Monday, April 22, 2013

Musings: Abuse Chronicles 14-A

Many vacation rentals in Wainiha and Haena have claimed the public beach with their private landscaping. This insidious theft is documented well at Hale Makai, an Oneone Street property that operates five commercial vacation rentals on less than an acre.  Its story is so egregious it will be told in multiple parts. Today's installment marks the grim process of beach encroachment and erosion, as documented by landmark  trees.
Here you see the hala tree — and broad public beach — in 2004, pre-TVR days.
Though the lawn is creeping makai, notice the high water debris mauka of the hala.
Despite this 2010 sign, the debris line again shows wave wash mauka of the tree. 
Cultivated naupaka continues to claim public beach around hala tree.
Today the public beach and hala tree are privatized, as shown in this TVR ad. Now when citizens sit under it they are harassed and told to get off private property.
Now watch the transition around this landmark ironwood tree. 
Here it is in 1993.
And here it is in 2004, when the aspiring TVR developer began planting naupaka around its base.
Though erosion had been ongoing since the 1970s, there was still significant beach in 2004. Note the spider lilies and naupaka that are newly planted.
The owner proceeded to heavily armor the shoreline with vegetation, a process we will cover in Part B. As a result of the intense landscaping, which serves to accelerate erosion and consume the beach, this is what the coastline fronting Hale Makai is like for eight months of the year.



Going, going, gone — to the vacation rental that claims it's offering the "aloha spirit" along with its beachfront digs.
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11 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 22, 2013 at 12:40 PM

    This is pissing me off. These TVR's are stealing our beaches and eroding our beaches at the same time. We need to take our beaches back by ripping out that naupaka and grass to restore our beaches.

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  2. AnonymousApril 22, 2013 at 1:12 PM

    Thank you so much for following up with this, Joan. As a Kauai resident, born and raised, I've seen the progression of this "privatization" of these beaches. Along with the legal and safety issues brought about by these rentals, there's also the attitude perception of ownership that comes with it. We can't even go down Anini to teach my kids how to cast for Papio without some visitors complaining that our fishing lines are in the way of where they're paddling kayaks. One visitor even got mad at my son when he chased her unleashed dog away from his bait well, stating as she walked away, "This isn't a fishing beach." I was also once asked to tell my son to stop running past a certain area of beach while they were filming a wedding ceremony being held in the yard of one of these vacation rentals. Seriously??? How do they expect us to want to show Aloha and courtesy to them when they act like they own everything, including our PUBLIC beaches?

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  3. AnonymousApril 22, 2013 at 3:58 PM

    If its a public beach, who has standing to file suit for trespass and nuisance? Obviously planting things on someone else's property is trespass and if its public property and eroding beaches its nuisance. A private citizen might even have standing to file that one.

    And some smart prosecutor might even make a criminal prosecution for trespass (and restitution) stick, after sending the owners a letter reminding them who "owns" the beach and demanding that they remove, within 30 days, any plantings or irrigation they have added on the public's beach.

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  4. AnonymousApril 22, 2013 at 4:19 PM

    Report to OCCL!

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  5. AnonymousApril 22, 2013 at 4:26 PM

    "Obviously planting things on someone else's property is trespass and if its public property and eroding beaches its nuisance."

    Yea. the "someone elseʻs property" is ours the publicʻs. So there should be standing.

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  6. AnonymousApril 22, 2013 at 4:31 PM

    This is outside the prosecutors jurisdiction and would required state intervention.

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  7. AnonymousApril 23, 2013 at 6:22 AM

    Why has there been no enforcement from the state? Does seem like they are not doing their job either.

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  8. AnonymousApril 23, 2013 at 8:21 AM

    I would be careful of blaming all or most beach erosion on the North Shore on TVR related activities. While I do not doubt that in some cases that is what is happening I also believe there is erosion (and in other places beach build up) happening on the island due to natural causes. I think you would need site specific expert testimony before spending time and resources on enforcement actions regarding the shoreline.

    I think the county needs to stop the bleeding and correct the TVR permitting process to stop future abuse. It will be a long difficult process to mitigate the damage already done,

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  9. AnonymousApril 23, 2013 at 10:03 AM

    http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/coasts/kauaicounty/KCounty.html

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  10. AnonymousApril 23, 2013 at 12:29 PM

    one more time - sing along "together we can"...LOL

    The state doesn't / can't work with county or is it the county can't / doesn't work with the state...either way we are screwed.

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  11. AnonymousApril 25, 2013 at 1:21 PM

    so happy to know that several people printed out copies of the TVR lists before the permitting department took it off line - hope they know that they are being watched and don't try to make any unethical changes to the data...

    LOL

    April 25, 2013 at 12:11 PM

    from previous Abuse Chronicles

    To the contrary - I sincerely hope that they do try to change the data, evidence that can be submitted in a court to their illegal behavior and unethical actions.

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