Environmental attorney David Kimo Frankel filed a lawsuit on December 6, 2018, seeking to invalidate a revocable permit issued by the state land board the previous month allowing the Kahala Hotel to expand its uses of a public beach area in front of the hotel to include commercial use for restaurant/bar seating, semi-permanent cabanas and loungers available for rental, and storage.

The lawsuit alleges that the board improperly approved the permit by failing to comply with environmental law requiring an environmental assessment or environmental impact study, and by failing to have adopted rules governing its decisions on requests to permit commercial use of public property.

Frankel is representing himself in the case, which names as defendants the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, and Resorttrust Hawaii LLC, the current owner of the hotel.

On Monday, January 7, Frankel filed a motion for partial summary judgement, asking the court for a ruling that, as a matter of law, the board’s decision to approval the hotel’s permit was illegal. He also asks that any permits issued pursuant to that decision be voided.

The revocable permit approved “has the effect of excluding members of the public from portions of public trust ceded land; without relying on administrative rules with criteria for issuing revocable permits,” and in violation of state laws governing coastal zone management and environmental impact statements.

Frankel cites documents showing that in order to obtain initial approval to build a hotel in the area, the Bishop Estate (now known as Kamehameha Schools) and developers agreed to expand the existing beach and to retain it for public use. A photo included in the motion shows that the sandy beach originally reached right up to the edge of the hotel, but over the years the hotel has slowly encroached on the beach area and expanded its commercial uses of much of it.

No hearing date has been set on the motion.

The motion, without all of the exhibits attached to the original, can be found here.

See:

Ian Lind: The Kahala Hotel’s New Shoreline Plan Could Reduce Public Beach Access, Civil Beat, June 7, 2017.

Community Groups Oppose Kahala Hotel and Resort Permit to Use State-owned Beachfront Property, Hawaii Public Radio, September 4, 2018.