Official Comments Favor Increase In Public Access At Puakea Bay

posted in: March 1992 | 0

The house and private park that George Isaacs has built atop the bluffs at Puakea Bay were discussed in a January 1992 “Big Isle House, Private Park Mock Public’s Shoreline Access” article of Environment Hawai`i. At the time, the Department of Land and Natural Resources had just begun processing Isaacs’ request for an after-the-fact Conservation District Use Permits for the park and other unauthorized development. Now, however, most agencies whose comments had been sought have responded.

Na Ala Hele

Richard L. Stevens is the research technician in northwest Hawai`i for Na Ala Hele, the state-run program for maintaining and developing public trails. Stevens was asked by Ed Henry, of the DLNR’s Office of Conservation and Environmental Affairs, to “assess the public shoreline access at the Puakea Bay estate of George Isaacs.”

Stevens’ response follows:

“(1) The trail as it exists now is rather more like a detour than an access, climbing a slope to widely skirt the house and descending again to the shoreline;

“(2) Lack of appropriate signs, and in one place a confusing sign, make following the trail difficult;

“(3) Barbed wire lines most of the access, diminishing the experience somewhat;

“(4) A better and certainly more shoreline-oriented route would be the traditional one: directly from the Coast Guard shoreline parking area on the old road to Honoipu landing. This would allow the walker to travel a historic road, avoid the long and somewhat arduous detour around the house, and keep the shoreline in sight and ‘within reach’;

“(5) In general, the Isaacs case offers an excellent justification for keeping the long and spectacular coastline from Kawaihae to Waipio undeveloped: even when one ventures along the shoreline below the house, the feeling generally sought in fishing or coastal exploration is lost, the house so dominates the shoreline, bay and consciousness of [whoever] ‘intrudes’ there.”

Make the Park Public

Mason Young, administrator of the Division of Land Management, had much the same concerns, as expressed in a memo to the Office of Conservation and Environmental Affairs dated January 9, 1992.

Young recommended that “Public rights-of-way should be provided through the middle of the property as well as along the shoreline, with appropriate signage for public notification and use.” (The road through the subdivision — what Young refers to as the “middle of the property,” evidently — is closed to the public.) Public parking also should be provided in the park area, Young said, and the public should be allowed to use the park.

An inspector from the Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement concluded his inspection report by noting that “the park enhances the area and provides an area that can be used by passing shoreline users.” His recommendation was “that the park be left as is as long as the public is [not] barred from using it at any time.” (The crucial word “not” was omitted in the report, but this was a typographical error, as a call to the DOCARE office confirmed.)

One Lot or Two?

Because the development lies within the coastal Special Management Area, regulated by the County of Hawai`i, the county Planning Department has to issue appropriate SMA permits before the DLNR can act on either of Isaacs’ after-the-fact Conservation District Use Applications. But the Planning Department, on receiving SMA use permit assessment applications from Isaacs, determined that more than the “minor” use permits would be needed. In a letter to Isaacs’ attorney for this matter, Sandra Pechter Schutte, dated February 3, 1992, Planning Director Norman Hayashi listed the problems with Isaacs’ applications.

First among them was Isaacs’ contention that the 18-acre shoreline tract containing both the house and the park had been subdivided into two lots. “However,” Hayashi wrote, the parcels Isaacs identifies as “Lots C and C-1 have not been approved as separate parcels and at this point do not exist as legal entities.”

Next, Hayashi was requiring an updated shoreline survey, certified by the DLNR, and a detailed plot plan showing the position of the improvements with respect to the required 40-foot shoreline setback.

Hayashi also wanted maps showing the exact boundaries of the two historic sites on the property (Honoipu rock gardens and Honoipu landing) in relation to the existing improvements.

Finally, Hayashi noted that the total valuation of the project exceeds $65,000, requiring that it be treated by the County as a development requiring the major Shoreline Management Area use permit.

The DLNR has decided to hold a public hearing on the Conservation District Use Applications of Isaacs. A tentative date of April 9 has been set, with the hearing to be held in Kailua-Kona.

Volume 2, Number 9 March 1992