There is no such thing as a private beach in Hawai’i. But, as has been well reported elsewhere, that fact was lost on the guards hired by Bill Gates to keep members of a prying press away from Gates’ New Year’s Day wedding at the Manele resort on the island whose owner touts it as “the private island.”
When one Honolulu reporter tried to get to Hulopo’e Beach – access to which is assured by Lana’i Company agreements with Lanaians for Sensible Growth as well as Maui County – he was told by a private guard that Castle & Cooke, a Dole subsidiary; owns the beach and “sublets all the sand to the state” (Honolulu Advertiser, January 2, 1994). An out-of-state journalist was arrested and charged with trespassing; charges were dropped when he agreed to leave the island.
When the Honolulu bureau chief for the Associated Press found his access to Hulopo’e Beach barred by a private security guard, he challenged the guard’s claim that the access road was private. “I told the guy this is public access and he said, ‘No, it is not”‘ (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 5, 1994).
Thomas Leppert, president of the Lana’i Company, defended the guards’ actions initially, saying that the agreements concerning use of Hulopo’e Beach Park (land for which is owned by the Lana’i Company) and access to Hulopo’e Beach were drawn up with residents in mind – not visitors to the island. “The spirit of those agreements,” Leppert was reported to have said, “is clearly to protect the right of access to the beach park by the residents of the island” (Advertiser, January 4, 1994).
Leppert’s claim, however, is not supported by a reading of those documents.
Access Assurances
The agreement with Maui County was made in April 1987. It provides for the Lana’i Company to dedicate in perpetuity the area of Hulopo’e Beach Park and access to it for park and recreational purposes. No distinction is made there between island residents and visitors. Under terms of that agreement, park rules are to be administered in a reasonable, non-discriminatory and nonarbitrary manner, with the county to be notified of any rule amendments in advance of their implementation.
The agreement between the company and Lanaians for Sensible Growth was made in November of the same year. According to that pact, “Lanaians and Company concur in the desire that the residents of Lana’i have full and fair opportunity to participate in the planning and establishment of regulations for the administration of the use of the park to provide the public benefit while assuring the proper use and maintenance of the park for the benefit of the residents of Lana’i, the visitors to Lana’i and the citizens of the state of Hawai’i.”
Among other things, the company agreed to establish a park council that included Lana’i residents. One of their first tasks would be to amend park rules to clarify “that the public sand beach area defined by existing law as public property at Hulopo’e is under the jurisdiction of the state and that park rules and regulations do not apply to this area.”
In addition, the company agreed to “allow public vehicular and pedestrian access from public roads through the park to public beaches and shoreline areas subject only to the rules, regulations, ordinances and laws of the county and/or state.”
Within a week of Gates’ wedding, Attorney General Robert Marks announced his office was launching an investigation into the denial of public access.
Additional Access
Not only should the public have unrestricted access to Hulopo’e Beach under terms of the two agreements described, it should also have unimpeded access along the ocean cliffs – including the site chosen by Gates for his wedding.
Conditions 4 and 5 in the Land Use Commission’s order granting approval to the Manele golf course are intended to ensure the public’s ability to travel along the coastal cliffs. Condition 4 states, “The Petitioner shall work with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the County of Maui to incorporate mauka pathways which may be tied to the golf course and residential area pathways which will provide alternate access routes to the accessible cliff coastline area.
Condition 5 reads: “In developing and operating the golf course and any future residential development in the Manele project district, petitioner shall protect public access along the accessible cliff coastline.” Additionally, the Lana’i Company is ordered to “dedicate a public easement along the accessible cliff coastline from Hulopo’e Bay to the intersection of the coastline with the westernmost boundary of the project area [the golf course], which will allow public pedestrian access in perpetuity without obstruction or interference with such use, subject to reasonable rules and regulations for public safety, provided that access shall be maintained.” In fulfilling this condition, the company is ordered to “work with Lanaians for Sensible Growth to incorporate mauka pathways which will provide alternative access routes to the accessible cliff coastline area.”
In the Lana’i Company’s second yearly report on compliance with the LUC conditions, it states, with respect to Condition 4:
“Mauka pathways have been incorporated into the design of the golf course. This will provide access routes near holes 12, 16, and 17.”
As to Condition 5, the company’s report states: “All of the Petitioner’s plans relating to the development and operation of the golf course development currently existing contemplate and incorporate the restrictions of this condition to protect public access along the accessible cliff coastline. Lanaians for Sensible Growth has been briefed on the construction plans which showed the pathways, setbacks, cart paths, etc.”
According to the attorney for Lanaians for Sensible Growth, Alan Murakami of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, the company has never sought that organization’s advice in the development of mauka access to the coastal cliffs.
— Patricia Tummons
Volume 4, Number 8 February 1994
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