LIHUE — Lepeuli Beach, popularly known as Larsen’s, has for years been the center of a dispute over a controversial fence that went up in 2011, blocking off the easiest access to the narrow strip of sand on the North
LIHUE — Lepeuli Beach, popularly known as Larsen’s, has for years been the center of a dispute over a controversial fence that went up in 2011, blocking off the easiest access to the narrow strip of sand on the North Shore.
Beachgoers eventually tore the fence down.
Now a proposal to build a new fence is the subject of a Kauai County Planning Committee meeting scheduled at 8:30 this morning at Council Chambers in the Historic County Building.
The county’s engineer and planning director are scheduled to provide a briefing on the status of permits for the project, the fencing design and whether cultural practitioners were consulted.
The fence is a key component of a broader county plan to improve roads, parking and trail access to the remote beach.
County Spokeswoman Mary Daubert would not answer a reporter’s questions about the project, adding that “it would be inappropriate” for public works and planning department workers to discuss the issue prior to the meeting.
At issue are the county’s plans to build a four-foot high fence along a beach access route along the Lepeuli coastline in Kilauea. That access route, according to some residents who live near there, is part of an historic Ala Loa trail connecting Moloaa and Kilauea.
Ala Loa trails, found across the islands, once facilitated trading and communication between villages. Ala Loa means “long trail” in the Hawaiian language.
The issue dates back to 1979, when Waioli Corporation, at the county’s request, subdivided a portion of its land to allow the county to improve public access to Lepeuli Beach. Years later, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. met with Waioli Corporation to consider allowing an additional trail for public access and the easement was granted in 2009. It was in response to the lingering issue that the area may be part of the Ala Loa trail.
The county then acquired a narrow 3.6-acre lot for a parking area at the road’s end that connects to 1979 and 2009 trails that provide public access to the beach. The Ala Loa trail runs another 250 feet to the eastern edge and is already in use by anglers and limu pickers.
In written testimony submitted Tuesday to the Kauai Council, Kilauea resident Richard Spacer, who has been fighting the fencing of the trail for six years, said he supports the county’s plans to fix and maintain the 1979 and 2009 access trails, but he opposes any effort to fence the Ala Loa trail.
“I support certain parts of the project,” Spacer told TGI. “They want to put a barrier that keeps cars out. I have no problem with that. I have no problem with them doing their job to fix the 1979 trail and the 2009 trail, but I do greatly object that the main object here is … to block the Ala Loa trail. That cannot be blocked.”
