Maui Council committee forwards Pāʻia Town project to the Maui Planning Commission

A mixed-use development proposed for 40 acres of former sugarcane land near Pāʻia won committee approval Wednesday, moving a project that would bring up to 170 homes, commercial businesses, a medical clinic and a public parking lot to the next stage of a years-long entitlement process.

The Maui County Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee voted 7-0 to recommend forwarding Resolution 26-84 to the Maui Planning Commission; the full Council still needs to ratify the recommendation. Committee Chair Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins, who holds the Makawao-Haʻikū-Pāʻia residency seat, introduced the resolution.

Project overview

The EC Paia Town project is owned by developer Sam Hirbod through his company EC Paia, which purchased roughly 340 acres of former Alexander & Baldwin sugarcane and mill land. Only 40 acres — now designated in the Maui Island Plan as a small town growth area — are slated for development. The remaining 300 acres would stay in agriculture.

The project site is mauka of Hāna Highway, makai of the former Pāʻia Mill and west of Baldwin Avenue. Currently, the grass-dense land is being used for cattle grazing.

Attorney Cal Chipchase, who represents the project developer, pushed back against testimony suggesting the project was driven by outside corporate interests. “Sam is EC Paia. It’s his company. There isn’t a conglomerate behind him,” Chipchase said during a project presentation.

The preliminary plan calls for approximately 120 single-family homes and 50 multi-family units. The committee added conditions including a requirement that 34 workforce rental units targeting households earning up to 120% of area median income be maintained in perpetuity, with free parking and laundry facilities for those residents. An additional 16 “gap group” units would target households at 121% to 220% of area median income.

The project also proposes relocating the Pāʻia mini-bypass road westward, converting the existing bypass into a greenway for pedestrians and cyclists, and building a public parking lot of approximately 200 stalls, which is intended to alleviate the town’s current parking congestion.

Matt Nakamoto, senior planner with PBR Hawaii, said the Maui Island Plan envisions the site as “a compact mixed-use small-town expansion that replicates the authentic architectural styles and design vocabulary of the business country towns of Maui.”

Mixed public testimony

Public testimony was sharply divided.

Longtime Pāʻia resident Francine “Aunty Mopsy” Aarona supported the project, saying “I am for growth, but smart growth.”

“I appreciate Sam’s willingness to bring life to Pāʻia,” she said while also pledging to hold developers accountable. “I’ll be with you every step of the way, and, if you get out of line, I’ll call you on the carpet.”

Project team member Lahela Aiwohi, a Maui native, shared that her nephews moved away from Maui after college because they couldn’t afford to stay. “So when I hear this, not in my backyard, and comparing it to towns, to different towns in Hawaiʻi, it does, it really impacts me,” she said.

Housing professional Dano Sayles, who said he has worked on Maui housing for 42 years, called Hirbod “a steward of the land” and praised the project as serving a genuine community need.

“We’re in desperate need of housing for the people of Maui,” Sayles said. “Also, we need more medical facilities, other options for shopping, the plans for kids playing soccer and baseball in new fields. This is something that really warms my heart.”

Opponents raised concerns about preserving Pāʻia’s historic character, traffic impacts and inadequate public engagement.

“Once the character of Pāʻia is lost, we do not get it back,” said April Saretsky. “Pāʻia is one of the few places on Maui that still feels like old Maui — small, local and community centered.”

“I respectfully urge you to listen carefully to the concerns of the local community and prioritize preserving the identity and integrity of Pāʻia for future generations,” she said.

Lower Pāʻia homeowner Andrea Rodgers warned the development could gut the historic downtown the way a strip mall and highway once transformed the Big Island town of Pāhoa.

“I had an opportunity to visit the town of Pāhoa on the Big Island,” she said. “It was a cute little downtown town with coffee shops, art galleries… had a lot of charm… I went back 25 years later and I couldn’t find the town of Pāhoa. They built a four-lane highway and a small mall with a grocery store… I literally could not find the town.”

Baldwin Avenue resident Lauren Blickley said she only received notice of the project the week before the hearing.

“It’s a very high-density growth that they propose apartments, expanding the bypass and shifting what we know as Pāʻia now,” she said. “So I’m really frustrated to know that as a resident I would be directly impacted by this and just now getting information about this and not really having time to sit down and discuss this more.”

Department of Planning concerns

Planning Director Jacky Takakura noted that the project was being considered as a Council-initiated project, and “the review requirements are different for projects proposed by the Council versus projects proposed by applicants… There are less requirements.”

She expressed concern that “by bypassing the normal application and environmental review or procedures expected of a private development project of significant magnitude there could be a reduction in the level of impact analysis normally performed by the department, the planning commission and the Council.”

“This could result in relatively little community input and may result in potential impacts on the community,” Takakura said.

She asked that when the Council receives the proposed project back from commission review that members take a “30,000-foot look at Pāʻia as a whole,” and view the development in light of other projects like the Pāʻia Train Depot and Pāʻia Mill, “because all these together could have an impact on the town.”

The committee adopted several amendments, including one from Council Member Tamara Paltin, capping building heights in the B2 medical/commercial zone at 30 feet, consistent with the Pāʻia-Haʻikū Community Plan. Council Members Keani Rawlins-Fernandez and Yuki Lei Sugimura were excused from the vote.

Chipchase acknowledged a long road ahead. “It is a long process and is part of that long journey,” he said, estimating seven to 10 years before construction could begin, including state Land Use Commission review and special management area permits.