For the nearly 2 1/2 years since the August 2023 Lahaina wildfire burned down the Front Street building designed by her mother decades ago, Tristan Jones and her family have been unsure if they will be able to rebuild

Their property was leased out to the popular restaurant Cheeseburger in Paradise. But because it sits on the makai side of Front Street, they are facing a long, costly road of permitting and approvals. 

That’s why they’re considering whether to sell their 2,000-square-foot property to Maui County.

The county has reached out to owners in hopes of turning the makai side of Front Street into a connected stretch of open space to protect against flooding and create more shoreline access.  

“It’s an option … if we sort of see the writing on the wall,” Jones told the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative. 

Other shoreline property owners also are facing a similar big decision as they wait for word from the county, which is currently working to get approval from the federal government to use some of the $1.6 billion in federal disaster relief funding it received last year to purchase properties.

“It would make a lot of sense to turn properties that are very difficult to develop into open space properties for the public,” Office of Recovery Administrator John Smith said. 

But Smith said participation is voluntary and the county will not take properties by eminent domain. 

Maui County is in the midst of discussing what Lahaina’s rebuilt business district will look like. Last fall, the county held an open house on designs for the area and has been working on guidelines to help streamline the rebuilding process. 

A connected waterfront made up of properties makai of Front Street is one of the ideas that has surfaced in rebuilding talks. While the location with spectacular views was a big part of its draw, the buildings that hung out over the water with waves lapping at restaurant-goers during high tide were a reminder of how close the town was to the encroaching shoreline.

These property owners face a more difficult path to rebuilding, because unlike owners on the mauka side, they are not exempt from special management area and shoreline regulations, which often require a longer approval process.

“There’s just been delay after delay in figuring out a process by which the makai properties can build back,” said Sne Patel, president of the LahainaTown Action Committee.

And even though property owners mauka of Front Street have a straighter shot at rebuilding, they’re also waiting to see what happens on the makai side, because decisions like building heights and open spaces could impact their own plans, Patel said.

All of this comes at a time when leadership of the county Planning Department is changing hands. Last week, the county announced that current Planning Director Kate Blystone, who has been heavily involved with the rebuilding guideline efforts, is resigning for personal reasons effective Jan. 31. In her place, Mayor Richard Bissen is appointing Jacky Takakura, a former deputy planning director, who will need to be confirmed by the Maui County Council.

The county said that Takakura is committing to a 90-day action plan to better deliver results on key initiatives supporting expedited permitting, housing supply, public safety infrastructure and post-disaster recovery. One of those initiatives is expanding expedited permitting services, but in coastal areas outside of Lahaina.

The uncertainty and difficulty surrounding the rebuilding process is why some owners like the Jones family are mulling the future of their properties.

Smith said the county sent out letters of interest to fewer than 20 property owners after the fire and got “mixed reactions.” A few owners have said they want to participate, but Smith said he expects to get more concrete numbers once the county finalizes the details of the buyback program and can make formal offers.

The county hopes to tap into the $213 million set aside for hazard mitigation under the $1.6 billion Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery grant, but it would first need approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the program.

The program allows funds to be used to buy residential or commercial properties for the purchase of demolishing structures and creating parks, open space or flood storage/overflow areas. Buyouts are especially effective in communities that have suffered recent disasters, according to HUD. 

“If you use the money for that purpose, then we have to be very detailed on the restrictive use of that (land) over time,” Smith said. “All that stuff is being worked out. It’s similar to an open space fund that the county might purchase land with.”

Smith said the process of “going back and forth with HUD is taking some time,” and expects the county to launch a buyback program within the next couple of months. He said he’s met with his team multiple times this week to discuss the program. 

“It’s not as fast as we were hoping, but it’s still moving forward,” Smith said. 

Jones said her family first got a letter of interest for their property in January 2025. 

Her family has owned the small parcel of land since 1965, and her mom designed the building that was built there in 1972. Jones, who attended Lahainaluna High School while her mom worked on the building, said she remembers walking down Front Street when it was still an unpaved, red-dirt road. 

The building was originally home to a dive shop, a jewelry store and a restaurant before Cheeseburger in Paradise began leasing the space during the early 1990s. The building underwent renovations in 2016 and 2017 before it was destroyed in the 2023 wildfire. Jones said about 10 million people ate at the restaurant over the course of three decades.

