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Condominium owners along Waikiki’s Gold Coast celebrated Monday a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that they said makes clear the state is responsible for maintaining a crumbling sea wall that protects their mostly million-dollar properties.
The state kept up the sea wall for decades, and state funds were last appropriated in 2006 to repair the sea wall, which stretches from 2943 to 3019 Kalakaua Ave. The check was never cut because then-state Attorney General Mark Bennett ruled the sea wall was private and refused to release state funds to repair it, said former Hawaii Supreme Court Judge Robert G. Klein, who sued the state in 2007 on behalf of the Gold Coast Neighborhood Association, a nonprofit made up of 10 condominium and apartment buildings bordering the sea wall.
“State lawmakers in Waikiki had managed to get a few million in the state budget to repair the wall, but the (Gov. Linda) Lingle administration refused to release the funds and said if we wanted to change the dynamic that we’d have to sue them,” Klein said. “We won in trial court, we won in the Intermediate Court of Appeals and now we’ve won in the Hawaii Supreme Court.”
State Attorney General Doug Chin sent out a news release Monday taking a different tack. Chin said the Hawaii Supreme Court decision Friday rejected a request by the condominium owners to order the state to pay for repairs to a sea wall or for the owners’ attorney fees after 10 years of litigation.
“We are pleased the court affirmed our position that the courts are not the proper place to decide how taxpayer money is spent. The state will repair the seawalls if and only if money to do so is appropriated by the state Legislature and allocated by the governor,” Chin said.
Despite $350,000 in attorneys’ fees, Klein said his clients were thrilled with the high court ruling, which determined that the state holds an easement over the Gold Coast sea wall “by virtue of the fact that it has been held open for public use for over 50 years.”
“I understand that Attorney General (Doug Chin) is crowing because the court didn’t order the state to pay anything, but we never asked for that,” Klein said. “The main point is that finally after 10 years the state is responsible for obligations that they denied before.”
The owner of an easement must accept responsibility and has an obligation for repair and maintenance, Klein said.
“The state is on the hook, and the association can go back to the state Legislature and ask them to re-appropriate funds to repair the sea wall,” he said. “The fact that the state doesn’t own the thing is a good thing. They always said if they owned it, they would take it down, which would not have been a great option for the people who live there since it would undermine their buildings.”
Don Persons, Gold Coast Neighborhood Association vice president, said another important aspect of the ruling is that it absolves condominium owners from liability.
“We are jumping up and down cheering. This is what we’ve wanted all these years. It is a public right of way, and we knew the buildings shouldn’t be responsible,” Persons said. “The state has done many repairs to the wall over the years.”
State Rep. Tom Brower, who represents Waikiki, said he supported past funding for the sea wall and would support a new request.
“It’s good news that the stumbling block has been resolved,” Brower said. “It feels like the government should have responsibility. I would support it, and I think it would have a lot of support from legislators as the area is accessed by a lot of people.”
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said previous sea wall funding has lapsed and that no new funds have been appropriated.
“We have no information as to how much repairs might cost,” said DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward.
Regardless, Robert Gentry, Gold Coast Neighborhood Association president, said obtaining new sea wall funding during the 2018 legislative session is critical.
“It’s dangerous and it needs repair and maintenance. It’s part of the Waikiki shoreline. We’ve got fishermen, surfers and visitors using it, and it has deteriorated greatly over the last 10 years,” said Gentry, who has lived near the sea wall since 1982.
The Waikiki shoreline in question has some of the most expensive homes in Hawaii. Prices of condominiums currently for sale along the affected stretch of the Gold Coast range from $1.6 million to $3.79 million, according to real estate website Zillow.
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