Op-Ed: Height-limit rule limits scope of Lahaina rebuilding

Op-Ed: Height-limit rule limits scope of Lahaina rebuilding
By: Jonathan Helton | Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi
Helton is a policy analyst at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi and the author of the policy brief “Four more ways to speed up Lahaina’s wildfire recovery.”

Almost two and a half years after wildfires destroyed much of Lahaina, homeowners and business owners in the town core are still struggling to return — and strict county regulations are a big reason.

Among them, height limits have emerged as a barrier to rebuilding historic structures, apartments and businesses. A bill being considered by the Maui County Council would be a good start toward providing relief, but it needs to be expanded to cover everyone affected.

Introduced by Council Member Alice Lee at Mayor Richard Bissen’s request, Bill 183 (2025) is up for first reading by the Maui County Council on Friday, Dec. 19.

The measure would increase the height limit for structures in the Lahaina National Historic Landmark District from 30 feet to 35 feet and exempt all public and quasi-public buildings destroyed in the fires from height limit completely.

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The 30-foot height limit, enshrined in the 2022 West Maui Community Plan, has held back the rebuilding of historic buildings and apartments that were taller than 30 feet before the fires.

County officials first noticed this issue when the owners of the two-story, 142-unit Front Street Apartments applied for rebuilding permits and wanted to build to a height of 32 feet to accommodate a third story and 88 more units.

The Maui Planning Department did some research and found that other structures, such as the historic Waiola Church and Lahaina Courthouse, also were taller than the 30-foot height limit.

Under the Community Plan’s rule, rebuilding these structures would be impossible.

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Thus, if Bill 183 passes, it would not help all Lahaina property owners, who would be forced to seek additional amendments to the Community Plan — involving several rounds of discretionary approvals — in order to rebuild to the same height.

Consider, for example, the Wharf Cinema Center. The Planning Department estimates the shopping center was 40–50 feet tall before it was destroyed by the fires; and as a mall, it would not qualify for the height-limit waiver reserved for public and quasi-public uses.

At the Maui Planning Commission’s Oct. 14 meeting, one planning department official admitted that this requirement is going to cause “trouble” for anyone seeking to rebuild pre-fire structures that were “40 or 50 feet tall.”

The official added that “the Wharf Cinema Center… is gonna have to go through the whole public process, and I don’t know what the outcome is gonna be for them.”

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The Planning Department doesn’t have an exact record of how tall each building in Lahaina was before the fires, so it’s possible more structures will not fit under the proposed 35-foot cap.

However, to recapture the character of Lahaina before the 2023 disaster, all Lahaina residents should be allowed to rebuild their destroyed structures — regardless of whether those heights comply with the 2022 West Maui Community Plan.

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After all, the goal of the section of the plan that contains the height limit is “responsible stewardship of resources, culture and character.”

The plan goes on to say: “Historic buildings also possess unique architectural character that creates a sense of place and cannot be replicated with new construction.”

If the point of the plan is to preserve Lahaina’s past, why should anyone be denied the right to rebuild what they had before the fires?

Bill 183 could help set things right, subject to it being amended to include all affected Lahaina property owners.

*****Views expressed in Op-Ed pieces are those of the author’s alone and do not reflect or represent the opinions, policies or positions of Maui Now.*****