Hawaii County Proposes Bill that Increases Parking Pavement

Proposed Bill 79 presently before the Hawaii County Council will increase pavement on the island in the form of more parking stalls.

Landowners who have a bed and breakfast will need to provide 2 instead of 1 stall. For commercial projects, the amount of stalls will triple from 1 stall for every 300 sq. ft. to 1 stall for every 100 sq. ft. For multifamily projects, parking requirements will double from 1 ¼ stalls per unit to 2 ½ stalls per unit plus a dedication of 10% of the total stalls to guest parking.

Increasing parking may seem like a good idea in the face of increasing traffic, but I doubt that increasing the number of stalls in the county will promote car pooling or other alternate forms of transportation. Instead, it may promote more vehicles on the roads which would increase traffic congestion. In the long-term, requiring more stalls makes it difficult to plan urban centers leading toward sprawled development and less efficient use of space.