The beach at Kukui’ula Bay is nearly double in size today, the result of $38,000 worth of improvements from Kukui’ula Development Co. The subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc. is required to improve the beach adjacent to Kukui’ula Small Boat
The beach at Kukui’ula Bay is nearly double in size today, the result of $38,000 worth of improvements from Kukui’ula Development Co.
The subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc. is required to improve the beach adjacent to Kukui’ula Small Boat Harbor as one of the conditions imposed by Kaua’i County involving the sprawling Kukui’ula residential and resort development along the South Shore.
The company successfully applied for a new state entitlement, a Category I Conservation District Use Permit, which allows small-scale beach nourishment for the purposes of enlarging a beach. O. Thronas Inc. delivered 500 cubic yards of sand (about 50 semi loads), and Kaua’i Commercial spread the sand after completing the clearing and grubbing work, explained Tom Shigemoto, Kukui’ula Development vice president.
Loose rocks, shoreline debris and scrub vegetation were removed before sand was placed to match the existing, “native” sand, which is low in silt and fairly coarse. As long as clean, similar sand is mixed with the existing beach, the results are usually good, explained Sam Lemmo, manager of the coastal lands program of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The expanded beach, just off Lawa’i Road, is open to the public. Parking is available along the road, which Alexander & Baldwin widened years ago, and at the nearby harbor. Soon, the company will work with DLNR to install floats indicating limits of the swimming area.
“We’re very pleased with the outcome and hope to see the larger beach area being utilized soon,” Shigemoto said. “It’s a great recreational benefit for the general public.”
The beach improvements were done after a coastal engineering study of the bay, in addition to maritime studies of the vicinity. An ongoing water-quality monitoring program is a condition of the permit. The costs of all of these are borne by Kukui’ula Development.
DLNR, with consent from the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, awarded the permit. DLNR had been working with various federal and state agencies to develop a streamlined permitting system for small-scale beach-restoration projects, those involving less than 10,000 cubic yards of added sand, explained Lemmo.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the permit system.
“The whole purpose of what we were trying to do here is create an expedited permit process for allowing people, agencies, hotel people, developers to put sand on beaches in a responsible way,” Lemmo said.
Shigemoto, though, admitted it took some time to get this particular permit, the first the state has issued under the new expedited rules.
The new permits also come with conditions which require applicants to submit progress reports to the state, including proof of monitoring to prevent environmental harm, Leemo said.
Since Kukui’ula Development has been doing such a good job following reporting conditions, it’s likely that the company’s work will be the future standard for how to do things correctly, continued Leemo.
“This will be a good reference for future applications, and certainly, when I pick up a new application for a beach-nourishment project somewhere else, I’ll certainly refer to what I had done on this (Kukui’ula Development application), to check,” he said.
The improvements, which expand the usable beach area at Kukui’ula Bay, help address potential impacts of the planned Kukui’ula Development resort project upon existing beaches.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
