People who use shared cars could see them parked in on-street stalls under a measure bound for the full Honolulu City Council.
The council’s Budget Committee on Wednesday backed more reserved parking spaces for companies that offer car-sharing. They allow drivers to rent cars as they need them off the street using phone apps.
The shared cars from operators like Enterprise CarShare and Hui Car Share are now rented from off-street stalls around the city.
Bill 19 would charge the car-sharing companies thousands in annual fees to reserve parking stalls in areas such as Waikiki and downtown Honolulu.
The city now charges the companies the street meter rates for the shared cars.
“Sometimes it's better for the city to have a stall designated for this purpose because we would actually achieve more revenue,” said Wes Frysztacki, city transportation services director.
The city will issue stickers to identify which cars are allowed to use the reserved stalls. Any cars found in these reserved spaces that don’t have an approved sticker could be towed and fined $100.
No more than 80 stalls per year would be available for the shared cars.
In other action, the council budget committee advanced Bill 33, which would create property tax exemptions for residential homeowners.
Budget Committee Chair Joey Manahan said the bill would expand upon the $10 million in tax exemptions created by Bill 3, which the City Council approved last month.
'What we're trying to do is take some of those exemptions that may be going to people who are earning more -- or perhaps don't necessarily need a tax exemption -- and redistributing those exemptions to people on the lower end of the income scale or who have lower property value," Manahan said.
The bill moves to a second reading before the council followed by a look-over by the city Tax Review Comission.
