Fourth of July: March for Beach Access

Calling all surfers, paddlers, fishermen and beach-goers of all ages!

Wear wacky beach outfits, bring props like boogie boards and fishing poles, and join us on Friday, July 4 for the annual Kailua parade down Kainalu Drive...

Our allies, Defend Oahu Coalition from the North Shore and the Surfrider Foundation, will also be marching. Bring your kids, your pets and your friends. We want to make this a Moveable Beach Party that will spread our message: Hawaii's beaches belong to us all. No more gates! No private beaches!

Good Comment on KHNL Story

Ian Lind's blog today points out another major omission in the KHNL story last night (see post below) about Kahala homeowners claiming the naupaka in front of their property is actually preventing beach erosion:

"... The problem with the story is that it fails to credit the mass of scientific evidence and legal precedent that has identified artificial plantings along the shore as sources of erosion. Like seawalls, which are a last line of defense for oceanfront land but are generally banned because they cause serious long term erosion, property owners think they are protecting the beach by encouraging plants to grow onto the sand but in fact they are causing erosion by interfering with the natural circulation of sand.

In Kahala, the neighborhood board and community association have been pushing the state for years to enforce its coastal rules, which prohibit plantings seaward of the legal shoreline. Kahala homeowners have planted and watered in order to get naupaka and other plants to grow towards the water, in the process extending their own properties while damaging the beach.

This has been a problem statewide for years, a history ignored by the K5 report. It led to a landmark Hawaii Supreme Court decision in 2006, discussed here in Juan Wilsons Island Breath blog.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources should be getting credit for finally taking comprehensive enforcement action in a coastal area rather than simply responding to complaints about individual homeowners. Instead, K5 ignored history, law, and science with its homeowners rights approach to the issue..."

Here's the link to the complete blog entry.

More on Shoreline Setbacks, Vegetation Issues

KHNL ran a report Sunday night about homeowners in Kahala being ordered to remove naupaka that is blocking lateral shoreline access. One of them claims the naupaka is necessary to prevent further erosion.

Here's the link to the KHNL news story.

The real problem though, which KHNL neglected to mention, is that those homes should never have been allowed to be built so close to the shoreline in the first place. And yet our do-nothing Honolulu City Council continues to allow new home building close to the ocean even though there is ample evidence that sea levels are rising.

In Kailua, one homeowner decided to rebuild closer to the beach -- which will partially block his neighbor's former ocean view. Could that be why the neighbor is now selling in the photo below? How many others will do the same, and race each other to build closer to the ocean?

1, 2, 3, 4...Get Your Booty Out the Door!

5, 6, 7, 8... Time to March Against the Gate! Sound off...

It's official: Beach Access Hawaii and our allies will be marching in the Kailua Fourth of July parade, between 10 AM and noon on Kainalu Drive. Anyone who wants to join us can bring signs and props to show how they feel about this issue.

There will be a pre-parade planning meeting on Weds., June 25, 6 PM at the home of Mark Olds, who lives at 306 N. Kainalu Drive (near the Kapaa Street intersection). That's right on the parade route, so Mark has offered to let us put signs and banners on his fence too!

Should be a lot of fun. If you have any questions or suggestions, please email me at figeli001@hawaii.rr.com.

Back to the Beach (if you can find it)

Just returned from a 3-week trip to Europe and NYC, and am nearly caught up on the latest beach access-related developments that occurred while I was away.

The Sunday Star-Bulletin (June 1) ran a front page story on overgrown vegetation blocking shoreline access in Kahala and other parts of the islands. Above is a photo of a part of Kailua Beach where naupaka extends about 50 yards from the homeowner's property.

The Star-B then followed with a good editorial on the subject in Wednesday's paper (June 4). It noted that erosion is an ongoing problem -- which could have been addressed in State legislation to increase shoreline building setbacks. However, our do-nothing Legislature let that bill die in the last session.

Speaking of setbacks, our coalition lost the battle to keep all of the free parking spaces at the Ala Wai harbor near the Bowls surfing spot. But the State Board of Land and Natural Resources did yield somewhat to public pressure and agreed to keep 300 of the parking spaces free, while only charging 25 cents per hour for metered parking on the other 266 spaces. We don't like the precedent this sets for pay-to-play in our oceans. Here's the Advertiser article on that compromise deal.

In the Honolulu Advertiser, Lee Cataluna's May 13 column was about Iroquois Beach being reopened to the public. She notes that the restrictions allow limited access, but also succeed in keeping that beach clean and litter-free... sadly, she's right: as long as locals trash our beaches, you will find opposition to increased public access via private roads. Here's the link to her column.

Mahalo to Roxanne for her guest blog while I was on vacation! Much more to follow, including tentative plans for a Beach Access Hawaii entry in the upcoming Kailua Fourth of July parade. If you haven't already registered for email updates, please use the link on the right hand side of the page to do so. And don't forget to donate a few dollars if you can spare it! We're gearing up for Groundhog Day 2009, and need to build up a war chest for legal action against locked gates on private and public roads.