Governor Accepts EIS for Kihei High School

Kihei High School conceptual site plan, image courtesy Draft EIS, State of Hawaii.

By Wendy Osher

Governor Neil Abercrombie has signed off on the Final Environmental Impact Statement for a long-awaited high school in Kihei.

In a letter to the Department of Education Superintendent sent earlier this month, the governor stated that he accepts the Final EIS for the Kihei High School project.

In implementing the project, he has directed the Hawai’i DOE to perform mitigating measures identified in the EIS document.

The proposed Kīhei High School project site encompasses 77.2 acres of undeveloped land on the mauka side of Pi‘ilani Highway across from the Pi‘ilani Village residential subdivision.

The school will serve grades 9 to 12 in the South Maui Region, and is designed to support an enrollment capacity of 1,650 students, and approximately 206 supporting staff and faculty.

Site improvements would include construction of approximately 215,000-square-feet of building space, athletic fields, and associated infrastructure improvements.

An extension of Kūlanihāko‘i Street mauka of Pi‘ilani Highway has been identified to serve as the main campus access road.

The proposed development has a stated goal that the school will not only serve the enrolled youth, but be a center for the Kīhei community as well, providing opportunities for employment within the South Maui area.