Council committee recommends approval of rezoning for former Chart House parking lot

The Maui County Council’s Disaster Recovery, International Affairs and Planning Committee recommended first reading passage Wednesday of a bill that would allow the site of a former Chart House restaurant parking lot to be rezoned for continued parking use to support a future restaurant at the site, Moku Roots.

Bill 131 proposes changing zoning for a 14,467-square-foot parcel at 1448 Front St. from R-1 residential district to B-2 community business district conditional zoning. The property is located at the northernmost end of Front Street where it meets Honoapiʻilani Highway. The site was used as a parking lot for the former Chart House restaurant, which was destroyed in the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire. The neighboring parking lot remains intact.

The conditional zoning is requested by the owner of Moku Roots, a vegan restaurant planning to open at the former Chart House site. Owner Alexa Caskey seeks to formally establish parking for the new restaurant on the adjacent lot, a use that Council Member Tamara Paltin, committee chair, noted has been accepted by the community for years.

“In all my memory of how long I’ve lived here, it’s always been used as a parking lot,” Paltin said. She initiated the change in zoning and expressed concern that under the existing R-1 residential zoning, a potential house would be located in a “sea-level rise exposure area,” making the continued use as a parking lot “more sense to me.”

First referred in August 2023, the bill faced a significant delay at the Maui Planning Commission, which heard the item in July 2025, well outside the 120-day timeframe required by the County Charter.

“I thought two and a half years was a bit much and I just, I’m able to force it,” Paltin said of the delay in receiving the official transmittal from the commission.

The Maui Planning Commission ultimately recommended approval of the zoning change without conditions, forwarding six comments to the Council. The commission supported the local business, but recognized of sea-level rise concerns. and reliance on the special management area process to address coastal hazards during the rebuilding phase. (A transcript of the commission meeting is here.)

Caskey told the committee that her goal is to use the property for a parking lot only.

“We just want to continue using it as what it’s always been known to be,” she said.

The committee’s discussion included several members expressing support for the local business and recovery efforts, led to an amendment of the proposed zoning conditions.

Council Member Gabe Johnson moved to amend the condition of zoning, which passed with a vote of seven ayes and two excused.

The amended condition limits use of the property to parking structures or lots, which may include solar energy facilities that are installed on overhead canopies or structures and may provide power to other lots and related accessory uses.

“I just look forward to making it easier so we can add more solar on the island,” Johnson said.

Paltin noted that because the restaurant structure was destroyed, Moku Roots will be required to obtain a special management area permit to rebuild. That review process will provide the Planning Commission with “another crack at it at that time” to impose conditions related to coastal impacts.

The committee voted to approve 7-0, with two members excused.

The applicant will need to execute a signed unilateral agreement prior to the full Council’s first reading and have it recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances before second reading.