Report Title:

Public Access; Beach; Private Landowners

Description:

Requires owners of privately owned shoreline access paths to keep access to the shoreline open to the public, at minimum, from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	3189
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to public access.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  Chapter 205A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part II to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

     "§205A-   Privately owned shoreline access paths in special management areas. (a)  Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, development shall not be approved for a privately owned shoreline access path that will obstruct access by the public by action or by having installed a physical impediment that is intentionally done to prevent a member of the public from traversing to tidal and submerged lands, beaches, portions of rivers and streams within the special management areas and the mean high tide line where there is no beach; unless all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The privately owned shoreline access path is owned and used by more than one household;

(2) The privately owned shoreline access path is kept open and accessible to the public, at the minimum, from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.;

(3) The owners of the privately owned shoreline access path maintains the access path to be reasonably accessible by members of the public, including but not limited to individuals with disabilities requiring assistance unless the accessibility is unfeasible due to the topography of the access path; and

(4) The owners of the privately owned shoreline access path posts signs at each end of the path providing notice of accessibility hours.

(b)  Physical impediments that may prevent traversing include but at not limited to the following:

(1) Gates;

(2) Fences;

(3) Walls;

(4) Constructed barriers;

(5) Rubbish;

(6) Security guards; and

(7) Guard dogs or animals.

(c)  For purposes of this section, "one household" means a single residential property with a single tax map key."

     SECTION 2.  Section 205A-22, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "development" to read as follows:

     ""Development" means any of the uses, activities, or operations on land or in or under water within a special management area that are included below:

     (1)  Placement or erection of any solid material or any gaseous, liquid, solid, or thermal waste; 

     (2)  Grading, removing, dredging, mining, or extraction of any materials;

     (3)  Change in the density or intensity of use of land, including but not limited to the division or subdivision of land;

     (4)  Change in the intensity of use of water, ecology related thereto, or of access thereto; [and]

     (5)  Construction, reconstruction, demolition, or alteration of the size of any structure[.]; and

(6) Creation or termination of, including any physical impediments to easements, covenants, shoreline access paths, or other rights in structures or land.

     "Development" does not include the following:

     (1)  Construction of a single-family residence that is not part of a larger development;

     (2)  Repair or maintenance of roads and highways within existing rights-of-way;

     (3)  Routine maintenance dredging of existing streams, channels, and drainage ways;

     (4)  Repair and maintenance of underground utility lines, including but not limited to water, sewer, power, and telephone and minor appurtenant structures such as pad mounted transformers and sewer pump stations;

     (5)  Zoning variances, except for height, density, parking, and shoreline setback;

     (6)  Repair, maintenance, or interior alterations to existing structures;

     (7)  Demolition or removal of structures, except those structures located on any historic site as designated in national or state registers;

     (8)  Use of any land for the purpose of cultivating, planting, growing, and harvesting plants, crops, trees, and other agricultural, horticultural, or forestry products or animal husbandry, or aquaculture or mariculture of plants or animals, or other agricultural purposes;

     (9)  Transfer of title to land;

   [(10)  Creation or termination of easements, covenants, or other rights in structures or land;

(11)] (10)  Subdivision of land into lots greater than twenty acres in size;

   [(12)] (11)  Subdivision of a parcel of land into four or fewer parcels when no associated construction activities are proposed; provided that any land which is so subdivided shall not thereafter qualify for this exception with respect to any subsequent subdivision of any of the resulting parcels;

   [(13)] (12)  Installation of underground utility lines and appurtenant aboveground fixtures less than four feet in height along existing corridors;

   [(14)] (13)  Structural and nonstructural improvements to existing single-family residences, where otherwise permissible;

   [(15)] (14)  Nonstructural improvements to existing commercial structures; and

   [(16)] (15)  Construction, installation, maintenance, repair, and replacement of civil defense warning or signal devices and sirens;

provided that whenever the authority finds that any excluded use, activity, or operation may have a cumulative impact, or a significant environmental or ecological effect on a special management area, that use, activity, or operation shall be defined as "development" for the purpose of this part."

     SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 4.  This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

     SECTION 5.  If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the Act, which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are severable.

     SECTION 6.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

INTRODUCED BY:

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