Owner plans to shift beachfront home on north shore Oahu to save it from erosion

By ‘A’ali’i Dukelow

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    HONOLULU (KITV) — As erosion continues to crumble the coastline and threaten homes on Oahu’s North Shore, one resident is trying to protect his beachfront home by shifting it farther away from the shoreline.

The owner of the three-bedroom home on Ke Nui Road in Pupukea applied for a permit from the city Department of Planning and Permitting to pull the home farther back within the lot that he owns.

“Moving homes I think is a reality now and will increase,” erosion expert Chip Fletcher said. “It’s a great way to adapt to coastal erosion that might be nipping away at the front of your property.”

A year ago, another home on Ke Nui Road collapsed over erosion, and a little farther down, another homeowner illegally plastered concrete onto the shore to try to shield his home from the same fate.

Fletcher added the process of relocating structures farther inland is called “managed retreat,” and can buy a homeowner a decade or two before erosion threatens their house.

“Scientists around the world are in uniform agreement that sea level rise is unstoppable and it’s accelerating,” Fletcher warned.

Managed retreat, Fletcher added, is the preferred strategy among experts for adapting to erosion over other options, such as hardening the shoreline with concrete sea walls, because doing so mars the beach sand.

“Beaches are on of the lifeblood of Hawaii, not only for residents, but visitors as well,” Fletcher said.

“We need to figure out a way to strategically retreat from the ocean, and sliding a house back on a property that has that space I think is a very important and valuable way to address the problem of sea level rise, at least over the next couple of decades.”

DPP is currently processing the owner’s application.

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