Council takes action on Maui County Fair, public tax notices, traffic safety and more

A bill to appropriate $1.5 million to the nonprofit Festivals of Aloha for the 2025 Maui County Fair gained final approval Friday from the Maui County Council and advances to the desk of Mayor Richard Bissen.

Bill 7 revises the County’s fiscal year 2025 budget to set aside funding to resurrect the fair that has not been held since 2019 because of crowd restrictions during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and later rising costs to put on the much beloved annual community event.

In other action, council members:

• Approved a resolution to authorize a settlement of civil lawsuits involving Komar Maui Properties. The case stems from Maui County’s efforts last year to use eminent domain to take Komar’s 20 acres next to the Central Maui Landfill as the final disposal site for wildfire debris. Komar went to federal court to block the action. In November, the County announced a $4 million agreement with a subsidiary of Nan Inc. to purchase about 49 acres of previously quarried land and 30 acres being quarried next to the Central Maui Landfill. In December, the Council approved the acquisitions, and the sale to the County was finalized earlier this year.
• Adopted a resolution to authorize acquisition of a little more than 24,000 square feet of land at 968 Limahana Place in Lahaina for no more than $1.7 million. The property is intended for post-wildfire recovery efforts, including road extensions and evacuation routes. The County also is considering the property for temporary housing or interim storage of equipment or materials.
• Passed on first reading Bill 17, which would amend the 2025 fiscal year budget’s general provisions to increase the maximum aggregate amount of unreimbursed transfers and loans from County funds to the bond fund or Housing Interim Financing and Buy-Back Revolving Fund from $100 million to $150 million.
• Adopted a resolution reappointing Lance Taguchi as county auditor for a term ending June 30, 2031.
• Approved a resolution to authorize spending no more than $280,000 for the acquisition of a Maui Lani Terraces condominium located at 3740 Lower Honoapiʻilani Road with unspent Community Development Block Grant funding. The intended purchase is part of a program to help kūpuna impacted by the wildfires who are eligible for low-income senior housing in the initiative launched by the nonprofit J. Walter Cameron Center.
• Adopted a resolution referring to the Maui Planning Commission a proposed bill to amend the Maui Island Plan’s directed growth map for North Kīhei by including nearly 85.6 acres as an area for industrial growth. Existing uses surrounding the property include the Kīhei Wastewater Reclamation Facility, a construction baseyard and a recycling facility.

The Council also passed on second-and-final reading:

• Bill 20, which expands the Council’s options for providing public notice of changes in real property tax rates and tiers to remove advertising in a “newspaper of general circulation,” and simply requiring “public notice” without saying how that would be done.
• Bill 23, which amends the current fiscal year 2025 budget to add $10,000 for the Makawao Parade Committee for the Kaupakalua Roping Club.
• Bill 25, which adds $425,000 in state highway safety funding for Maui Police Department traffic safety programs.
• Bill 31, which amends the current fiscal year budget to appropriate $250,000 as a grant to A0703 West Maui L.P. for an off-site sewer main extension and road improvements for the Kaiāulu o Kūku′ia Affordable Housing Project. According to a Jan. 28 transmittal letter from Budget Director Lesley Milner, the 200-unit multifamily rental apartment project for Maui County households earning up to 60% of area median income has not received County funding in the past. The money is needed to cover the cost of infrastructure improvements that were conditions of permit approvals. County funding is available from unencumbered funds, she said.