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by disordinary 3445 days ago
Surely his lawyers informed him of the situation when he bought it.

In Hawaii (or the US in general) can people own beaches below the high tide mark? Surely it's impossible to have 100% seclusion anyway as people can land by boat when the tide is low and enjoy at their leisure?

3 comments

I actually saw his property when my GF and I were in Kauai a few months ago and visited the beach in front of his lot for fun.

So his property is adjacent to a land reserve so it is much more secluded than just the land he owns. He is building a massive wall in front of the house that is obstructing some of the views of people on the other side of the street which they are not happy about (you can google to see it) and many of the houses are now for sale. As for the beach front, by law all beaches in Kauai are open to the public. However... his property is on a hill and it appears that many people plant these extremely thick bushes that create a thick thorned wall of shrub (many dozens of feet wide) that prevents access (in addition to requiring you to walk up a steep slope). Just getting down to the beach from the public access point took 15-20 min.

That said, I don't think the beach can be accessed by boat efficiently (very rocky once you get past the sand) and swimming in it is very dangerous. For those of you who have not visited, there are very aggressive undertows in Kauai that can easily kill a kid or novice swimmer.

Thanks for the info. :)
All beaches are public property in Hawaii. http://seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/public-access-rights

But Zuck doesn't spend his time on the beach on his property.

If he's a typical wealthy person he probably only spends a couple of weeks a year there and has other holiday properties scattered around.
Real property rights vary by state. Here in WA, you can own some beach and, based on my very limited knowledge, there is some process to acquire tideland rights in order to, say, build a dock.
WA beach owernishp is to mean low tide. Not sure how socks work but I know in most places in the places in the Puget Sound won't let you build bulkheads out into the beach anymore to protect the environment.