No Trespassing
on Coco Palm Beach Resort, Urunao.
Hafa Adai Josie,
I recently entered a comment regarding your visit to our property. Im glad you enjoyed your visit and again, my apologies for all the effort you put into getting there. Im sure its well worth it!
Before i moved to Saipan, i spent all my weekends there fishing, bbqing and just plain lounging. BUT one thing i disliked was people that trespassed. We have been subject to numerous thefts of personal articles most especially historically significant items. I caught a few people stealing from my property who accessed it from the Ritidian Side. Yes the shore would be considered public domain contingent it was a straight line, but the majority of the public domain lies in the water and therefore making the shoreline still our property.
I’d like to continue to preserve the shells, privacy and long walks on the beach for my child and relatives children for generation to come, but if people access our property from an abutting (Ritidian) land, then its still trespassing as most venture into our land from this entrance. I ask you to continue your appreciation for our property but help us preserve the beauty “WE” all enjoy by removing your “you can access this property from Ritidian Beach” on your web page. The privilege of owning property is an immense responsibility, therefore we ask you to preserve it as well.
Thanks and do let me know if I may clarify anything for you.
Best Regards,
Jess
Isn’t public domain the area up to the sand line?
How sad that such beautiful place no longer belongs the people of Guam!
*IF* this guy is right.
It’s high water mark plus 10 meters inward. Specifically so we can stroll the shoreline and have enough room for a proper cast of a throw net.
Rich –
You are right. Public domain extends to the highwater mark in the sand. Generally the dry part of the sand area, is considered private. Additionally, well-known, long standing local access points to a beach usually are considered easements.
I *knew* one of my attorney friends would speak up!
My office is in the same building as Land Management and I’ll be asking them to clarify on Monday. Although I’m fairly certain walking along the beach (sand) is NOT considered trespassing.
let me chime in for a second,
yes, i too believe the property line extends only to the point of the high water mark.
What is the high water mark, well you and i would way where the water is on high tide, but i’m sure some geologist would say something different.
I however agree with Jess.
I’m sure nobody here would like to find some stranger taking things from their home( or beach in this case)
If a post instructs poeople how to gain access to someplace they normally aren’t allowed, i think it should be taken down. it’s restricted for a reason
But seriously it’s like telling people how to remove the security devices retailers put on clothes, It’s nice to know but does the information lead to the INCREASED possibility of crime? i think so…
Anyways the comment was a digital middle-finger from josie. if a tourist was reading the blog, they might have said “let’s buy a package”, but now they say “lets just walk”. congrats, a local business just lost foreign business.
ps. someone also called me a racist. regarding this subject.
https://www.latitude13.com/archive/000997.html
vanilla ice: i didn’t mean to call you a racist. disregarding anything about racism, my point was to point out how some of the business practices can appear to be discriminatory.
“Digital middle finger”? I don’t think so.
I instructed people on how to get to the Urunao beach. Obviously the LAND side is private property, which I acknowledged by saying you shouldn’t drive down the private road and park your car there. If the BEACH (sand) is public (which you yourself say you believe it is) then I simply offered a way to get to the PUBLIC area without encroaching on PRIVATE property. Look at it this way: I could give someone directions on how to get to PUBLIC beach area around the Outrigger Hotel in Tumon without them having to set foot on Outrigger property.
Furthermore, Coco Palm is on just a fraction of the beach. When I referred to getting to Urunao, I meant in general and not specifically Coco Palm.
Josie,
this is becoming a bit too muddy isnt it? if clarification is what you seek, then i urge you to spend some really enriching time at Land Management and then hire a surveyor as we did, to indentify through an Accurate Boundary Survey as it would reveal the property markers are in the water.
I chose to write to you specifically and let you know how dear the preservation of the property is to us, it really is. We have been ostracized, colonized and everything but appreciated. Anyone who knows me will tell you that im one to share the property and Josie, URUNAO is a family owned beach, therefore im sure my relatives wouldnt mind me “preserving” the point. BTW, we leased a portion of the property to the resort not all our 1100plus acres “WE” own.
Lets enjoy and seek peace.
Jess
And by the way, this is no-way meant to start a movement or create tension, just a peaceful landowner wanting to keep what is ours, ours.
For many years, my father and his siblings along woth countless aunts and uncles have been denied access to our property by the military and equally harassed. They took the majority of the property threatening to deport my great-grandfather Don Pascual Artero. Until today, there will be no price for compensation that we can acknowledge and accept for forcing my family into losing there livelihood after the war. We were displaced.
In 1992 we were granted public access into what since belonged to us before the war. We owned more than 5000acres from Main Anderson AirForce Base to Naval Communications Base, all to end up with less than. We currently enjoy a “Hotel (H-Zone)” property without power and water services (how sad).
Many happy memories were made at the beach (once my great-grandpa’s copra plantation) and some were unfortunate,but isnt it life?
Im not discouraging anyone from enjoying the beauty Guam posseses but enjoy it with love, pride and honor of the people as some areas still belong to the people.
Posting my email without seeking clarification or entering a dialogue with me wasnt something i envisioned. But my future friend, lets wash away the “fixation” of high water marks and all, as im glad to know you had a legal “definition” not an “interpretation” as my lawyers read as well.
How can that definition be applied without knowledge to reference points of vectored areas? as they pointed out because they were in the fight for years as well. But, i personally just want peace. For years my family has been fighting for what is theirs, and i just want to keep it theirs.
Im ending this with, lets continue to respect each other and love the land. Extend my regards to Addy your husband as im sure if he see’s my face he will acknowledge that im a simple guy desiring a simple life. Again, take care/
Si,
Jess
Wow…this is what happens on your comments log when i leave for the weekend?! How intriguing 🙂 I commend you, Josie, for allowing such a thoughtful exchange of opinions.
This family’s “intent” to “continue to preserve the shells, privacy and long walks on the beach” conflicts with their shear willingness to provide an exclusive offering to tourists to allow use of their property at all. Furthermore, you can conclude from their rules that non-tourists (i.e. local residents), if they were potentally allowed access as well, are more likely to ensue “numerous thefts of personal articles”. What makes a tourist, other than they are willing to pay the high price, so different that it would make he/she a more trustworthy patron of their property? I must agree that any type of preferential treatment, and in this case – actions that ostricize the very same people that one would expect to “respect each other and love the land”, is not only bad for business but it is also bad for the island.
Thanks Mimi. I must admit it isn’t always easy to “allow such a thoughtful exchange of opinions.” But I rest easy knowing that if anyone gets out of hand or just really annoying I can take care of it permanently with a couple of keystrokes. (and I’ve come real close a few times.) 😉
It seems jess is one to share the beach. If you ask…