awarded Waikiki street closures for this year’s Hapalua Half Marathon sponsored by the Honolulu Marathon Association, the Salute to Youth Parade sponsored by Coastline Travel, and the Memorial Day Parade and the Pearl Harbor Parade sponsored by Pearl Harbor Tours LLC.

Critics of the city’s Waikiki street closure policy say those events are in sharp contrast to Millwood’s events, which feature food and shopping. This year Millwood is running the Oahu Festival, Spring Street Jam, Leahi Festival, Endless Summer Festival, Waikiki Street Jam and Waikiki Fall Fest. He’s also holding the Waikiki Bazaar, the Kalakaua Festival and the Lokahi Festival, which is anticipated to attract more than 25,000 people.

Millwood’s events run along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki between Seaside and Uluniu avenues. He charges anywhere from $100 for Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation members and $350 for arts and craft vendors to $500 for retail booths and $800 for food booths.

Nouchi said the city doesn’t receive any revenues from the festivals, nor does it bear any of the costs for security, signage, traffic coning and other logistics.

Millwood has argued that his events support vendors. He also has tried to assuage community concern about the public benefits of his Waikiki festivals by designating local charities as beneficiaries.

Finley questions whether the donations make up for the inconvenience the community experiences when the events shut down a central portion of Kalakaua Avenue from 2 p.m. to midnight.

“Waikiki is an extremely dense neighborhood and an economic epicenter,” Finley said. “We shouldn’t have disruptions like this for a bunch of food trucks that don’t reflect the spirit of the lottery. They aren’t paying rent to use the Waikiki street.”

Finley said the next step is for stakeholders to push for a bill to reduce the number of street-closure events in Waikiki, perhaps to six from 15 a year.

Nouchi said the city believes the existing rules are effective in limiting the number of events in the Waikiki Special District. “Before the updated ordinance and rules were implemented back in 2006, there were over 60 permitted events in the Waikiki Special District. Compare that number to 27 permits issued in 2018 for Waikiki Special District,” he said.

Waikiki retailers also say new limits are worth discussing. “Every time you close down a street, it’s harder for people to come in,” said Tina Yamaki, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii. “If a festival includes food and clothing and jewelry, it does compete with our storefronts, all of which pay a premium to be in Waikiki.”

Sam Shenkus, vice president and director of marketing for the Royal Hawaiian Center, said, “Our tenants are complaining. Saturday is the biggest night for locals to come out to our restaurants, but they don’t come in when there is festival traffic. The crowds block street access to our merchants, and the food trucks compete with our food court. It’s not fair to Waikiki businesses who pay some of the highest rents in the nation.”