The Department of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) will be submitting legislative requests to privatize the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor giving a 65-year lease. This and other proposals (like the attempted, HB 1654, 2022) would eliminate free recreational parking. We at SurfParking.org and Kama‘aina Boaters will show you how to prepare testimony early and how to submit it during the State Legislative Session which opens January 18th, 2023.

Surfparking.org is fighting to preserve the 300 remaining free recreational parking stalls at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor and protect your access to the ocean and beach areas. This area is a source of pride as the beach, the lagoon, and the channel are all named after the surfing and swimming Legend Duke Kahanamoku.

Even though this area has a rich cultural history, DOBOR Administration does not seem to care and they continue to work on privatizing the harbor. DOBOR administrative staff are State employees their funding for their positions is paid from the ‘Special Boating Fund’. The Boater slip fees and parking revenues build the fund up, therefore the boaters are the main contributors to the DOBOR salaries, yet the DOBOR staff seem to be working for potential Developers instead of Hawaii Residents. The message from DOBOR about the reason for development is, “We need more green space, bike paths, and retail shops open to everyone” which sounds basically alright, but the comment is actually suspect because the free ocean access and parking access will be severely limited if privatization occurs. The current trend in automated parking is the use of a smart phone and scan code to pay for parking. This already exists at Kewalo Harbor a nearby privatized marina. We at surfparking.org think Hawai‘i residents deserve to park at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor without payment. There are many options for continuing free parking for kamaʻāina such as use of a vehicle decal or recreational ID card.

This is NOT the first attempt by DOBOR to reduce or eliminate free recreational parking and access at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor. Surfparking.org wants to make it the last attempt by drafting legislation to preserve free kamaʻāina access, and prevent the vehicle towing that is rampant in the Ala Wai Boat Harbor compared to City and County Recreational parking lots.

There are a total of 941 parking stalls in this harbor. In 2008, the number of recreational stalls was reduced from 549 to 300 with the promise to preserve them.  In January 2020, DOBOR once again attempted to reduce the number of free recreational stalls but written testimony and public outcry prevented this from occurring.

DOBOR has submitted a Request For Proposal (RFP) to the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) to allow investors seeking to privatize and develop the entire boat harbor area. The RFP currently contains language allowing parking changes to be made by the DLNR Chairperson, essentially allowing this person to alter parking “in the best interest of the state”. Working together we can prevent this risky and poor policy would eliminate public involvement and testimony. Since we still have the opportunity to provide testimony to the BLNR regarding parking, we need to prepare now.

The Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor is one of the few remaining places in Waikiki where a surfer can park and conveniently carry a surfboard to the ocean. The six hour free public parking area is extremely valuable to the people of Hawai‘i. We need our Legislators to propose a bill in the next legislative session to save the free recreational parking and ocean access for all time.