ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) wrote: ↑Mon Oct 17, 2022 9:35 pm
Pahonu wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 6:34 pm
steveadl wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 7:35 am
robicurp wrote: ↑Sat Oct 15, 2022 7:46 pm
Hi All,
I found another Drone video of the Pahonu estate with the construction almost completed. It shows a good overview of the entire estate grounds.
I'm happy they preserved Magnum's :Guest House" at least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g77FlYMeld0
Nice find!
The beach is the biggest I've seen it in a while there. They've definitely replaced the concrete walls, though I'm not sure they're taller?
As far as protecting coastlines from denser construction, its an understandable sentiment in general, but its unfair to do it to those who own the property so I see both sides. It's one thing to say others should do it for someones else's land, but if it were your land/legacy/inheritance to pass on to your family or profit for your life's hard work, not so clear cut.
The sea walls by the old main house are no higher, but the ones from the beach gate to the boathouse are higher. Those used to rise just a foot or so above the benches that were molded into them where TM often sat. There was a chain link fence above them. The high sea walls opposite had no fence except right by the gate. They were like 8-10 feet high and still are. The EIR for the sea wall reinforcement included drawings of all the proposed higher sea walls.
The sea walls to the left of the rear gate actually do seem quite lower than they used to be. Check out how high the wall is in the pilot when TM is sneaking around it after his swim. Now look at the video and it looks really small. Like half its height or so. Like it might only come up to your waist. It used to be over Selleck's head. In fact it gets higher as you go out further left. But as you get closer to the gate it tapers down. I don't remember that before.
The sea wall at the location of the old main house is the highest on the property. It hasn’t been lowered, but has been reinforced according to the EIR drawings. Look at around 45 seconds on the video and you’ll see people by that area and it’s well over their heads. As the wall approaches the beach gate, it steps down in a series, which it always did. It’s at that point that the chain link fence was begun as the wall became low enough that if you stood on the concrete benches you could climb over it. It then continued at this low height to the boat house where it changed height again, with higher chain link fencing, and the large double gates and the path to the boathouse doors.
I’m ridiculously familiar with these details because I remember well recreating its complexity in my SketchUp model. What has happened, is that the lower walls have all been raised to the height of the stepped down level near the beach gate. I think it is around 6-7 feet, if I recall from the report. I posted a link to this report somewhere on this thread!?!?! The report itself is a couple of hundred pages! I’ll see if I can find the link. None of this even considers the complex nature of the plan view of the wall, just the heights of different parts. It also turns out that the wall section by the boathouse included at least a part that was not on the private property, but was public land. Mrs. Anderson also had to get a variance to allow that to remain.
It might help in understanding this complexity, to know that it is (was) actually three different walls. When several properties were purchased and combined to create the estate for Mrs. Wall, the tallest wall section at the main house already existed and it is the highest point in the property. The much lower wall by the boat house existed as well. The property is lower here, but still the boathouse was made partially below grade to ease access from the beach to the storage area on the lower level. Incidentally, there had also been a pier in this area, and not the same one as was once at the Shriners property.
In between these existing two walls was a swale for storm drainage from the old highway that was closer to the water, but there was no wall. The architect then essentially connected the two walls adding the beach gate that we are all so familiar with. That is the lowest point on the property where water used to drain, so an easement was required and an underground storm drain was created. It exits right by the beach gate as can be seen in many photos.
Sorry again that got long!!