If you drive up Luluku Road on Thursday, October 29, you'll find the gate at Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden closed. It has been closed every Thursday since January 8, 2026, and one reason is the garbage trucks that serve the homes along that road.
The weekly rest day, the rebuilt path to the lake, the proposal to move the entrance and the talk of a visitor fee all move Hoʻomaluhia's 400 acres toward the people who live next to it and visit it most. The garden is still free to everyone, and the final plan has not been released yet.
A day off chosen with Luluku Road in mind
The City put the day of rest to a public poll in fall 2025. It drew 3,472 votes, and 76 percent chose Thursday over Tuesday. According to the City's announcement of the result, Honolulu Botanical Gardens Director Joshlyn Sand said a Thursday closure would let garbage trucks reach residents' bins on Luluku Road. It would also give the garden time to recover and give staff time for maintenance and programming work.
The pressure behind the closure shows up in the visitor count. The City counted 723,495 visits from July 2024 through June 2025, a record for the garden. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed and built it as flood protection for Kāneʻohe, and it now draws more visitors than any other City botanical garden. A single access road shared with a residential street had to carry all of that traffic. The Thursday closure gives that road one quiet day a week.
The rules for driving through the garden point the same way. The City's garden page lists a 15 mph limit, no passing, staying seated while the car is moving, and no parking or stopping along the road. A photo with Hawaiʻi Public Radio's September report shows two people taking a picture in the main road. HPR noted that the park bans standing on the road and that staff have warned visitors.
The lake came back on firmer ground
Most of the work this year went into what a repeat visitor uses. Hawaii News Now reported that a major road repaving project was finished in January 2026. Then the March Kona low storms sent water through the garden, and HPR reported in late April that parts of it were still closed for cleanup.
The shoreline of Loko Waimaluhia, the garden's 32-acre lake, stayed closed for an extended period. The City reopened part of it on June 6 and opened a newly reinforced path from the Paul R. Weissich Education Center at the same time. According to the City, this was the first time that path had ever been reinforced. It used to be an earthen trail that often turned muddy in Windward rain. Peterson Bros. built the new path under a contract of about $170,000. The City's current garden page lists normal hours and scheduled fishing sessions.
Family fishing returned on July 1. The catch-and-release program now runs this way:
- Sessions run Wednesdays and Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 3 p.m.
- Online reservations open Wednesdays at 5 p.m. HST, two weeks before the fishing date.
- Each reservation covers up to five people, and you need a printed or phone copy at check-in.
- Each two-hour session has 100 spots, and the City keeps several open for walk-ins.
- The shoreline is about a 20-minute walk from the Education Center.
Organized youth and school groups fish on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Their permits must be requested at least 30 days ahead, and the garden does not book groups on weekends because of visitor volume and limited parking. Weekends are where the crowding is greatest, and the scheduling works around them.
The plan moves the front door away from the houses
Hoʻomaluhia had never had a master plan before. Work on the first one began in fall 2025 with consultants ecoLogic and StudioOutside. The plan is phased and meant to guide the garden for about 20 years. When the City opened the process, it listed managing visitation and easing congestion for public safety as an early focus. Its announcement quoted Sand on the plan's purpose:
"We are truly excited to launch this is a historic moment in Hoʻomaluhia's 43-year history, as we help shape the future of this special place of refuge together."
That quote comes from the City's November 2025 workshop announcement.
On August 5, 2026, dozens of community members came to Windward Community College to see the near-final plan. Its proposals include an improved entrance placed farther from nearby homes, renovated facilities with more interactive features, and community gathering areas.
The published workshop findings show how that entrance idea developed. At the second workshop in April, participants strongly supported moving the entry beyond Luluku Stream so cars could line up inside the garden. Some also suggested a cap on total vehicles and a fee per person or per car. At the first workshop, participants supported a walking route kept apart from cars, a path running beside the road, and possibly one-way traffic. They broadly supported guided plant-identification walks and gave little support to a tram. The second round recorded concern about a tram to the Kilonani Mauka Overlook.
Together, those findings describe the problem the City keeps returning to. The line of cars waiting to get in currently backs up into a neighborhood. Moving it inside the garden addresses the same Luluku Road traffic the Thursday closure was chosen to relieve.
Who the proposed fee would charge
The City's planning page says that with more than 729,000 visitors counted last year, a tourist entrance fee similar to Hanauma Bay's is "gaining traction" as a way to help pay for the improvements. In September, HPR's report on counties moving toward visitor-funded models described the City as proposing a fee for the garden. No amount or start date has been published.
The table below shows where each piece stood in late October 2026.
| Change | Date | Status in late October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Thursday closure | Began January 8, 2026 | In effect |
| Road repaving | Finished January 2026 | Done |
| Reinforced lake path and partial shoreline | Opened June 6, 2026 | Open |
| Family fishing | Resumed July 1, 2026 | Running Wednesdays and Saturdays |
| Relocated entrance | Shown August 5, 2026 | Proposed in near-final plan |
| Tourist entrance fee | Discussed August–September 2026 | Proposed; no amount set |
| Final master plan | Expected fall 2026 | To be posted on the City's planning page |
The garden page still lists admission as free for children, resident adults and non-resident adults. The City has said the final plan will be posted on its long-range planning page, so that is where any fee details will appear first.
The garden's November and December
Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the last car enters at 3:30 p.m., and everyone must be out by 4. The garden closes every Thursday, on Christmas Day and on New Year's Day. Christmas Day 2026 and New Year's Day 2027 both fall on a Friday. That makes two weeks with back-to-back closures: Thursday, December 24 and Friday, December 25, then Thursday, December 31 and Friday, January 1.
The garden's November and December classes flyer lists these dates:
- Tuesday, November 17: free Kupuna Nature Walk
- Friday, December 11: Green & Dried Wreaths class
- Tuesday, December 15: free Kupuna Nature Walk
- Saturday, December 19: free Winter Break Nature Craft
The Kupuna walks fall on Tuesdays, the same day as the garden's weekly self-directed Drawing & Painting session from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The garden provides plants, flowers and seeds, and painters bring their own supplies. Any of these can be paired with a lake visit on the reinforced path. For questions, the garden's office is at (808) 768-8942.
On a Thursday, Heʻeia State Park is open with free entry from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Its weekly closure is on Monday.
Changes at Hoʻomaluhia, from the entrance plan to the traffic on Luluku Road, shape daily life on this side of Kāneʻohe. If you'd like to talk through what the final master plan could mean for your corner of Kāneʻohe once the City posts it, Alesia Barnes is glad to help. Let's Connect.
