Beach Access at Ko Olina Resort Impossible
This is a guest post from well-know podcaster and Hawaii resident, Todd Cochrane. You can read his personal blog here and his business blog, Geek News Central.
Hawaii has an Open Beach Access law that provides the public access to “all” Hawaii beaches. But over the years different land owners have done their best to make it very hard for Hawaii residents to get to some of the premium beach locations.
My family and I have tried no less than 10 times over the past month to get to the public beach at the private resort, Ko Olina. In order to gain entry, you show ID to the resort gate sentry and then proceed to the highly-limited public parking area. But we have repeatedly been turned away at the gate the last two months. On Sunday, I pulled off the road from the entrance and watched as Ko Olina Resort security turned away 23 cars in a row.
Something is really amiss at Ko Olina. While I know the beach is popular, it makes me wonder if they do not have an internal policy that is meant to discourage the public from going there. You used to be able to at least "scout" the parking lot and wait in your car until someone left. But they are not even allowing this. Plus, with the number of signs warning people they will be towed if they park any place but the designated public parking spots, it shows they mean to play hard ball with locals. If they really cared about the public, they would have allocated more parking.
As a resident of Hawaii, I feel my rights are being violated and that the Ko Olina resort has some explaining to do.
Even sadder, most of the public beaches in the Kapolei area have been overrun by homeless people. Personally speaking, it's pretty sad when I do not feel it's safe to take my family to some of the other beaches in Hawaii that are not located on private resorts.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ko Olina gets away with this because they do provide public beach access -- however, it's limited to eight parking stalls per lagoon! Guards have routinely turned back locals even when there was plenty of open "non-public" parking spaces available. Nice of 'em, eh?
When the Disney Resort opens out there, will they have more than eight parking stalls for public beach access? Anyone who goes to the beach at Ko Olina should contact their Neighborhood Board and City Council reps in that district to make sure more spaces are alloted for locals and residents! - Rich Figel (richfigel@gmail.com)
Hawaii has an Open Beach Access law that provides the public access to “all” Hawaii beaches. But over the years different land owners have done their best to make it very hard for Hawaii residents to get to some of the premium beach locations.My family and I have tried no less than 10 times over the past month to get to the public beach at the private resort, Ko Olina. In order to gain entry, you show ID to the resort gate sentry and then proceed to the highly-limited public parking area. But we have repeatedly been turned away at the gate the last two months. On Sunday, I pulled off the road from the entrance and watched as Ko Olina Resort security turned away 23 cars in a row.
Something is really amiss at Ko Olina. While I know the beach is popular, it makes me wonder if they do not have an internal policy that is meant to discourage the public from going there. You used to be able to at least "scout" the parking lot and wait in your car until someone left. But they are not even allowing this. Plus, with the number of signs warning people they will be towed if they park any place but the designated public parking spots, it shows they mean to play hard ball with locals. If they really cared about the public, they would have allocated more parking.
As a resident of Hawaii, I feel my rights are being violated and that the Ko Olina resort has some explaining to do.
Even sadder, most of the public beaches in the Kapolei area have been overrun by homeless people. Personally speaking, it's pretty sad when I do not feel it's safe to take my family to some of the other beaches in Hawaii that are not located on private resorts.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ko Olina gets away with this because they do provide public beach access -- however, it's limited to eight parking stalls per lagoon! Guards have routinely turned back locals even when there was plenty of open "non-public" parking spaces available. Nice of 'em, eh?
When the Disney Resort opens out there, will they have more than eight parking stalls for public beach access? Anyone who goes to the beach at Ko Olina should contact their Neighborhood Board and City Council reps in that district to make sure more spaces are alloted for locals and residents! - Rich Figel (richfigel@gmail.com)
Labels: Disney Resort, Kapolei, Ko Olina, public beach access
The law requires access to the Original shoreline. At KoOlina that was a very rough rocky ledge with NO beach, limited access. and you can still get access to the orignal shore line if you want it.
The Lagoons are all man made for the resort exclusively for the resort and not considered part of a real beach. Ko Olina does not have to let anyone outside access to the lagoons since they would be considered private areas for the residents and guests of Ko Olina Resort (who all pay to live there, if you want access then buy a place there). Why does some people feel that they should have a right to access something else that some one spends hundreds of millions to develop?
You do not need a special pass to get in...only get there early enough, once it is filled they begin to turn away people. The resort is not a public place and if they wanted to they could block anyone out. Instead they allow the public in and control it....we do not need another Waikiki. They control the numbers of people to keep the facilities decent for those that PAID to live there...and even in Hawaii there is a cost to do that...there are so many other beaches open to the public why not go there? They are truely public beaches...the problem there is that there are not the facilities or the creature comforts located at Ko Olina as part of its development.
If Ko Olina did open them to the public with out restrictions can you imagine how trashed they would become? There are limits on how many people they can accomodate and Ko Olina by managing the numbers of people will ensure that the lagoons become more vibrant with life. Just look at Haunama Bay where they have to cut the hours and days so it can recover.
Posted by
damianz666 |
September 11, 2009 2:44 PM