As Beaches Grow, Do Property Rights Grow With Them?

Michael Levine/Civil Beat

Most property lines are static, unchanging and unmoving. But for those Hawaii residents lucky enough to have beachfront homes, that line is constantly in flux. The moving boundary has created a legal quandary.

The Hawaii Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on a class-action lawsuit that challenges a seven-year-old Hawaii law. The court's decision will help answer an age-old question: Who owns the sand?

"Grains of sand are always coming and going, literally with every gust of wind, every new wave, the rise and fall of the tides, currents that emerge and even the seasons," said Chip Fletcher, a professor of coastal geology in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii. "The shoreline is constantly changing its position. It's never still."

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