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Hulopoʻe Beach Park Council Explores Limiting Visitor Access

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The loosening of pandemic restrictions, and the increase in visitor arrivals over the past few months, has led to crowding at many popular parks and beaches across our state. The impacts are being felt by residents on all islands, including Lānaʻi.

Tensions are increasing between locals and tourists at one spot in particular — Hulopoʻe Beach Park.

The area is unique because while the beach is managed by the state, the beach park is owned and maintained by Pūlama Lānaʻi, Larry Ellison's land and resource management company.

A public Hulopoʻe Beach Park Council meeting was held in July to discuss limiting nonresidents at the beach park — the first hearing brought to the community.

Kelli Maltezo, the council chair, says there was a general desire to ensure the beach park is always accessible to Lānaʻi residents. Testifiers proposed solutions such as a fee-based reservation system to limit beach park access for nonresidents.

"Obviously, there's a lot of finer details that would go into that," Maltezo said. "This is going to be something that's going to be ongoing until we can get enough input from our community."

Pūlama Lānaʻi told Hawaiʻi Public Radio it supports the council's efforts to gather community input about the vision and usage of the park.

"I think we are fortunate that the beach park is privately owned because the upkeep of the beach is amazing," Maltezo said. "We have wonderful amenities, it's always clean."

Rangers maintain the park from morning until night, says Maltezo's father Butch Gima, who is a member of Lanaians for Sensible Growth.

"Unlike other islands, Hulopoʻe Beach is unique in the sense that it's the only beach on Lānaʻi that has the type of, I guess, view and amenities and access," Gima said. "For decades residents have enjoyed Hulopoʻe and since the hotel started in the early 90s, there's just been a slow increase in the amount of nonresidents coming to Lānaʻi and accessing Hulopoʻe."

Gima says there's been a significant increase in daytrippers from Maui on ferries and boat tours.

"I think a lot of non-Lānaʻi people would say, 'Oh, your beach is not crowded, I mean nothing compared to the neighbor islands.' But for Lānaʻi's standards, we are noticing how crowded it's getting," Gima said. "Hopefully we can work with Pūlama in setting something up that works well for our residents. We are biased towards the residents of Lānaʻi in terms of whatever changes would come about."

This interview aired on The Conversation on Aug. 31, 2021.

Russell Subiono is the executive producer of The Conversation and host of HPR's This Is Our Hawaiʻi podcast. Born in Honolulu and raised on Hawaiʻi Island, he’s spent the last decade working in local film, television and radio. Contact him at talkback@hawaiipublicradio.org.
Sophia McCullough is a digital news producer. Contact her at news@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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