A Sunset Beach homeowner must pay $77,000 in fines after he was found responsible for pouring concrete on the beach to protect his oceanfront property.

Joshua H. VanEmmerik was fined by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources last month on the recommendation of the Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands.

“The beaches are held in public trust by the state for the people of the Hawaii,” OCCL Administrator Michael Cain said. “It is DLNR’s responsibility to protect these resources.”

The case is the latest over illegal measures taken by North Shore oceanfront homeowners to protect their properties from erosion caused by powerful swells and rising sea levels.

For the past three years the Department of Land and Natural Resources has declined to authorize or renew any emergency and temporary measures for beach erosion control. Yet property owners continue to install erosion control structures without DLNR consent or authorization.

The famous coastline between Rocky Point and Sunset Beach has increasingly become littered with boulders, big sandbags and black tarps that property owners have placed on the beach. During certain periods of the year, the beach becomes impassable and dangerous as the materials get pulled into the ocean and torn apart in heavy surf.

Coastal geologists have warned that seawalls and other forms of shoreline hardening lead to beach loss. Oahu has lost about one-quarter of its beaches to shoreline hardening, and government officials say they are trying to save the shore from Rocky Point to Sunset Beach from suffering the same fate.

The latest case dates back to Sept. 30, 2022, when OCCL notified VanEmmerik of several violations linked to construction on the beach fronting his property at 59-147 Ke Nui Road.

Specifically, the violations involved the placement of small polypropylene sandbags over former temporary erosion control measures, the pouring of concrete over the bags, unauthorized construction and placement of rocks on land in a state land use conservation district (the beach).

OCCL then entered into a settlement agreement that included the removal of all unauthorized structures. Two days later staff observed most of the material had been removed though some debris, concrete pieces and geotextile materials were still found in the sand.

But the problem didn’t end there. Between Oct. 28 and Nov. 5 of this year OCCL collected more evidence of unauthorized work in the conservation district, including workers digging a trench and laying tubes in the trench after mining sand from the beach to fill them. It is alleged the tubes were then covered with sand and a geotextile cloth.

In its report to the BLNR, staff wrote, “there should be consequences when an individual unilaterally and willfully acts in such a way that endangers such a significant public-trust resource.”

Former University of Hawaii law professor Denise Antolini called for strong enforcement action, including maximum daily fines that would bring the violation to $450,000.

“I really think this is criminal behavior, willful violation of state law,” Antolini said. “At a minimum, it is criminal trespass on state lands.”

In written testimony, VanEmmerik, the owner of the cocktail bar Gaslamp in Kailua, said the work was mistakenly conducted on the beach in front of his house, and evidence collected by OCCL on a subsequent date actually represented work to remove the structure.

The board wasn’t buying it. It voted unanimously to impose the $77,000 fine, and ordered VanEmmerik to remove all unauthorized erosion control materials and structures by Sept. 1.

VanEmmerik has until March 7 to pay the fine.