When surfer and environmental educator Debbie Millikan lived near Waikiki, her family could walk to several beach access points, including the city’s Queens, Kaimana, Makalei and Leahi beach parks, and the right of way leading from Kalakaua Avenue to Tonggs Beach.

Two years ago the Millikans moved to a neighborhood mauka of Diamond Head Road near Fort Ruger Park, and “we wanted to continue accessing the beaches that were now closer to our home, including Kaalawai Beach (also known as Cromwell’s),” she said.

But the closest beach access point — at Kaalawai Place, a city public street — was barred by a locked gate. Residents of the block said the path was privately owned, with an easement for their exclusive use.

The Land Division of the state Department of Natural Resources confirmed the ownership of the path was private. But in a similar situation, the city recently condemned and acquired a beach right of way at Portlock Road, which the owner had barred by a locked gate.

“Maybe it’s possible to have the city and county buy the Kaalawai Place easement,” Millikan said, noting that Chapter 115 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes ensures the public’s right to access and travel along the shoreline beneath the highest wash of the waves and that each county has the primary responsibility to develop and maintain this public access.

In an email, Honolulu City Council Chairman Tommy Waters, whose district includes Diamond Head, said he receives complaints and requests from community members about beach access ways throughout the island, and “on this specific issue, it is our understanding that the City Department of Parks and Recreation conducted a preliminary review and has no record of (a public access at Kaalawai Place) on the City’s Beach Right of Way inventory, (but) is currently conducting additional historical records reviews.”

Waters indicated that while the easement may be private, he would be exploring whether it might be a candidate for change.

“I am interested in finding out whether the public utilized this access point prior to the installation of the gate,” he said, “and whether there are any safety concerns related to nearby beach access points on Kulamanu Place, Kaikoo Place, or Kuilei Cliffs Beach Park, that would call for other, safer access points.”

In the Portlock case, community members had testified that the access, Lane N, had been used by the public for decades and was one of the only rights of way in the neighborhood that led to a sandy beach rather than rough, wave-pounded rocks and cliffs.

After passage of Honolulu City Council Resolution 18-263, the city sued, and the Circuit Court ruled in favor of the public’s taking the pedestrian easement through eminent domain. Lane N became Beach Right of Way 122-A.

In contrast, the Kaalawai Place right of way had been gated and locked for as long as he could remember, said John Clark, 74, author of numerous books on Hawaii surfing, beaches and place names, who grew up in the neighborhood.

“My family home was on Palaoa Place, which is the road west of Kaalawai Place,” Clark wrote in an email. “Palaoa Place has a beach right-of-way with a locked gate, and that right-of-way was and still is only for the residents of that road. The same was true for Kaalawai Place.”

Clark, who no longer lives there, said the only public access to Kaalawai Beach “in the entire Kaalawai community” is from Kulamanu Place. “That’s the access everyone uses today, including me.”

But due to beach erosion, there are serious safety concerns with the access from Kulamanu Place for people trying to walk along the beach, Millikan said.

Sand has washed away, leaving rocks exposed, along with “rusted metal pipes traversing throughout the area, and erosion (also) appears to have damaged some of the concrete stairs from private property, that are on the beach now,” she said.

“I’ve seen many times families coming back from Kaalawai beach with all their gear, and the tide has gotten higher, so they struggle to climb over the rocks and hang on to their kids as waves are crashing onto them.”

Her mother-in-law, 86, “can’t manage the rocks, so it’s basically inaccessible along that entire stretch to her,” Millikan said, adding that access is safer at Kaalawai Place. “Compound this with sea-level rise in recent years, and it has become almost impossible to traverse the area, let alone do so safely.”

The second-closest public access point to Kaalawai Beach is at the city’s Kuilei Cliffs Beach Park, and the distance between Kuilei Cliffs and Kulamanu Place is about three-quarters of a mile, she added, farther than the standard interval of a quarter-­mile between beach accesses in urban areas prescribed by city ordinances.

The Kaalawai Place easement lies between the Kulamanu Place and Kuilei Cliffs access points; the Kaikoo Place access lies east of Kulamanu Place.

“It seems to me there is a good case for opening the Kaalawai right of way,” Millikan said.

In the Portlock case, the remaining issues in the eminent domain lawsuit continue to be litigated, including the amount of compen­sation required to be paid for the easement.