PASH: No One Legacy For Hawai‘i Land Use And Shoreline Public Access

Edited by Ellen R. Ashford

In 1995 I argued Public Access Shoreline Hawaii v. Hawai'i Planning Commission, commonly known as "PASH," before the Supreme Court of Hawai'i.¹ The increasing development of coastline on the island of Hawai'i resulted in community opposition to the County's issuance of a Special Management Area (SMA) use permit for a proposed resort development. The issue was whether a public interest group had legal standing to participate in contested case hearings before the planning commission as it considered whether to grant a special management area use permit which the court answered in the affirmative. The court ruled that the landowner's private property rights were not absolute and that before it could grant development permits the Planning Commission had to consider the rights and interests arising out of traditional and customary native Hawaiian gathering practices.