The Mākena State Park Approval Came With Two Conditions That Will Outlast Its Bathrooms

The plastic portable toilets at Mākena State Park bake in the South Maui sun. They get hot enough that beachgoers walk into the nearby woods instead, Maui Now reported in July. That small, unpleasant fact sat behind a long public argument over Oneloa, Oneuli and Puʻu Ōlaʻi this summer. The argument ended with a county permit to build permanent restrooms.

The Maui Planning Commission also attached two conditions to that permit, and they reach further than any comfort station. One is a carrying-capacity study. The other asks whether the state can legally set aside parking for residents. Those two will shape how Big Beach works for years. The construction will be done well before either question is answered.

What the commission approved on July 14

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources' Division of State Parks first proposed a fuller package. It called for more paved parking, permanent bathrooms in place of the portable toilets, showers or foot rinses, and permits for the pay stations and toll booths already in use. Civil Beat reported that the work was earlier estimated at about $2.1 million and grew out of community feedback gathered between roughly 2013 and 2020.

The commission did not approve that version on its first look. At the June 23 hearing, commissioners deferred the decision. They asked DLNR to return on July 14 with alternatives to asphalt, including water-permeable paving to deal with runoff, Hawaii News Now reported. Testimony that day split two ways, according to Maui Now's coverage of the hearing. Supporters said permanent restrooms and showers were overdue for sanitation and stewardship. Opponents said the work would wear away the park's wild character and affect wetlands and wildlife. One supporter called the portable toilets "hot, smelly and definitely not sanitary."

Three weeks later the Special Management Area permit passed 6 to 1. Commissioner Mark Deakos voted no and Commissioner Christopher Elizares was excused, according to the commission's official July 14 minutes. The motion folded in the changes from a July 2 letter the state had submitted. The approved project includes two comfort stations with restrooms and two new outdoor showers, Maui Now reported. DLNR's May release places the comfort stations at the north and south lots. Civil Beat reported earlier that the first phase would be one comfort station and parking work near the northern entrance.

What three weeks of revisions took out

The version that passed in July differs from the May proposal in ways a regular beachgoer will notice. Several of them answer concerns raised at the June hearing.

The paving and lighting details come from The Maui News. It reported that the state consulted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and cut the fixtures from six to one at each station. The revised plan also puts all interior and exterior lights on timers that shut off at 8 p.m., which gives park staff about an hour to clean after closing. The total-stall figure comes from Maui Now. The two outlets count parking differently, so their numbers don't line up exactly.

The revisions changed some views but not all of them. Hawaii Wildlife Fund executive director Hannah Bernard told The Maui News, "I would have preferred no lighting, but at least lights will be turned off after 8 p.m." She added that turtle nesting can begin right at sunset. Maui Tomorrow executive director Albert Perez called the move to pervious parking "a victory" but still opposed the comfort stations. Deakos explained his no vote in the same report: "This is the last beach that still has dark skies."

Under the approved plan, most parking stays on pervious surfaces, the facilities go dark at 8 p.m., and the hot portable toilets give way to permanent restrooms and showers.

The two conditions that last beyond construction

The permit's conditions run on a longer schedule than the construction.

1. A carrying-capacity study. In a separate 7-0 vote, the commission required the state to deliver a quantitative study covering, at a minimum, environmental, ecological, cultural, social and physical impacts. The official minutes set the deadline at July 31, 2029, or before final compliance approval, whichever comes first. Maui Now described its purpose as helping the state understand traffic to the park and how much use the park can sustain.
2. A look at parking set aside for residents. The conditions also direct the state to explore whether it can legally reserve part of the parking for residents, according to Maui Now.

These two belong together. A study that puts a number on what Big Beach can handle is the kind of evidence that would support future limits. A resident parking allocation is one possible limit. Neither one changes anything at the gate today. Both create a formal place where the park's future use will be measured and argued over.

Why the reservation question keeps coming back

Much of the June opposition grew from worry that Mākena would follow Kauaʻi's Hāʻena State Park. There, legal parking was reduced, reservations were required and entry was limited to one access point. Civil Beat reported that state parks administrator Alan Carpenter helped design those Hāʻena changes, and he rejected the comparison. Hāʻena has a single official entrance and a small lot. Big Beach can be reached from several places.

The worry had a history. In 2023, DLNR Chair Dawn Chang told state lawmakers the agency was considering a reservation system at Mākena, along with a fence to discourage street parking. Carpenter's answer to that history, as Civil Beat reported it:

"We have zero changes in access for the foreseeable future for Mākena State Park. I want everybody to hear that loud and clear."

He also described when a reservation system would come up. If residents could not find parking at Mākena because of crowding, "that's when we would implement the reservation system in favor of residents." After the vote, the state took the same position. It does not see a reservation system as necessary, but would consider one or other measures if visitor demand grows, to protect the park and resident access.

Read together, the official statements and the permit conditions point the same way. Any future reservation system at Mākena has been framed as a tool to protect resident access, and the carrying-capacity study will put numbers on traffic and use at the park while that framing stands. Street parking is a separate question. Carpenter said he knew of no plans to restrict it, and noted that Mākena sits on a county-managed road, so the county would handle any such change.

Big Beach this winter, before any work starts

DLNR's Mākena State Park page lists no construction notice, contractor or closure for the park. Its current notices cover other matters. Back in May, Carpenter told Civil Beat he wanted construction to begin as soon as the county approved it. He also said rising costs since the funding was approved would stretch out the build.

For now the park runs as it has. According to DLNR's park page, Oneloa and Oneuli are open daily from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nonresidents pay $5 per person to enter and $10 per vehicle to park, and Hawaiʻi residents get in free with proof of residency. Fees can be paid at the parking kiosks or online. That fee structure has been in place since 2020.

The park has kept its wilderness character partly through people who look after it. Maui parks superintendent Michael Kahula told Maui Now that vandalism hasn't been a problem at Mākena, in part because the park has a permanent caretaker who is a lineal descendant of the area. He also said permanent bathrooms and showers would keep sand from being tracked into the parking lots and make the park easier to use for people with disabilities.

The park itself traces back to residents. Civil Beat recounts how a group called State Park at Makena spent years pushing the government to buy the land above Big Beach from a developer. The next milestone set by the permit is the carrying-capacity study, due by July 31, 2029, or before final compliance approval, whichever comes first.

For more on this stretch of coast, our guide to Wailea and Makena covers the wider area, and our walk through the Hoapili Trail's two forks covers another Makena outing.

If mornings at Oneloa are part of why you love Makena, or part of why you're looking here, we follow these decisions closely because our clients' days are shaped by them. Wendy and Kate at Properties of Maui are glad to talk through which homes put Big Beach within an easy drive, and to schedule a showing whenever you're ready.