Long-debated Honuaʻula project set for full Council action on Friday morning

The long-debated Honuaʻula master-planned community will come up for action on two bills this week Friday before a divided Maui County Council.

Recent debate over Honuaʻula plans to reduce affordable housing before the Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee, chaired by Council Member Tasha Kama, has shown the Council majority (Kama, Chair Alice Lee and Council Members Yuki Lei Sugimura, Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins and Tom Cook) flex its muscle over minority progressives (Council Members Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Tamara Paltin, Shane Sinenci and Gabe Johnson).

Among other things, the committee is recommending in Bill 171 that references to 450 affordable units be eliminated from the project district ordinance for the Kīhei-Mākena Project District 9. The bill also would delete mention of a golf course or golf course-related uses and facilities. The measure would add cultural and educational centers as permitted principal uses and structures. The project area is mauka of Wailea and adjacent to Maui Meadows.

Rawlins-Fernandez has submitted a proposed amendment to Bill 171 to restore the 450 affordable units.

“Approval of this amendment will provide housing to residents, something each councilmember promised the community in exchange for their vote every election year,” she said. “Since 2008, commitments for water systems, housing, emergency services and infrastructure have gone unfulfilled, yet luxury developments continue to move forward, benefiting a select few while leaving the rest of us to bear the consequences.”

On Dec. 3, the committee voted 5-3 to recommend passage of Bill 171 on first reading. Members voting in favor were Kama, Cook, Lee, Sugimura and Uʻu-Hodgins. Opposed were Johnson, Paltin and Rawlins-Fernandez. Sinenci was absent and excused.

According to the committee report, “a particular point of contention” stemmed from the number of residential workforce housing units the developer would be required to provide.

When earlier ordinances were enacted, 50% the project’s 1,400 dwelling units were required to be workforce housing, with 450 to be built within the project district and 250 off-site. However, the Maui County Code now requires a developer to provide a number of residential workforce housing units equivalent to at least 25%, rounding up to the nearest whole number, of the total number of market-rate units.

Based on the developer’s current plans, 1,150 total units would be constructed, and the minimum residential workforce housing required would be 230, with 920 market-rate units. The developer has said that at least 288 residential workforce housing units would be built.

The committee decided to delete reference to associated off-site residential workforce housing, requiring all residential units to be built on site in the project district. The maximum number of dwelling units allowed would be 1,150, instead of the earlier 1,400. And, the panel also included in the bill the developer’s commitment to build at least 288 residential workforce housing units, 58 more than required by the Maui County Code.

Bill 172 was recommended for approval by a vote of 5-2. Voting in favor were Kama, Cook, Lee, Sugimura and Uʻu-Hodgins. Opposed were Johnson and Rawlins-Fernandez. Paltin and Sinenci were absent and excused.

Paltin has submitted a proposed amendment for Bill 172, calling for 125 of the residential workforce housing to remain owner-occupied in perpetuity.

“Approval of this amendment will ensure residential workforce housing units will be available to residents instead of becoming market rate units that will be unaffordable for most residents,” she said. “Our community deserve housing they can afford.”

Rawlins-Fernandez has proposed a similar amendment.

Johnson is proposing an amendment that would favor longtime residents in a lottery for available housing. “This amendment will help to prioritize residents who have lived on Maui the longest in the selection process for workforce housing units in this development,” he said.

The bill includes provisions for the upgrade of Piʻilani Highway and that additional workforce housing units above 288 would be built in the project district in exchange for the state Department of Transportation to perform the work. All of the housing units will be built on site. References to building units at the Kaʻonoʻulu Light Industrial Subdivision were removed. The bill provides a breakdown for the number of residential workforce housing rental and ownership units by income group.

The Honuaʻula project bills and proposed amendments are the first items on an agenda for Friday’s special Council meeting, beginning at 9 a.m. in the eighth-floor Council Chambers of the Kalana O Maui Building. There are off-site locations for public testimony: in Kīhei at the Maui Economic Development Building, 1305 North Holopono St., Suite 9; in East Maui at the Hāna Community Center, 5091 Uakea Road; on Molokaʻi at the Molokaʻi District Complex, 100 Ainoa St.; on Lānaʻi at 814 Fraser Ave.; and in Pāʻia at the Heritage Hall, 401 Baldwin Ave.

Public testimony also can be offered online via Teams at http://tinyurl.com/2p9zhjr2; or by phone at 1-808-977-4067, code 234 794 559#

The meeting will be televised live on Akakū – Maui Community Media, cable Channel 53.

The development of the master-planned Honuaʻula project, formerly Wailea 670, has been a hot point of contention in South Maui for a long time. In September 2022, the Maui Planning Commission approved the project after a marathon contested case proceeding.

The project includes 24 acres of village mixed use and 103 acres of recreation and open space. A quarter of the total project area would be dedicated to permanent preservation. Also, Pi’ilani Highway will be widened from two to four lanes from the highway’s intersections with Mapu Place and Kilohana Drive.

Two groups, Maui Tomorrow Foundation and Hoʻoponopono O Mākena, challenged the project, contending it had too few affordable homes and too many negative cultural and environmental impacts.