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Hawaii might have a new state park by this time in 2024 covering about 340 acres of mostly natural coastal land in East Oahu.
Gov. Josh Green signed a bill into law Thursday aimed at enhancing management and protection of what is currently the Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline by urging a state board to designate the area as a state park.
Senate Bill 1254, now Act 235, directs the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to petition the agency’s board to create Kaiwi State Park, which would be administered by DLNR and preserved primarily in its wild and natural state.
Such a designation is up to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, but Green expects such a change to happen within a year.
“Sometimes conservation doesn’t come quickly, I guess, but it’s here today,” he said at a signing ceremony for several bills at the Makapuu Point lookout delineating one edge of the Kaiwi coastal area. “We know when we look behind us that this pristine coastline has to be preserved. It’s spectacular. We have to be good stewards of our lands, our resources, for the next generations.”
Green noted that signing such a bill was easy, and he gave credit to many others for his hard work, including groundwork stretching back more than 50 years involving community activists, environmental groups and government leaders who stopped plans to turn the area once owned by Kamehameha Schools into a resort.
State Sen. Chris Lee (D, Kailua-Waimanalo-Hawaii Kai), who introduced SB 1254, said at the ceremony that the new law builds on the legacy of work to protect the Kaiwi coast that began before he was born.
“This is such a significant day,” he said. “This bill, 1254, has been years and years and years in the making.”
Lee also said that under the new law, adjacent land could be added to the 340 acres, possibly including county-owned shoreline property closer to Sandy Beach and 187 acres mauka of Kalanianaole Highway acquired in recent years by a community organization through a private land trust with help from a state land preservation fund.
Elizabeth Reilly, president of Livable Hawai’i Kai Hui, the steward of this mauka land where a developer once proposed vacation cabin rentals and a private club, said the community should expect added protections for land designated as a state park.
The bill states that the coastal area, which includes a fairly secluded beach, coves for swimming or fishing, tide pools and the Makapuu Lighthouse trail, has attracted a rapid increase in visitors and is in need of greater efforts to address issues that include public safety, managing human impacts, preventing invasive species and restoring the ecosystem.
SB 1254 was one of several bills related to natural resources signed by Green on Thursday.
Others included:
> SB 67, prohibiting commercial vendors from putting out or leaving beach equipment on certain beaches under DLNR jurisdiction if a customer for the equipment isn’t present.
> House Bill 1260, appropriating $125,000 for DLNR to purchase drones to help improve management and safety, especially in conservation areas that are remote and can be costly or untimely for agency conservation police officers to reach.
> SB 1391, allowing DLNR’s board to place liens on property in circumstances where a property owner doesn’t comply with administrative enforcement actions related to land-use violations and public land encroachments.
> HB 819, adding to the list of official state plants and animals by making limu kala, or Sargassum echinocarpum, the state algae or seagrass.