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Residents protest path route
By Nathan Eagle - The Garden Island
WAILUA — Community members are urging the county’s design team to reroute a portion of the multi-use path that will some day connect Lydgate Park to Lihi Boat Ramp in Kapa‘a.
Specifically, they are concerned about the impact of a proposed boardwalk along Wailua Beach.
“It’s a matter of preserving a resource,” Judy Dalton said in an interview Friday. “Why lay down a Trex boardwalk on top of this beautiful beach? Let’s leave it alone in its natural, intact state.”
Although an environmental assessment determined there would be no significant impact, residents said this segment of the path should instead run mauka of Kuhio Highway behind Coco Palms Resort.
Some 60 community members on Thursday evening filled the main pavilion at Lydgate Park to hear consultants Calvin Miyahara of KSF Inc. and Merle Grimes of MDG LLC deliver a 90-minute presentation on the next phase of the path.
The public testimony afterward stretched to 11 p.m. and another hearing was scheduled Friday night to extend the dialog.
Proponents of the existing plan said alternative routes were considered during the environmental assessment process, which included three public meetings.
A boardwalk along Wailua Beach was determined the best option. It will be made of recyclable material, held in place in the sand by auger-like posts so it can be moved in case of high surf.
Dalton said if it is so easy to move, it should be placed behind Coco Palms, a historic resort complex on the mauka side of the highway that has been vacant since Hurricane ‘Iniki ravaged the island in 1992.
“There were reasons that route wasn’t selected,” Kaua‘i County Councilman Tim Bynum said, citing private property acquisitions as an example.
The longtime path advocate said the boardwalk will sit some six inches off the sand and provide unprecedented access to mobility-impaired residents and visitors.
Bynum also pointed out that the county’s coastal erosion expert, Chip Fletcher, was OK with the proposed route, and said the meeting on Thursday was to go over some of the “unique challenges” in the design of the next phase, not go backward by looking at other routes.
Dalton, who sits on the Sierra Club Kaua‘i Group’s executive committee, disagreed. She acknowledged the time for choosing the route was during the environmental assessment, but said the other options should be revisited because the boardwalk would impede natural erosion processes.
It would cost money and push the estimated completion date back, Dalton said, but it would protect the beach.
In reference to the alternate plan, the environmental assessment says the land acquisition of the residential lots alone was estimated to cost $1.09 million and would displace three residences.
The proposed detour would run some 1,000 feet inland on Kuamo‘o Road, along the mauka boundary of the Coco Palms property, and through private residential lots mauka of Wailua Shopping Plaza.
Wailua Beach Park is a six-acre, county-owned property located near the mouth of Wailua River.
It is a popular area for visitors and residents to surf, swim, sunbathe and fish. The environmental assessment says the 10-foot-wide path will be set back as far inland as possible and run some 2,200 linear feet across the park.
“What do we value more — our beaches or boardwalks?” Dalton said in an e-mail. “The community has largely chosen beach preservation. We need to impress upon the county that is our highest priority. Hawai‘i environmental laws agree that preservation of the resource must be the highest priority for all development.”
The county has certified the shoreline and secured a setback variance permit, Bynum said.
Construction of the third phase of the path, which will run some 2.1 miles from Lydgate to Kapa‘a, is estimated to begin next year. It will include spurs to Coconut Marketplace and up Kawaihau Road.
The path is designed to run along the coast except for a stretch on Bette Midler’s property around the Kapa‘a Bypass Road.
This segment, which will go by drainage canals and provide access to now private land, will be reached by crossing the highway at a yet-to-be-installed traffic light near Kintaro Restaurant.
The path will then jump back makai at the intersection at Waipouli.
See kauaipath.org or kauai.gov for more information.
• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com
Specifically, they are concerned about the impact of a proposed boardwalk along Wailua Beach.
“It’s a matter of preserving a resource,” Judy Dalton said in an interview Friday. “Why lay down a Trex boardwalk on top of this beautiful beach? Let’s leave it alone in its natural, intact state.”
Although an environmental assessment determined there would be no significant impact, residents said this segment of the path should instead run mauka of Kuhio Highway behind Coco Palms Resort.
Some 60 community members on Thursday evening filled the main pavilion at Lydgate Park to hear consultants Calvin Miyahara of KSF Inc. and Merle Grimes of MDG LLC deliver a 90-minute presentation on the next phase of the path.
The public testimony afterward stretched to 11 p.m. and another hearing was scheduled Friday night to extend the dialog.
Proponents of the existing plan said alternative routes were considered during the environmental assessment process, which included three public meetings.
A boardwalk along Wailua Beach was determined the best option. It will be made of recyclable material, held in place in the sand by auger-like posts so it can be moved in case of high surf.
Dalton said if it is so easy to move, it should be placed behind Coco Palms, a historic resort complex on the mauka side of the highway that has been vacant since Hurricane ‘Iniki ravaged the island in 1992.
“There were reasons that route wasn’t selected,” Kaua‘i County Councilman Tim Bynum said, citing private property acquisitions as an example.
The longtime path advocate said the boardwalk will sit some six inches off the sand and provide unprecedented access to mobility-impaired residents and visitors.
Bynum also pointed out that the county’s coastal erosion expert, Chip Fletcher, was OK with the proposed route, and said the meeting on Thursday was to go over some of the “unique challenges” in the design of the next phase, not go backward by looking at other routes.
Dalton, who sits on the Sierra Club Kaua‘i Group’s executive committee, disagreed. She acknowledged the time for choosing the route was during the environmental assessment, but said the other options should be revisited because the boardwalk would impede natural erosion processes.
It would cost money and push the estimated completion date back, Dalton said, but it would protect the beach.
In reference to the alternate plan, the environmental assessment says the land acquisition of the residential lots alone was estimated to cost $1.09 million and would displace three residences.
The proposed detour would run some 1,000 feet inland on Kuamo‘o Road, along the mauka boundary of the Coco Palms property, and through private residential lots mauka of Wailua Shopping Plaza.
Wailua Beach Park is a six-acre, county-owned property located near the mouth of Wailua River.
It is a popular area for visitors and residents to surf, swim, sunbathe and fish. The environmental assessment says the 10-foot-wide path will be set back as far inland as possible and run some 2,200 linear feet across the park.
“What do we value more — our beaches or boardwalks?” Dalton said in an e-mail. “The community has largely chosen beach preservation. We need to impress upon the county that is our highest priority. Hawai‘i environmental laws agree that preservation of the resource must be the highest priority for all development.”
The county has certified the shoreline and secured a setback variance permit, Bynum said.
Construction of the third phase of the path, which will run some 2.1 miles from Lydgate to Kapa‘a, is estimated to begin next year. It will include spurs to Coconut Marketplace and up Kawaihau Road.
The path is designed to run along the coast except for a stretch on Bette Midler’s property around the Kapa‘a Bypass Road.
This segment, which will go by drainage canals and provide access to now private land, will be reached by crossing the highway at a yet-to-be-installed traffic light near Kintaro Restaurant.
The path will then jump back makai at the intersection at Waipouli.
See kauaipath.org or kauai.gov for more information.
• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com
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