The newest feature at the Kaimuki Municipal Parking Lot is a vending machine that allows patrons to pay for parking and use two exits that are not staffed with cashiers.

The self-pay system began this month, about three months after the lot was converted from coin-fed meters to an attendant operation.

One of the lot's three exits will continue to have a cashier, and patrons who use the self-pay machine can use any of the three.

Republic Parking, which operates the 270-space lot, has finished repaving and restriping one section and will take a break for the holidays before completing the job. The company will also remove old parking meter poles and reconfigure the lot to create about 20 more parking stalls. The work should be done by August, the company said.

Business owners said the changes have increased turnover at the lot because employees can no longer feed the meters and park there all day.

"This lot was always full because of the employees," said John Kobayashi, president of the Kaimuki Business and Professional Association. "Now they have to park somewhere else, and there's parking for patrons."

Parking costs 75 cents per hour for the first two hours, the same as the old meter rate. But the rate now jumps to $1.50 per hour thereafter.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann held a news conference in the lot yesterday and urged shoppers who haven't visited recently to give it a try.

"Please come to this area of Kaimuki," he said. "It's alive and well and getting a rebirth."

Republic Parking has a three-year contract to operate the lot, and pays the city $2,000 per month plus 3 percent of parking revenue, city Transportation Director Melvin Kaku said. The company is also paying for the lot improvements.