‘No parking’ signs frustrate beachgoers in Paia
Surfers, fishermen have few options as busy winter season approaches

Friday afternoon traffic passes a long line of no parking signs posted along Hana Highway from Paia to Baldwin Beach Park. Surfers, fishermen and other beachgoers say the signs – intended to remove “dangerously parked” cars – have taken away their options as the busy winter season approaches. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Beachgoers, surfers and fishermen are frustrated over the recently installed “no parking” signs along Hana Highway, which are intended to reduce “dangerously parked” cars but have left them with few other places to go.
More than 10 “no parking/tow away” zone signs were installed in September along the stretch of highway between the entrances to Baldwin Beach Park and Lower Paia Park, an area fronting the bike path that drivers were typically parking on when lots overflowed or due to illegal encampments.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation said last week that the purpose of the signs is to allow the Maui Police Department to “remove vehicles dangerously parked along the highway.”
“The sign installation was coordinated with the community and various Maui County agencies, including the Maui Police Department, Office of the Mayor and the Department of Parks and Recreation,” Shelly Kunishige said in an email. “We are not planning to add limited parking hours at this time as this may reduce the effectiveness of the signs in reducing the past safety concerns.”
With winter swells on the horizon and the island’s recent reopening to visitors, the dirt parking lots at Paia Bay and Baldwin Beach have become congested with cars during certain hours of the day by people trying to run or walk for exercise, fish, boogie board, surf, catch the sunset and bodysurf.
Rather than prohibiting parking altogether on that stretch of highway, residents said last week that they would prefer limited time parking signs that would, for example, not allow cars to park overnight from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., to coincide with busier days and times of the year.
“I’m flabbergasted, I’m frustrated, I don’t know what else to do because it was a reasonable suggestion to make parking hours but (DOT) didn’t want to do it,” said Darrell Tanaka, avid fisherman and beach access activist. “When the north swells pop up, there’s going to be a lot more boogie boarders and surfers that want to go to Paia Bay, and there’s not going to be parking.”
Many beachgoers have already been ticketed, Tanaka said, and the intent of the signs are “not to take out the innocent public.”
Tanaka said that the community has always utilized roadside parking because there is currently “just not enough space for everybody.”
“There’s not enough parking stalls at Baby Beach and Paia, and even sometimes at Baldwin you have to park on the side and walk in,” he added.
Over fear that Paia town is growing quickly and that the “no parking” signs will lead to paved parking lots as an alternative, Travis Bernades of Kahului, who surfs on the north shore often, said he feels like “we’re just following the Mainland or Honolulu.”
“It’s better to leave it the way it is, not changing everything,” he said. “Keep the country, country.”
Shannon Guillermo spent much of his childhood in Paia, saying that his family had previously owned the two gas stations located on Hana Highway near the Baldwin Avenue intersection around the 1970s before they became Shell and Minit Stop.
“We watched all the family businesses come and go, and I grew up bodyboarding and stuff at Paia Bay,” said Guillermo, who is now a Pukalani resident.
Over the years, he said he’s witnessed gentrification in areas like Makena Landing and hopes that doesn’t happen on the north shore where he grew up. In Makena, it started with the installation of “no parking” signs and limited parking hours at the lot, and then the addition of paved walkways and condos, he said.
“Every time I came home from the Marines, it started looking more and more like Huntington Beach, Newport Beach,” Guillermo added. “After that, it kind of progressed into more and more control of the area, so I get the same vibes of what they’re trying to do with the area in Paia.”
At Paia Bay on Thursday, a few beachgoers who asked to remain anonymous agreed that the signs helped with the abandoned vehicle and overnight litter issues, while others said more enforcement is needed because there are still “encampments” across the highway or lining the Baldwin Beach Park driveway.
When asked if an additional parking lot should be constructed to alleviate parking concerns, many residents Thursday were against the idea. On the other hand, Tanaka said he would be open to it.
“I don’t think anyone is going to be against a parking lot,” he said. “But in the time being, we don’t see that happening, you know, but we’re still being kept out, and how long are we going to have to wait to have that parking lot take place?”
MPD spokeswoman Lt. Audra Sellers told The Maui News in September that officers have upped enforcement in the area to monitor large beach gatherings, people crossing the highway unsafely and abandoned vehicles in the area.
Sellers said last week that MPD had “received numerous complaints about parking in that area causing safety conditions.”
Maui County spokesman Brian Perry said last week that the Department of Parks and Recreation hasn’t been receiving complaints about a lack of parking at county beach parks, and that substantial parking is available at both beach parks.
Perry said that the department is in the process of “conducting technical studies” for the Baldwin Beach Park Master Plan, which includes a range of proposed parking strategies in the area.
“These studies address engineering, archaeological issues, vegetation and wildlife,” he said. “The studies will be used to refine the initial concept of the master plan and start design implementation by late 2021.”
The master plan, which received its initial funding in 2017, may take about 10 years before any infrastructure improvements are started, according to the public document.
In the plan, proposed parking lots are located close to Hana Highway to provide large open spaces within the park. Suggested parking areas along the internal road will provide closer access to the beach for people who have coolers, umbrellas and other items to carry inside.
Tour buses will not be permitted in the park.
Another local diver and bodysurfer suggested Wednesday via phone that state and county officials get together and open up a parking area on the other side of the bicycle path more inland so that people don’t park along the highway, similar to the one outlined in the master plan.
“Now that there is surf, there is no parking at Paia Bay except for the small little lot inside,” said Jeff, who would only give his first name. “And sometimes Baldwin Beach Park gets closed and there isn’t any place to park inside the park, so to me, that will be a really big issue when that happens because of flooding or because of the high surf breaking on the sand, and water getting into the parking area.”
He said that limited parking hours along the highway would help to mitigate congestion in the lots and still prohibit any overnight parking.
“I don’t think people realize how limited parking will be as far as how many people can access the beach parks and walk inside, because there isn’t going to be any parking allowed along the roadside,” he added.
* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.