LIHU‘E, Kauai — A controversial plan to close ‘Eiwa Street to vehicular traffic and create a walker-friendly, campus-like setting for areas around and between county and state government offices in Lihu‘e is just part of the Lihu‘e Town Core Urban Design Plan.

The last informational meeting on the plan’s final draft was held Thursday night at the War Memorial Convention Hall, but there is still ample time for more public input, county officials said.

The plan will be on the agenda for a public hearing before the county Planning Commission at around 1:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in the Mo‘ikeha Building’s first-floor conference room. If approved by the commission, the plan will move to the County Council for public hearing and action. If all goes as planned, it will become county law with council and mayoral approval, said Marie Williams, county Planning Department long-range planner.

The boundaries of the town core are Hardy Street and the intersection of Rice and Ho‘olako streets to the east; Kuhio Highway at Wilcox Memorial Hospital to the north; the former Lihu‘e Plantation mill site along Haleko Road to the west; and the northern rim of the Nawiliwili Stream gulch to the south.

The plan calls for 30-foot height limits on any new construction in the area, and for mixed uses across most of the five neighborhoods identified in the plan: Rice Street, Kuhio Highway, ‘Akahi/‘Elua/‘Umi, Lihu‘e Civic Center and Community Facilities, and the Lihu‘e Mill Site and Haleko Road.

Not included in the town core are nearby neighborhoods like Isenberg Tract, Pua Loke, Nawiliwili, Kupolo, Molokoa and Lihu‘e Town Estates.

Information in the plan indicates that Rice Street used to be called the “Road to Nawiliwili” as late as 1932, and Kaumuali‘i Highway was “Government Road.”

On the national and state list of historically significant places are the Lihu‘e post office, Kaua‘i Museum, and the Lihu‘e Civic Center Historic District (including the Historic County Building, its lawn and annex, and the former state courthouse on ‘Umi Street).

The lone exceptional tree in the town core as defined in the county’s ordinance is the false kamami along Ahukini Road fronting the Sleeping Giant real-estate office.

The Grove Farm railway used to extend from the old mill site to the harbor, running through the Nawiliwili Stream valley along the perimeter of the town core, and plans might be to re-establish that rail line for that length, according to the plan.

The original Lihu‘e Development Plan, published in 1976, which along with other planning documents is up for revision, called for expansion of government facilities eastward to include a portion of the Lihu‘e Park behind the state Department of Health offices on ‘Umi Street, not anticipating purchase of the former Lihu‘e Shopping Center (including the area known as the “round building”) by county leaders.

Nearly forgotten in the ongoing shoreline-path debate focused farther north is that the path is supposed to start at the shoreline near Lihu‘e Airport and Kauai Lagoons.

The town-core plan, known as an “adjunct guidance document,” envisions a four-lane Ahukini Road from the airport, and a realigned Kuhio Highway-Ahukini intersection with ‘Ehiku Street at the entrance to the Isenberg Tract subdivision, with the road continuing westward for a later-planned Lihu‘e bypass road heading south and west away from Lihu‘e.

Lihu‘e’s first traffic circle is planned at the intersection of Hardy and ‘Umi streets near Wilcox Elementary School, and Ho‘olako and Ka‘ana streets are planned to be extended past the Kaua‘i Police Department headquarters.

A pedestrian-circulation plan is a component, with all sidewalks envisioned to be compliant with provisions of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

With 25 percent of Lihu‘e residents under age 18 and 25 percent over age 65, having dependable public transit, The Kaua‘i Bus, is seen as crucial, and economic incentives are in the plan for businesses to build bus stops and bicycle parking, build “green” and build employee housing if necessary.

The plan is dedicated to the late Mike Furukawa, who was a vice president at Grove Farm and a member of the plan’s Citizens Advisory Committee whose “community spirit exemplifies the many devoted citizens, present and past, who built this town,” according to the plan’s introduction. The CAC also includes five architects.

“To me, Lihu‘e is the heart of Kaua‘i,” said Dr. Neil Clendeninn, a medical doctor who did his master’s degree planning thesis on Lihu‘e. He lives above ‘Anini, and is a member of the CAC.

Nobody from the North Shore or Westside says “I want to go to Lihu‘e.” It’s always “I have to go to Lihu‘e,” he said.

The plan aims to change that mindset, he said.

The island’s first-ever community design plan is “kind of a vision of what we want an area to look like,” said Clendeninn, saying the Lihu‘e of today is a “patchwork quilt of different kinds of buildings,” with one of its strengths being the different neighborhoods within the core.

“They add character,” he said.

There will be some things everyone likes, things everyone hates, and things not all will agree on. “That’s planning,” he said.

“This plan really has been a long time coming,” said Williams, discussing the Lihu‘e vision for the year 2020 as a “pedestrian-friendly,” vital heart of the island and a welcoming destination with lots of sidewalks, bike lanes and paths, and trees and other attractive landscaping.

Jim Mayfield, whose German Hill residence is outside the core area but whose business is on Haleko Road within the core, said he is concerned about added traffic congestion at the intersection of Rice and ‘Umi streets if ‘Eiwa is closed to traffic.

Diane Zachary, whose Kaua‘i Planning and Action Alliance office is on ‘Umi Street in the town core, said public transit and pedestrian-friendly areas need to be the focus.

An architect said the closing of ‘Eiwa Street to vehicular traffic might be the start of a solution to Lihu‘e traffic problems, and if businesses have parking problems that might be a sign of economic success.

There are 11 proposed public parking areas, including the existing convention hall lot, but it is unlikely all 11 will be built, Clendeninn said.

Dwayne Naumu, a business owner in Lihu‘e, said the town’s businesses are dying because there is no parking.

Ian Costa, county Planning Department director, said planners have been planning around cars for years, “and that’s gotta stop. There will be a day when we gotta walk.”

Download the plan at www.kauai.gov/planning, under “Projects.” E-mail comments to mwilliams@kauai.gov, or call the department at 241-4067.