Zdenek “Don” Prchal was under pressure to sell. His oceanfront property along a disappearing beach in Punaluu was accruing fines of $15,000 a day. By the end of this month, he’d owe the state half a million dollars.

Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources had penalized him last year for an illegal seawall fronting his property at 53-227 Kamehameha Highway that was marring the public shoreline. After spending a year and a half unsuccessfully fighting the state, Prchal now had two options: remove the wall or begin racking up fines.

Prchal didn’t think the first was much of a choice. “If I remove the rocks, I lose the house,” he told the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser.

Prchal said he didn’t build the rock wall that was keeping the ocean at bay. According to his account, the rocks were buried under sand when he acquired the home in 2016 for $1.13 million. As the shoreline began pushing farther inland, he said, the rocks became exposed and locals later came along and stacked them into a nice wall.

But that argument failed to sway DLNR, which began imposing the $15,000 daily fine on Sept. 29, after giving Prchal a 30-day window to remove the rocks.

Prchal is among a growing number of coastal homeowners who have been selling properties with expired sandbags and other illegal shoreline hardening structures as DLNR tries to increase enforcement. They’ve found eager buyers who seem undeterred by the imminent threat that erosion and sea level rise pose to the sought-after oceanfront homes, or the legal challenges they are inheriting.

Just a few lots over, another oceanfront home that recently received a violation notice from DLNR hit the market.

“Imagine waking up every morning to an iconic Hawaiian Sunrise orchestrated by the sound of waves lapping the shore,” boasts the ad for the property at 53-239 Kamehameha Highway. “What sounds like an unreal aspiration to many could be your dream beachfront home available at an unbelievable price!”

The home is listed for sale at $899,00, a bargain for Oahu oceanfront property. It has a history of violations, which the owner, Matthew Tang, thoroughly details in a seller’s disclosure statement provided to the Star-Advertiser by a former prospective buyer.

An attempt to reach the property owner through his real estate agents was unsuccessful.

DLNR issued the owner a violation notice in September for unauthorized boulders as well as expired sandbags and other material along the shoreline, according to the form. The owner also discloses that he built a new masonry wall and poured concrete under the home in October without permits.

“Natural erosion has affected the foundation under the home and started to undermine the posts,” Tang discloses. “In the past I would reinforce the individual posts with new, longer posts. In Oct. 2022, I added concrete in attempt to secure the posts more permanently.”

A disappearing slice of paradise

The two properties are among seven lots abutting Punaluu Beach Park that have been severely threatened by erosion for at least two decades. In 2005, Kamehameha Schools, which owned many of the lots, sought temporary, emergency protection from DLNR to install rows of sandbags along the beach to protect some of the homes.

The temporary protections were meant to provide property owners with a few years to figure out what to do with their threatened properties. But those short-term approvals morphed into long-term armoring of the shoreline, which Hawaii’s coastal preservation laws and policies largely forbid. Hardened shorelines erode beaches and harm sensitive coastal ecosystems. As the lots sold, the new owners sought and obtained approvals from DLNR for their own emergency protections, or went ahead and installed illegal structures.

During a recent visit to the shoreline, ocean waves lapped up against Prchal’s seawall, which is wedged between properties that look even more fortified, with hulking, sand-filled tubes and heavy black tarps extending out into the shoreline. To reach the ocean, one has to awkwardly clamber over the sandbags and other debris and past “no trespassing” signs erected by homeowners. Almost all the sandbags and tarps, referred to as burritos, protecting the properties are expired or will expire next month, according to DLNR records.

State officials now say they’re moving to crack down on Punaluu property owners and have issued numerous violation notices that they intend to take before the Land Board, which has the authority to approve stiff fines and require removal of illegal structures.

Closing the deal

Prchal is candid about the challenges he’s faced since buying the property. (Property records indicate he purchased it in 2018, but Prchal said he acquired it from a girlfriend a couple years prior.) Within weeks, he said he spent $5,000 installing emergency sandbags in front of the property, then contributed another $21,000 to a joint effort by the beach lot homeowners to petition city officials for a seawall. The city rejected their application. In 2020, DLNR sent him a violation notice for the rock wall, as well as a sandbag groin that jutted out from his property.

Prchal said he considered trying to get permission to install burritos like his neighbors, but found it would cost $70,000 for the rows of sandbags and tarp, which last only a few years. Plus, he said, they harm the environment and threaten public safety.

“Burritos are an environmental disaster,” said Prchal, noting he had found a dead sea turtle tangled in one of the tarps.

“Right now, it’s kind of a nightmare how much money it costs you to deal with that shoreline,” said Prchal.

Despite the mounting fines he was accruing from the state, he was able to attract a buyer from Las Vegas. He closed on the sale of the property on Oct. 14 after agreeing to cover the $225,000 in fines that he had accrued since Sept. 29 for the illegal seawall, as well as a $25,000 bond that DLNR was requiring in an attempt to ensure that the wall was removed. The fines were paid out of escrow.

Prchal says he sold the property for $1.3 million and walked away with about $900,000 after paying all the fines and fees.

The new owner is now left to grapple with the state enforcement order against the seawall, which doesn’t disappear with the sale. Rather it runs with the property, according to DLNR’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands.

“OCCL continues to investigate potential paths forward to ensure removal of the unauthorized wall on state land,” said a DLNR spokesperson by email. DLNR declined to comment on whether it would also charge the new owner $15,000 a day until the wall is removed.

Henry Liu, the new owner, told the Star-Advertiser he was aware of the enforcement action, but wasn’t particularly worried about it or the erosion threatening his new home and that of his neighbors.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to buy a house on the beach and I got one, so I’m happy to have it,” said Liu.

Liu said he didn’t buy the seawall and the state has the right to remove it if it chooses. He said he believes his new home will be sufficiently protected from the ocean without it.

Asked if the massive sandbags fronting the surrounding lots raised any red flags when he viewed the property, he said it didn’t.

“I think that’s pretty common along the shorelines,” said Liu. “I assume I’ll have to put those on too, and I’ll have to get permissions. I’m still working all that out.”