“We deeply apologize, and want to reassure our neighbors that it won’t happen again. As a fourth-generation local family, we have deep respect for the land and our community,” Sheila Donnelly, a spokesperson for the family, said in a statement emailed to SFGATE.
All beaches in Hawaii are public. It’s illegal for a landowner to restrict access, but some are trying anyway. “It’s our right as residents and even visitors of this place to be able to use the public access,” Kauai County Council Chair Mel Rapozo said at a recent County Council meeting.
On the North Shore of Kauai, a landowner with property fronting Anini Beach has a history of blocking public access. “The landowner had basically taken over the state beach, put up his or her beach amenities, hired security to kick our local people off the beach, and they even had the audacity to put up a ‘Road Closed’ sign on a post that was approaching that road,” said Rapozo, adding that the sign is now in the bed of his truck.
“Who do they think they are that they can just say, ‘I’m going to put a “Road Closed” sign just to keep the public out’?” he continued.
The issue at Anini Beach first came to Rapozo’s attention when a constituent told him that a security guard had escorted a Native Hawaiian kupuna (elder) off the beach.
“A huge pet peeve of mine is when private landowners take over public access. That just drives me nuts,” Rapozo said…
