Honolulu County, HI Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

50(c) is a maintenance standard, not just a construction standard, so a driveway that was once paved but has broken down into a dust-generating surface falls out of compliance the same way a never-paved one does. It reaches three kinds of areas on a property: off-street parking spaces, parking lots, and driveways. Everywhere on Oahu outside the preservation, agricultural, and country zoning districts, those surfaces must be dust-free, durable, and all-weather. Inside those three districts the code relaxes, allowing parking lots and driveways to be surfaced with crushed rock or limestone instead, or with whatever alternative the director determines is acceptable pursuant to Article 2.

The section deliberately leaves the list of acceptable surfaces open ended: suitable dust-free all-weather surfaces "may include but are not limited to" permeable pavers, including grass-block or similar systems. That language matters for homeowners who want drainage-friendly surfacing, because a grass-block driveway qualifies so long as the surface keeps sediment, dirt, mud, or debris out of the right-of-way. Conventional pavement is not the only path to compliance in Honolulu, but bare dirt outside the three exempt districts never is.