After 10 years of arguments, delays, work and $3 million, there is once again a recreational public boat ramp at Ko Olina Resort & Marina. But some local fishermen contend the resort is unreasonably restricting use of the facility.

The ramp to launch boats opened July 20, satisfying a state requirement that there be such a facility at the resort’s world-class marina for noncommercial public use.

Boat owners generally applauded the requirement finally being met after the resort closed and destroyed an earlier ramp in 2005 after five years of operation. However, some of the same boaters say they can’t use the new ramp because of restrictions imposed by the resort.

“I had to put up with a lot over the last 10 years,” said Kapolei resident Warren Von Arnswaldt. “Now I find I can’t even use the new ramp.”

Von Arnswaldt and several other recreational fishermen complained about rules to use the new ramp at a Friday meeting of the state Land Use Commission, which ruled in 2008 that the resort was in violation of a requirement to provide a public boat ramp at its marina.

The fishermen said the new ramp, which is open sunrise to sunset, limits total truck and trailer length to 40 feet, requires $500,000 of liability insurance, and charges $15 to launch a boat and $10 to park with a one-night maximum.

None of these requirements, except for the operating hours, existed during the five years that the old ramp was open.

Users also have to make appointments by phone at least an hour ahead of time to use the new ramp.

Von Arnswaldt said he has a 20-foot truck and 29.5-foot trailer to carry his 25-foot boat that he used to put in the water at Ko Olina’s old ramp. Even if he had a smaller rig, he said he shouldn’t have to pay for public access.

“I don’t see why we should be paying fees over there,” he said.

Curtis Tabata, a local attorney representing Ko Olina, told LUC members that the fees help defer operating expenses that include providing fresh water for boat washdowns, rubbish removal, security and landscaping maintenance. “All of that costs money,” he said.

Tabata noted that the state Department of Land and Natural Resources charges boaters $50 a year to use state ramps and that one DLNR harbor, Maalaea Small Boat Harbor on Maui, recently began charging $12 a day for vehicle (but not trailer) parking.

The insurance requirement is what the resort requires for recreational boat owners using slips at its marina and is what the state requires for boats mooring in state harbors.

Regarding the truck and trailer size limit, Tabata said the City and County land use ordinance requires boat trailer parking stalls to be a minimum of 40 feet, so that’s what was designed. “We’ve complied with the law,” he said.

So far, only four boat owners have registered with the resort to gain access to the new ramp.

One of those users, Ross Kurihara, wrote a letter addressed to the Ko Olina Community Association that said his family doesn’t mind the fees and insurance requirement.

“We would want to truly thank you for building a boat ramp in Ko Olina and letting nonresidents of Ko Olina (use) your boat ramp,” Kurihara’s letter said. “We was sad, back in 2005, when Ko Olina closed the boat ramp by lagoon 4.”

Creighton Chang, a Waipahu resident who goes fishing on his boat two or three times a month, said he will be paying $900 a year to use the new ramp plus an estimated $300 for insurance. “I might as well buy the fish,” he said.

Rick Nosaka, a 64-year-old boat owner who used Ko Olina’s original ramp, emailed the LUC to say the resort’s fees for its new ramp are too restrictive.

“I can understand that Ko Olina is trying to protect itself from liability. … However, agreements are agreements and should be honored,” he said in the email. “Part of the cost and liability of developing Ko Olina is the commitment to the boating community to provide reasonable boat launching access.”

The public boat ramp was a condition to Ko Olina’s original developer, Herbert Horita of West Beach Estates, obtaining LUC approval in 1985 to urbanize the formerly agricultural land for resort development. Horita built the original ramp in 1988 but never opened it to public use.

A group of investors led by local developer Jeff Stone acquired what was a struggling resort in 1998 and developed the marina. The $40 million marina with 270 private boat slips opened in 2000 along with the public ramp.

The resort at the time charged users a $25 annual administrative fee and required boaters to carry insurance. The developer, however, dropped both provisions after boaters complained.

One other issue with the original ramp was its operating hours between sunrise and sunset. Nighttime and early morning use could disturb resort residents, so Stone’s group worked on a resolution to establish a 24-hour ramp at the state’s adjacent industrial harbor at Kalaeloa.

That plan, in which Ko Olina spent $400,000 to retrofit a slip operated by boat repair firm The Phoenician LLC to haul out boats by crane, was approved by the city but not presented to the LUC.

When the Phoenician ramp opened in 2005, Ko Olina closed and demolished its original ramp. Soon though, users of the new ramp, who had to pay a $125 annual fee, complained that it was dangerous because of its high walls accessed by a ladder and ocean surges, among other things.

Some boaters objected to the shift and contended that the resort had violated its requirement to provide a public boat ramp on its property. After a lengthy contested case hearing at which the resort argued that the Phoenician ramp satisfied the requirement, the LUC ruled in 2008 that Ko Olina had an obligation to provide a public ramp at its marina.

The resort encountered many permitting hurdles and delays, including a requirement by the National Marine Fisheries Service that impacts on fish be assessed given that the marina had been designated as an “essential” fish habitat.

Tabata said it cost about $3 million to build the new ramp.

Bryan Yee, a deputy attorney general representing the state Office of Planning, asked a Ko Olina representative whether rules for using the new ramp were created to discourage public use, especially in light of the appearance that local boaters were redirected out of the upscale marina to the industrial harbor in 2005.

”Absolutely not,” answered Sweetie Nelson, director of destination marketing for the resort.

LUC commissioners voted 5-1 to seek more information from commission staff, the resort and conditions of a public access master plan approved by the city. The motion also encouraged the resort and boaters to try to reach common ground.