North Shore project gets OK to be built on stilts

A mile up the North Shore from where a house fell into the ocean in February, a new oceanfront development just received special approval from the county government. If the building plans work as intended, the buildings could be among the last standing — on stilts — when rising seas wipe out neighboring homes.

The plot of land, at 58-2 Makanale St. in Haleiwa, looks out onto the Velzyland surf break. A stream runs by the property to the beach. A single-family home was demolished there in 2016. The proposal documents three residences, two garages and two swimming pools on 1.15 acres of land.

Because of the coastal location and cost of over a half-million dollars, the new owners had to apply for a special management area permit, which the Honolulu City Council approved Nov. 2 with just one dissenting vote. Permitting documents for the project show that the units will be beyond the reach of flooding, erosion and high waves even with 3.2 feet of sea level rise, which scientists estimate will occur by the end of the century. Instead of using a typical concrete foundation, the structures would stand on “micropiles,” high-strength bars 6 to 16 inches in diameter, descending 12 to 20 feet below, “to tie into the underlying coral substrate,” a report from the Department of Planning and Permitting said.

“The Project will have no impact based on projected coastal erosion, while the neighboring properties could be affected by coastal erosion based on the SLR (sea level rise) projections through 2100,” Gregory Kugle, a lawyer with Damon Key Leong Kupchak Haster, representing owners John and Fumie Winebarger, wrote in a memo. The development is planned “much further inland” than neighboring properties more likely to be affected, including those along Sunset Beach and Rocky Point, Kugle wrote.

As rising seas erode the coast, the design could foreshadow how resilient North Shore beachfront houses will survive.

“Having the house on embedded piers is very smart but could potentially mean the house is overhanging the ocean in the future,” said Dolan Eversole, a coastal geologist with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program. “The stronger the development, the longer it should last, but could outlast the location of the shoreline that is slowly retreating landward,” he said. By that time, adjacent properties that don’t use micropiles would be tipping onto the beach.

Hazards still exist, Eversole said. “They are proposing a larger than required setback, which is great, but this area is also subject to erosion from the ocean and the stream, making it more vulnerable than normal,” he said.

Kugle wrote his memo in response to concerns from the chair of the North Shore Neighborhood Board, Kathleen Pahinui. In a September meeting the board had voted not to support the project, citing concerns over the micropiles and “lack of detail.” “How will it work?” Pahinui wrote in a letter to the Council Zoning and Planning Committee. Despite the proposed setback from the expected erosion zone, concerns remained that the property eventually would be affected, like the home that fell onto the beach in February. “The board has serious concerns about continued building along the coastline,” Pahinui wrote. “Will the community have to pick up the costs later?”

The Honolulu City Council approved the project’s permit Nov. 2. Council member Heidi Tsuneyoshi, whose district includes the North Shore, cast the sole “no” vote. She had no comment on her decision.

Council member Andria Tupola, who voted to approve it, said she was concerned that “most neighbors had concerns or were opposed” to the project. “In the end I did vote with reservations because the department did indicate that the applicant was following all the city guidelines and the (Sunset Beach Community Association) did speak in favor of the application,” she said.

Council member Calvin Say, who also voted to approve the permit, said in a statement, “We do acknowledge the community concerns and opposition. The question the Council vote addressed, is whether the applicant had demonstrated compliance with the Special Management Area requirements, as required by law. The Department of Planning and Permitting had recommended approval based on SMA requirements being satisfied.”

Eversole sees the now-­vacant lot as an opportunity to move in a different direction as a community. “Redevelopment of beach lots like this seem like the opportunity for land acquisition as public space before they are redeveloped, but there is no program in place yet to do this,” he said.

A recent report from the North Shore Coastal Resi­lience Working Group, of which Eversole is a part, encouraged so-called managed retreat, relocating vulnerable coastal homes inland. Despite growing risks from climate change and sea level rise, “neither the state of Hawai‘i nor its counties have a complete policy framework or financing mechanisms in place to support managed retreat,” the report said.