Maui Planning Commission begins Kīhei public hearing for Honuaʻula project

There was standing-room-only this morning at the Malcom Center in Kīhei as the Maui Planning Commission began a much-anticipated public hearing on the hotly contested Honuaʻula master-planned community.

The meeting can be viewed now via Webex Videoconferencing: Meeting ID: 2663 177 1749 Password: 031125. The physical site is at the Malcolm Center, located at 1305 North Holopono St. in Kīhei.

The hearing is being held to comply with a procedural requirement that postponed Maui County Council action on two land-use measures in December. Bill 171 and 172 had been posted for first-reading action on the Dec. 13 Maui County Council agenda. The Planning Department reported that the commission inadvertently failed to hold a public hearing in South Maui, as required by the Maui County Code.

The measures would amend land-use and development standards for the 670-acre South Maui development, formerly and incorrectly known as “Wailea 670.” (The project area is south of Maui Meadows and mauka of Piʻilani Highway and Wailea, but it’s not in the Wailea Resort.)

Last year, the Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee recommended 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.