Campaign asks for gates to Keawaula and Pokai bays to be taken down, but military and state cite COVID restrictions for their closures

On Feb. 8, Makakilo residents John and Rita Shockley, co-founders of the Free Access Coalition and avid West side beachgoers, discovered the gate to the parking area at Keawaula (Yokohama) Bay was locked, and instead 30 cars were parked on the shoulder at the end of the road, making it difficult to turn around.

“We nearly got trapped,” he said.

On Sunday he was disturbed to learn of the closure of the gate at the Pililaau Army Recreation Center at Waianae’s Pokai Bay, also known as Rest Camp. Friends told him they were turned away by guards who said the civilian public was no longer allowed to access the beach through the pretty, well-kept area with rental cottages.

“Now that the Ko Olina access has been settled with 100% public parking access,” said Shockley, referring to the resort’s reopening of its beach lagoon lots Feb. 1 after eight months’ coronavirus closure, “we have problems with both the U.S. military and the state of Hawaii closing access to popular beaches.”

Shockley said it was intolerable that although city and state beaches reopened in May, the gates at Pokai Bay and Keawaula and Makua State Beach, both of which also serve as entry points to the Kaena Point State Park Wildlife Refuge, remain closed.

In an email and phone campaign, Shockley is asking that the state and the military provide reopening dates “immediately.”

That’s not happening, representatives of the state and the Army told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser, because their closures sought to protect the public by discouraging large gatherings that increase risk of exposure to COVID-19, and reopening depends upon the unpredictable containment of the pandemic and lifting of restrictions.

Complicating matters at Kea­waula, Makua and Kaena Point is the coronavirus economic crisis, resulting in a lack of revenue from park visitors and funds to pay contract lifeguards, who are currently in their beach towers only on weekends and holidays. There’s also no funding for more than a part-time caretaker or to hire private security to enforce park closure hours, said Curt Cottrell, administrator of the Division of State Parks of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

“Due to the public health concerns and legal implications associated with large gatherings, the lack of capacity for state law enforcement to monitor and prevent these gatherings, along with the illegal camping that was occurring due to increase in resident interest in outdoor activity due to other closures and restrictions, the gates have remained closed to deter and limit vehicle access and the subsequent surges in crowding,” Cottrell said in an email.

He said the division is examining private-sector security costs for gate management to allow public vehicle access at Makua and Keawaula for weekends and holidays, at least, but “there is doubt that the private sector would be able to convince park users to leave on time in these park units without law enforcement as backup.”

After Shockley reached out to him, state Sen. Mike Gabbard replied in an email that while he understood beachgoers’ frustration, “it would be disingenuous for me to demand that DLNR open up the parking lot at Yokohama Bay, without taking into consideration that our state is facing a $1.4 billion deficit over the next four years and that departments, like DLNR, are getting cuts right and left.”

In a statement, U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii said that “under normal operations, Pokai Bay Beach is accessible” through the military property, but the gate has been closed since March in order to “ensure we are not creating an environment for large social gatherings on the installation and remain in compliance with Oahu’s gathering restrictions.”

The statement asked for the public’s patience, looking ahead to “a return to normal and safe operations when the health protection condition level changes.”

Public access to the beach does remain available through the city’s Pokai Bay Beach Park, a hike Darryll Griswold was making Friday morning with his children and their surfing equipment.

Griswold said it was frustrating that the shorter, more direct walk they used to make through Rest Camp was closed, and he’d felt safer parking near the military gate, having had his car broken into and robbed at the beach park parking lot.

Illegal activity, such as camping and bonfires, seems to come with the territory at Kaena Point, said state parks Deputy Administrator Alan Carpenter. “It’s one of those places where we see continual and frequent rules violations, a classic end-of-the-road situation, as far as you can get from the nearest police station and enforcement officers.”

Carpenter added he empathizes with the hardship to parkgoers who “drive on designated roads as a means of getting to a place to fish or recreate,” but not the “people who are driving around for fun, think the refuge is some sort of off-road park.”

The good news, he said, was that the many park users who come for the scenic nature hike still have access to the Kaena Point trailhead in Waianae, although “it’s less convenient,” since by his estimate the closed gate adds an extra 1.5 to 2 miles on foot, turning a 5-mile round trip to a 7-mile hike from the end of the road.

As an alternative, he said, people could still drive to the North Shore and the Kaena Point Mokuleiea trailhead for a 5-mile hike, but vehicle access is currently barred: According to DLNR’s website, the Kaena Point State Park Vehicle Access Gate on the Mokuleia side “remains closed due to ponding and poor road conditions,” adding, “at times, closing the road to vehicle access is necessary to preserve the road and limit environmental impact.”