Posted on: Friday, December 26, 2003

Protesters threaten march on Papa'a Bay

Advertiser Staff

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — A simmering controversy involving beach access could boil over Sunday if a planned "access celebration" takes place at Papa'a Bay.

No one is claiming to be organizing the 11 a.m. event, and some say it's been in the works for months. But Papa'a Bay Ranch, owned by movie producer Peter Guber's Mandalay Properties, is hoping to stop it and has threatened criminal prosecution against anyone who trespasses on the road that leads to Papa'a Bay.

'Aliomanu resident Bill Young, publisher of the monthly newspaper The Kauaian, said a variety of Native Hawaiians, environmentalists and community activists concerned about beach access issues have been talking about the Papa'a Bay event for months, but no single group is organizing it.

Young said he wouldn't be surprised to see anywhere between 50 and 300 people descend on the beach. "It could get ugly," he said.

Young said the event gained momentum with claims that court and Bureau of Conveyance documents recently discovered indicate the government road to Papa'a Bay also leads to the beach. He said the road may never have been formally conveyed to private property owners.

Honolulu attorney Paul Alston challenged those assertions in a letter last week to Young, the Island Access Coalition, the environmental group Save Our Seas and the mayor's Ka Leo O Kaua'i program. Alston insisted that notices inviting people to a "mass trespass" be withdrawn. He said the government's Papa'a Road stops short of the beach. Any effort to gain access through Papa'a Bay Ranch lands will be opposed, he said.

"If you or others trespass on the property on that date — or any other date — the owner will pursue all available civil and criminal remedies against the trespassers and those who caused the trespassing," the letter says.

Alston said the property, which includes a valley and hillsides between Anahola and Moloa'a bay, is being sold and that he believes the access issue is being used "to interfere with the pending sale of the ranch."

Attorneys for the county are studying the access issue, but the county's position thus far has been that the road stops well short of the beach.