Preset Ban Ignored: “No commercial vendor shall preset commercial beach equipment on any beach … unless the customer is physically present for the immediate use of the commercial beach equipment.” So states Act 227 of the 2023 Legislature, which is intended to ban the practice of hotels and other businesses putting out dozens of chairs and umbrellas on public beaches on Oʻahu and Maui – a practice that effectively denies the use of the beach to the public, reserving it for the exclusive use of hotel guests, even when they are not present.
On January 1, Doug Meller toured Waikiki Beach around 8:30 in the morning and found commercial presetting of equipment continues over the public easements fronting the Royal Hawaiian, the Outrigger Waikiki, and the Moana Surfrider. Meller sent photographs of the hundreds of umbrellas and unoccupied chairs to the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, requesting that it level civil fines as allowed under Act 227. Those fines are $5,000 for a first offense, $10,000 for a second offense, and $15,000 for a third or later offense.
Meller also discovered that two operators of concessions – Dive O’ahu and Pacific Island Beach Boys – granted by the City & County of Honolulu were violating Act 227 as well as the city’s own policy against presetting. In 2022, the city Department of Enterprise Services informed Meller that it was department policy “not to allow umbrellas and chairs to occupy space outside the premises of city’s beach concessions unless those umbrellas and chairs are actively being rented.”
Kaneʻohe Base Live Fire: The Marine Corps is proposing to change the hours that it can fire weapons at the Ulupau Crater Weapons Training Range in Kaneʻohe Bay and, in keeping with that change, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed amending regulations for the existing danger zone.
At present, weapons may be fired at the training range at any time between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., seven days a week. The Marine Corps is proposing changing the hours so that weapons can be fired as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 2 a.m. the following day.
The danger zone is closed whenever weapons firing is scheduled or in progress.
The deadline for public comment on the proposed rule is January 8. For more information, visit the website Reguations.gov and search for docket number COE-2023-0010.
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