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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Reserve on Maui
includes pockets
of private propertyQuestion: I was recently vacationing on Maui when a landowner asked some people to leave the beachfront property that he claimed he privately owned on the Ahihi Kinau Reserve, just past Makena. The area is pretty far into the reserve and when you park, there is a beach in front. After you park, the area in question is to the right of the beach. It is the only designated beach access parking on the south end of the reserve. It was my understanding that beaches cannot be owned by individuals in Hawaii. However, the area in question was not a "beach," but more a rocky formation that individuals were using to swim from and snorkel.
Does this make any difference at all?
Answer: First, although the Ahihi Kinau Natural Area Reserve is managed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, there are pockets of private property in the area, said spokeswoman Deborah Ward.
"Generally speaking, in Hawaii, the area seaward from the certified shoreline is available for public use," she said. That means, "generally," it's public property "up to the upper reach of the wash of the waves."
And that's whether there is a sandy beach or a rocky coastline, Ward said.
With regards to the specific area you cite, Ward confirmed that "there is privately owned property immediately adjacent to the southern end of the Ahihi Kinau natural area reserve. This property includes an old Hawaiian fishpond that is privately owned."
The walls of the fishpond have "kind of fallen away," Ward said, so, "for someone who doesn't know (about the fishpond), it looks like part of the coastline."
You later told us that the landowner said he has put up poles as barriers, but that people keep taking them down.
Ward said it is the landowner's responsibility "to demarcate" his property.
According to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, natural area reserves are among the most highly protected state lands.
The Ahihi Kinau Reserve is said to be the only reserve in the department's system that includes a marine section as well as a land section and is one of only two areas on Maui where fishing is restricted.
Q: At what point does a vehicle become a red light violator? A police friend once told me that if the rear wheels of a vehicle are over the first intersection line or over the crosswalk, then you are OK.
A: Basically, once a light turns red, a vehicle is not supposed to be in an intersection. The yellow signal is there to give motorists ample warning of the red light coming.
If a vehicle is already in an intersection on a green or yellow light when the light turns red, "technically" it is there legally, said Sgt. Clyde Yamashiro of the Honolulu Police Department's Traffic Division.
Section 291C-32 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes deals with traffic signals.
Under that section, it says vehicles facing a "steady red signal alone" are required to "stop at a clearly marked stop line, but if none, before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection or, if none, then before entering the intersection ... "
Faced with a "steady yellow light," motorists are "warned that the related green movement is being terminated or that a red indication will be exhibited immediately thereafter when vehicular traffic shall not enter the intersection."
There may be extenuating circumstances in which a vehicle may be stuck in an intersection on a red light, Yamashiro said, such as heavy traffic.
If the vehicle was there before the signal changed to red, "technically, they're in under the green or yellow," he said.
However, he pointed out that a vehicle is not supposed to be obstructing an intersection.
Meanwhile, if the light was already red and a vehicle "broke the prolongation line (that marks the beginning of an intersection) or solid line or crosswalk, then that would be the threshold for a violation," he said.
Mahalo
To the community for their generous response to our call for clothing, food items and monetary donations at Times Super Market on April 6. Money and many vanloads of food and clothing were delivered to Avis Jervis, president of the board of directors of Hale Ola, the Windward Spouse Abuse Shelter. Mahalo also to Times Super Market for allowing us to set up a collection center in their entryway. -- Esther Davids, club president, and members of Soroptimist International of Windward Oahu
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