The state Board of Land and Natural Resources has given the green light to demolish the Diamond Head Breakwater, a wall of large boulders that juts out into the ocean, creating a protected cove fronting Doris Duke’s Shangri La estate.
The basin, originally dredged and built in 1938 for the late tobacco heiress’s 55-foot yacht, has for decades been a popular swimming spot for local families but can also be dangerous. There have been numerous injuries from people misjudging conditions and jumping or diving into the swimming hole, and officials said several have been left paralyzed.
The 6-1 decision, with one abstention, during Friday’s Land Board meeting marked a reversal for the board, which twice rejected the proposal in 2018.
The project was initially put forward by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, owner of the historic estate. The foundation has for years sought to discourage people from jumping into the cove by posting warning signs, hiring security guards and erecting a 6-foot-high fence along the walkway in front of the Black Point property. But kids, in particular, have continued to jump into the basin.
After the Land Board rejected the foundation’s conservation district use permit application for the project in 2018, the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the landowner worked out a deal by which the foundation conveyed the breakwater and submerged lands to the state. The foundation also agreed to pay $1 million toward DLNR’s own effort to dismantle the breakwater.
The Land Board oversees and sets policy for DLNR.
This time around, the application for a conservation district use permit was submitted by DLNR’s Land Division rather than the Doris Duke Foundation. The only difference is that the state now owns the property in question and is liable, said Michael Cain, administrator of DLNR’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, which didn’t take a position for or against removal.
Removing the wall has been highly contentious, with critics saying it will make swimming conditions more dangerous and unnecessarily destroy a beloved swimming spot.
William Saunders, an attorney who has lived in the neighborhood for decades, said there were other, easier ways to prevent people from jumping into the cove.
“You’re going to make it more dangerous. You might dissuade the jumpers, but the people that come to swim there will be injured,” he told the Land Board during testimony at Friday’s meeting.
Former Land Board member Keone Downing also testified against removing the wall, saying there are hazards all along shoreline areas.
“Liability, signage, access: If we as a state are going to be scared of those words, then we will knock down the Kapahulu groin, we will fill Halona Blowhole, we will cement Portlock Point and Spitting Caves if we are worried about those words,” he said. “Children will always find a place to play.”
Downing said there are ways to make the swimming hole safer, rather than largely destroying it.
Former Land Board Chair Suzanne Case also showed up to testify, but in support of removing the breakwater. She said it was too dangerous and put the state at high risk of being sued over injuries.
“Sometimes you just have to do the really hard thing and make a hard choice because it is the right thing to do to save people’s lives,” she said.
Case also addressed why in 2018, when she was Land Board chair and head of DLNR, she supported the transfer of the property to the state after the board denied the Doris Duke Foundation’s permit application.
“I supported it because I felt it was unconscionable to deny somebody the right to tear down a wall on private property, which was submerged lands, because people want to trespass and jump off the wall and do dangerous things and then there is a liability issue,” she said. “So how could you deny somebody that?”
DLNR now hopes to commence tearing down the breakwater in late 2024 after securing additional permits, according to its conservation district use permit application. The project doesn’t have a final cost estimate. It’s expected to take six to nine months.
