No one on the North Shore wants Hale'iwa Town to lose its country charm, but almost everyone agrees it's time the community had some sidewalks or other walkways to get people out of the potholes and puddles.

The idea first surfaced more than 16 years ago, but the years of waiting and the cancellation of a city contract in 2005 sent advocates to the Legislature for help.

But there won't be any help from state lawmakers this year.

Legislators had included more than $2.2 million in the capital improvements budget to begin creating a walking system from Weed Circle to Hale'iwa Beach Park, essentially the entire length of town. And advocates were hopeful as lawmakers dickered in the last days of the session, even as the sidewalks project competed for money with nearly 300 other measures.

But yesterday, money for the walkway proposal was eliminated during negotiations between the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the House Finance Committee.

The news disappointed supporters of the project, but Antya Miller, executive director for the North Shore Chamber of Commerce, said they won't give up.

"We'll have to find out the reason why and try to address it for next year," Miller said.

Residents and area legislators think the walkway project is worthy because it will help ensure the safety of millions of tourists and residents who come to the area each year, attracted by the town's legendary surf and its quaint rural lifestyle.

"We need some basic infrastructure because the number of people who are coming out here has definitely outpaced the infrastructure," she said. "It's really a safety issue."

COMPETING WITH CARS

During rainy weather, people walk in the mud or down the middle of the road to avoid puddles, Miller said. She said she has seen people fall and the elderly push wheelchairs on the street because the gravel shoulders are too difficult to traverse. During the bumper-to-bumper traffic that crawls through town, pedestrians must compete with automobiles for space.

Although more than 86 percent of the people recently polled in the community support a walkway, they want to preserve their historic town. They have long opposed conventional concrete sidewalks and gutters.

Merv Kuahiwinui, manager of HIC Haleiwa, is among those who are against the straight-through sidewalks seen in most urban communities and planned for Hale'iwa in 2005 before the project was scrapped. That would have eliminated six of the nine head-in parking stalls in front of his building, Kuahiwinui said. If he could retain the parking, he said he would support the project.

"I feel Hale'iwa needs some kind of sidewalk for pedestrians but for my area, it's safe already," he said.

Sen. Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), who had submitted the project for the budget this year, said it is needed.

"It's important because you have 2 million visitors to Hale'iwa Town every year," he said. "We want to keep Hale'iwa in the minds of our visitors. We want to keep improving the economic climate in Hale'iwa."

But even though there's general agreement that some kind of walkway is needed, opinions differ on what it should look like.

The improvements can't "modernize" the town and must address parking issues, said Kalani Fronda, chairman of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce.

The community will have to work together, educate itself and come to an agreement on the design of the walkway, Fronda said.

"It may require some give and take and I think that parts of the community are struggling with that, what do you get in return for giving up some of that stuff?" he said.

The city came close to starting a walkway project in 2005, but that was canceled because businesses didn't want to lose their parking, said Eugene Lee, director of the city Department of Design and Construction.

Instead the city agreed to do a master plan that will identify issues and develop alternative walkway schemes, Lee said. Once completed, the plan will go to the community, he said.

"It's a forum for people to come to some kind of agreement," Lee said, adding that it should also aid discussion about the area's future and how it will look.

But he held out little hope that the city would once again fully fund any such project.

"When it comes to sidewalks the position has always been from the city that new sidewalks should go as an improved district process whereby the benefiting owners share in the cost of the construction," he said.

'HELP EVERYONE'

But City Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz and others said Waikiki, Kapahulu and Chinatown didn't have to contribute to improvements and neither should Hale'iwa.

"We're talking about a visitor industry economic development for the town that's going to help everyone so we have safe sidewalks for visitors as well as kama'aina," Dela Cruz said.

Miller said the 2005 project was killed because a vocal minority had the city's ear. She said she suspects that new handicapped-accessibility requirements may have contributed to the city's decision to cancel the work, but for now the community wants to move forward.

"Hopefully we can move beyond politics and do what is necessary for Hale'iwa, the North Shore and the whole island of O'ahu because it is a major destination and people who come to Waikiki want to get out in the country," she said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.