LIHUE >> The Kauai County Council unanimously passed a bill yesterday requiring developers to provide access to beach and mountain recreation areas, ending a yearlong dispute. Kauai Council
approves access billThe measure would mandate
access to the island's beachesBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comThe dispute was whether to require the Kauai Planning Commission to mandate access as part of its permitting process or to make the decision discretionary with the commission.
The bill requires the Planning Commission to order developers to provide and maintain footpaths no less than 300 feet apart and no more than 1,500 feet apart.
It gives the Planning Commission the authority to impose even stricter requirements, such as roads for vehicles and parking lots.
The bill originally applied only to beach access, but hunters and native Hawaiians asked it be broadened to include mountain areas where there are existing mountain trails and facilities for "hiking, hunting, fruit picking, ti-leaf sliding and other recreational purposes."
The bill also limits the authority of the county engineer to close a trail providing access to recreational areas. Under existing ordinances the county engineer can close any trail indefinitely.
But when the county permanently closed the trail to Queen's Bath, a popular North Shore spot, following a drowning last winter during high surf, local residents argued the county engineer had too much power.
The bill allows the county engineer to close a trail for 30 days for safety reasons, but any further closure will require County Council approval.
Mayor Bryan Baptiste is expected to sign the bill.
County of Kauai
