Maui Council gives final approval for revisions to County workforce housing policy

Maui County Council members voted 6-2 Friday, with Council Chair Alice Lee and Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura dissenting and Council Member Tasha Kama absent, on a bill to increase deed restriction requirements to maintain County-subsidized workforce affordable housing.

The vote came after a contentious first reading of the bill on Oct. 10 that saw the measure initially fail for the lack of a fifth affirmative vote, then subsequently pass on a rarely used vote for reconsideration. Earlier, Bill 40 passed through the Housing and Land Use Committee by a vote of 8-0.

Bill 40 amends the County’s residential workforce housing policy by:

• Promoting the retention of units for owner-occupancy
• Expediting the County’s acquisition of workforce housing by exempting their purchase from a requirement of Council approval
• Increasing deed-restriction periods to benefit the community
• Fostering the production and protection of the County’s workforce housing inventory

Among other things, the bill also details the deed restriction periods for different income groups that would benefit from residential workforce housing. For multifamily or two-family ownership units deed restrictions would be:

• 12 years for below-moderate income, 80 to 100% of area median income as established by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
• 10 years for moderate income, 100 to 120% of median income
• 8 years for above-moderate income, 120 to 140% of median income

For single-family housing, the deed restrictions would be:

• 15 years for below-moderate income
• 12 years for moderate income
• 10 years for above-moderate income households

When housing is developed on county-owned land, affordable units will have deed restrictions “in perpetuity,” or forever, rather than time limits. Maui County also will get the first right to purchase units in foreclosure situations and the right to purchase any unsold units at the original sales price.

A report from the Housing and Land Use Committee details the bill’s provisions and background.

The bill now advances to Mayor Richard Bissen for final action.

In other action, council members adopted Committee Report 25-68 and passed on first reading Bills 138, 139 and 140 to amend the fiscal year 2026 budget for $20.2 million in West Maui Land acquisitions of 120 parcels amounting to 167 acres and Department of Public Works capital improvements for a flood control project and other uses. Funding will come from bonds and lapsed bond proceeds, according to the committee report.

Separately, council members adopted Resolution 25-177, coming out of the Water and Infrastructure Committee, to authorize acceptance of the state’s interest in a portion of the old Alulike-Kaonoulu Street in Kīhei.

The undeveloped parcel is a remnant created during the 1989 Kaonoulu Estates subdivision. The land abuts the properties of the Jewish Congregation of Maui Inc. and Maui Bay Villas. The congestion-plagued property has been the subject of discussion for over a decade and a half, with the Jewish Congregation seeking to use the land for essential purposes such as off-street parking and access improvements.

And, council members passed on second-and-final reading:

Bill 141, which extends the effective date of a new requirement that Maui County public meeting agendas be published in both English and ‘olelo Hawai‘i. The new effective date would be Dec. 31, 2025.

Bill 148, which reduces the membership of the Kula Agricultural Park Committee from 11 to nine, a move needed to allow the panel to achieve quorum for its meetings.

Bill 149, which amends the fiscal 2026 budget to add an appropriation of $1,526,031 for the Department of Water Supply to use federal funding to demolish and replace the deteriorated and leaking, 27-year-old Haʻikū-Kauhikoa Tank. The project for the new stainless-steel, 250,000-gallon tank includes valves, inflow and outflow piping and site paving.