By Joan Conrow, Honolulu Weekly

When the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled three years ago that the public shoreline extends to the seasonally highest wash of the waves, many saw it as a sign that wealthy coastal landowners would no longer be allowed to extend their yards onto the beach.

They were wrong. Despite the ruling, beachfront property owners across the state continue to install fences and landscaping that encroach onto the public part of the coastline. In some areas, the practice is contributing to beach erosion and impeding access both to and along the shore.

State officials say that while they investigate complaints, which come in frequently from Kailua, Kahala, Kauai and Maui, there’s often little they can do. “It’s not the easiest thing to enforce on,” said Sam Lemmo, administrator of the state’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands.

Caren Diamond, the North Shore Kauai resident who brought the landmark Diamond v. State of Hawaii lawsuit against the state, has been monitoring the situation for more than a decade along the picturesque coast that runs between Wainiha and Haena. It’s a landscape that has been featured on countless tourism brochures and postcards, and in recent years it has become a haven for the wealthy. Some live there. Others purchase lots through investment consortiums and build palatial oceanfront mini-resorts that are shared by members and rented to vacationers at rates topping $3,500 per night.

On a recent visit to the area, Diamond recounted the history of the Wainiha subdivision, which includes the oceanfront house that California businessman Joe Brescia is building atop some 30 ancient Hawaiian burials at Naue. Most of the houses here are either new, under construction or recently remodeled in a grand style that bears little resemblance to their original modest incarnations.

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Source: Honolulu Weekly