Since forming in 2007, the Kailua Village Business Improvement District has cleaned up Alii Drive, often literally.
The district’s executive directors launched “clean and safe” initiatives in Kailua Village, bringing in daily sweeping crews to clean sidewalks, planters and streets, as well as upped security patrols in the village to provide more figurative cleaning services.
“The first five years really focused on basic operational needs,” Executive Director Debbie Baker said. “Now it’s what are the priorities and how can we find partners.”
KVBID organized some of those ideas for the next five years in a strategic plan, completed earlier this month. Board members spent a year discussing and formulating the plan.
The plan outlines goals that include introducing county legislation to allow sidewalk dining, address sidewalk encroachments, address disorderly conduct and discourage panhandling. Directors would like to see more surveillance cameras in the village, as well as initiate a recycling program within the business improvement district.
Parking is also a concern, Baker said.
“We want to encourage activity,” she said. “We don’t want people to park six to eight hours” in some of the public lots.
To that end, district officials are considering a pilot project to charge for some parking at the county parking lot on Kuakini Highway, as well as on Likana Lane and Sarona Road. Baker said the idea is in the preliminary stages and the district won’t take any action until the public has a chance to have its say.
Turnover for some of the parking space is fairly slow, which is detrimental to businesses hoping for more customers and for local residents looking to eat or shop in the village, or park for paddling practice, she added.
Parking lot revenue could be used to lease land for an employee parking lot, Baker said. The plan lays out the groundwork for an employee shuttle, bringing workers to the village from a parking lot outside the district.
Baker also noted parking fee systems are fairly sophisticated and could be set up to allow for a discounted parking fee for kamaaina, or even allow so many hours for free before local residents were charged a fee.
Directors also want to increase the branding of Kailua Village, through marketing the area as a “destination like no other,” selling Kailua Village logo items and by researching the possibility of creating a museum within the village. Baker said the initial idea would be a sports-themed museum, with an emphasis on the Ironman triathlons, the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament and other water sports.
The broad strategic plan is a “visionary document,” Baker said, setting out goals and objectives. Those actions aren’t set in stone.
The district will need to continue to develop partnerships with county and state agencies, as well as private entities, and to seek funding for the new initiatives, she said.
According to its website, the district’s vision is “to work cooperatively to improve and maintain the physical appearance and aesthetics of public rights of way, open spaces and parks by increasing cleanliness and security so as to attract long-term sustainable business and community activity in historic Kailua Village.”
The plan is available at historickailuavillage.com/strategic-plan.