City Council supports bills to replenish eroding Waikiki shoreline
A climate change report suggests that as time goes by, Waikiki Beach will be under greater pressure from rising seas and require constant sand replenishing. A large pile of sand sat on Kuhio Beach during the last sand replenishment project in 2012. That project cost $4.5 million.
Bills requiring Waikiki property owners and businesses to pay into a fund that would help pay for replenishment of Waikiki beach areas and related improvements were adopted by the Honolulu City Council Wednesday.
Bills 81 (2014) and 82 (2014) establish a special improvement district that charges businesses and property owners a fee that goes to a fund to pay for shoreline improvement, restoration and protection projects carried out by the state, city and other entities.
Waikiki interests maintain that the situation is dire and note that beach areas are eroding at a rate of about a foot a year.
The initial plan calls for the district to charge the owners of all commercial properties in Waikiki 7.63 cents per $1,000 of the assessed value of their land with the goal of collecting $600,000 annually.
References to areas east of Kapahulu Avenue were deleted from the bills after concerns were raised by advocates for Kapiolani Park, Kaimana Beach and the Natatorium War Memorial. Even so, Kapiolani Park preservationists continued to oppose the improvement district.
