Park Maui charging parking in Kihei is a horrible idea.

What attracted me to move to Maui was the free beach access and free parking, unlike CA or East Coast beaches.

After visiting often, in 2008, we bought a nice house, were full time residents for 10 years until we had grandchildren and now split our time between the mainland and Maui.

We already pay two to three times the property taxes than my neighbors and now they want to charge me to pay for parking to go to one of the Kam beaches at 10$/day.

They need to distinguish between people who are real tourists and people who live there for six months of the year.

Treat people who own a house as you do kamaaina.

However, the idea is horrible even for tourists. Tourists spend a ton of money to fly to Maui, stay in an expensive hotel (since the ill-advised idea to stop vacation rentals may become law) and now have to pay for parking.

It is annoying and looks like Maui is trying to keep tourists from coming and a money grab.

If you have to charge, make it reasonable like $2 or 3$, not $10.

Gerrit Buchheim

Kihei