Lost in the swirling controversy over Donkey Beach, the Kaua’i County Council Thursday moved one step closer to a beach-access bill that will ensure the right of residents to get to the sand whenever they desire. The council moved Bill
Lost in the swirling controversy over Donkey Beach, the Kaua’i County Council Thursday moved one step closer to a beach-access bill that will ensure the right of residents to get to the sand whenever they desire.
The council moved Bill 1968 out of committee and onto next week’s regular meeting agenda, where it is expected to pass.
But the measure won’t affect the agreement the county is still trying to finalize with Thomas McCloskey of Colorado, principle owner of the Kealia Makai subdivision, regarding the donation to the county of acreage and two public accesses to Donkey Beach. The bill is not retroactive.
First proposed by Councilman Bryan Baptiste and now in a revised form, the bill is strident in its defense of the public’s right to get to the beach.
The council “finds that our community’s resources such as shoreline, waters … have become increasingly inaccessible” due to private development, the bill states. “The absence of public access ways mauka (mountainside) and makai (oceanside) diminishes the quality of life and constitutes an infringement upon the historic rights of the people to enjoy these integral privileges.”
Much more important than the theoretical freedom expressed is what the ordinance will require of developers.
“The Planning Commission,” the bill continues. “shall require a subdivider or developer, as a condition precedent to final approval of a subdivision, in cases where public access is not already provided, to dedicate land for public access by right-of-way or easement for pedestrian travel from a public highway to the land below the high-water mark on any coastal shoreline, and to dedicate land for public access by right-of-way from a public highway to areas in the mountains where there are existing facilities for hiking, hunting, fruit picking…and other recreational purposes where there are no existing mountain trails.”
Council members Gary Hooser and Ron Kouchi said they expect the bill to pass next week.
The county attorney and county planners will be asked to study the measure, “and then after some tweaking, it should be passed,” Hooser said.
Kouchi said he “had a few amendments” to add to the legislation after talking to Barbara Robeson, a North Shore-area activist, “about some of her concerns.”
The discussion on beach access bills began in earnest last January when two versions were originally presented. After lengthy debates and amendments to Bill 1968, the council has apparently arrived at a consensus.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
