Residents pack neighborhood board hearing on Kahala hotel easement

The Kahala Hotel & Resort’s quest to obtain a rare nonexclusive easement to use about an acre of public shoreline for commercial enterprises drew harsh criticism from a packed crowd at the Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board meeting Thursday night.

More than 40 people turned out to hear the Kahala hotel’s consultant present a plan to replace the property’s circa-1960s revocable permit with a more permanent nonexclusive easement. But many were sorely disappointed when Ramsay Taum, PBR Hawaii’s cultural sustainability planner, told those gathered for the meeting at Wesley United Methodist Church in Kahala that he was unprepared to give a presentation.

According to a draft environmental assessment, Resorttrust Hawaii LLC, the hotel’s Japanese-based owner, hopes to spend $900,000 improving a 2.65-acre parcel, including leasehold and state beach lands. The hotel’s intentions are outlined in the document, 808ne.ws/Kahalaeasement, which is under review by the state Office of Environmental Quality Control.

The hotel wants to offer torch-lighting ceremonies and rides in traditional sailing outrigger canoes. It also plans to expand its outdoor wedding ceremonies to three state parcels from two. The hotel would add native plants, Hawaiian signage and tiki torches. It also would improve shoreline access fronting the hotel.

If the measure moves forward, it would head to the Board of Land and Natural Resources for decision-making. But members of the Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board say they currently oppose the concept, which is moving too fast.

The board passed a unanimous multi-part resolution opposing any permanent easement for public beaches in their area. They also voted to ask the Office of Environmental Quality Control to extend the comment period 45 days. The hotel did not notify the board and other entities like the Surf­rider Foundation and the Sierra Club, they said. The board said it does not support a nonexclusive easement for Kahala Hotel and invited the property to make a real presentation at its July 20 meeting.

“This is by far not the final step. There are multiple steps that the applicant has to go through that have hearing processes,” Taum said.

While the hotel did not have a full complement of presenters, Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board Chairman Richard Turbin described the community turnout as the “largest attendance that we’ve had since 1967.”

Proposals to increase commercial activity on Hawaii’s beaches are often contentious. Public beach access is a hard-won right. While a nonexclusive easement means the public can continue to use the space, those opposed worry that replacing the Kahala’s month-to-month permit with an easement would lessen the state’s ability to protect public land. They also say it could set a “dangerous precedent” that affects other beach conflicts like the one brewing in Waikiki over how to balance public access as more commercial beach umbrellas and chairs occupy beach space.

“An easement is a property right. So now we have a private hotel owning a property right for public land and to some extent we are at their mercy,” Turbin said. “I don’t see any of us supporting this easement. We don’t care if it’s the most charitable organization in the world giving an easement for a public beach — we would be crazy to go along with that.”

Supporters say the hotel has improved the community’s shoreline and that it needs to make the improvements to stay competitive, but they questioned why they couldn’t make the needed improvements under the status quo.

“We have to keep in mind if this gets approved what other business would do this. I think it’s a very bad precedent,” said Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board Member John Pyles.

The hotel’s general manager, Gerald Glennon, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Monday that “there are vast differences” between the volume of beach users at the 338-room Kahala hotel and in Waikiki, where the Moana Surfrider, Outrigger Waikiki and Royal Hawaiian hotels sell thousands of rooms. The proposed nonexclusive easement would not “materially deviate” from the revocable permit, he said.

The hotel intends to provide unobstructed walkways around weddings and make hotel beach lounge chairs in the state area available to all without fee on a first-come, first-served basis, he said.

If approved, details for a nonexclusive easement must be worked out, said state Department of Land and Natural Resources spokeswoman Deborah Ward. The property spends $1,262 monthly for its revocable permit and about $2,200 weekly on maintenance, not including insurance costs. Glennon said the hotel will pay the appraised value of the easement.

“We haven’t done a beach easement previously. The rights and duties under a potential easement are undetermined at this time because the board has not yet acted on the easement request,” Ward said.

Glennon said that based on feedback, the hotel would “carefully review the proposed plans to see how we can ameliorate concerns about potential impacts to public access.”

Longtime Kahala resident Jim Nicolay said Tuesday ambiguities exist in the current revocable permit, too.

“You can’t walk down there without someone from the hotel being there. It’s not unfriendly but it’s intimidating,” said Nicolay, who attended the meeting.

Ward said the Kahala hotel does not have the required board approval for presetting chairs. The property also was fined $2,050 for an unauthorized 2016 New Year fireworks show, she said.

“The new owner from Japan now understands he needs (Board of Land and Natural Resources) authorization to use public lands,” Ward said.