“Losing all of that history, just our family history and memories of our mom … was so hard, but we were of course like, that’s nothing compared to … the loss of lives, the loss of livelihoods, the loss of historical buildings that just were such a fabric of the community,” Jones said.

The family felt there was “no way” the county would let them rebuild there. If they did, they’d have to adjust to the new setback rules and make changes that would include elevating the building to improve accessibility. Just the process of getting permits for renovations years ago “was hell,” Jones recalled. 

She said whether they decide to rebuild or sell to the county will hinge on the timing and the clarity of the guidelines for rebuilding on oceanside properties. Jones, who now lives in Canada, said ultimately, Front Street’s future should be up to the local community. 

“I think this goes back to us as property owners understanding that we do have some rights, but also understanding that we really believe that the community needs to make the decisions about what they want Front Street to look like,” Jones said.

Kaleo Schneider, whose family owns the collection of buildings next to the harbor that were once leased to businesses like Lappert’s Ice Cream and Vans, said they got a letter of interest from the county two years ago.

Schneider’s family plans to rebuild because their structures are among a small handful that were gutted but still partially standing. They’ve been in her family for 110 years, passed down by her great-grandparents Antonio D. Furtado, a butcher and postmaster general for Lahaina, and her great-grandmother Lucy Napela Furtado, a teacher at King Kamehameha III Elementary.

However, Schneider said they still expressed interest in talking to the county because “we don’t know what they’re asking.”

“You would be stupid not to say yes, because you want to know what they’re thinking, but they never came back after that,” said Schneider, who lives on O’ahu. 

She said her family is working on rebuilding designs as they await a meeting with the county. Like Jones, they want more clarity about the county’s plans before they make any big decisions. She said commercial rebuilding hasn’t restarted on Front Street because of the difficulty of the planning and permitting process, and getting meetings in front of the commissions that have to weigh in. 

“We’re doing everything we can,” Schneider said. “Why do you think there’s no building? Nobody’s been able to get their plans or their permits or get in through the whole process on the water.” 

Next door to the Jones family property is the Lahaina Yacht Club, which said in a statement to the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative that it “intends to rebuild on the land, 835 Front Street, that we own free and clear.” 

Just down the road, The Harry & Jeannette Weinberg Foundation owns the property at 889 Front Street that used to house Bubba Gump’s. John Hodgins, communications director for the foundation, confirmed “we did receive a letter from the county and we are actively working with them.”

Hodgins said they are open to conversations with the county, community leaders and local nonprofits, but as to whether the foundation is interested in selling or rebuilding, “I think that we are still trying to figure that out.”

Hodgins didn’t have a particular stance on the county’s waterfront proposal, saying, “I think we’re just eager for the restoration and revival of the district.”

Smith said it’s a possibility that some owners may agree to sell and others won’t. If that happens, “we still have to acknowledge property rights, and with the current shoreline rules, if there is developable land there, that is that property owner’s right.” He said the county would work to create open space wherever it makes sense.

Mark Deakos, a marine scientist who’s lived in West Maui for 30 years, said if property owners want to rebuild along the shoreline, it’s a risk. 

Before the fire, he remembered getting splashed in the legs while eating lunch along Front Street on days when there was big surf.

The seawall along Front Street has stood for a long time, and it is currently undergoing renovations that were planned before the fire. Deakos said that sea level rise happens so slowly that its impacts may feel generations away. However, he pointed out that structures along West Maui’s coast, including the condominiums in Kahana that are teetering at the water’s edge, show that nature eventually wins out over efforts to harden the shoreline.

“Nature is not going to go away, and the earlier you start accepting it and planning, then I think the transition, when you do lose that land, will be easier rather than panicking on that last minute,” Deakos said. 

Deakos, who sits on the Maui Planning Commission but spoke as an individual, added that there’s also a public interest in preventing buildings from falling into the ocean so that taxpayers don’t get saddled with the cleanup costs. 

The county has expressed an interest in protecting Front Street, especially because a lot of critical infrastructure for Lahaina is located in the area. 

Maui County Council Member Tamara Paltin, who holds the West Maui residency seat, said what happens to properties on the shoreline affects the entire community. Like Deakos, she remembers oceanfront restaurants prior to the fire where, “at a high tide, people are getting wet when they didn’t used to be” years ago. 

“To rebuild completely when we know the projections in just the next 20 years, and then we as a county, we as a community may have to deal with it again, doesn’t seem like the best use of our resources, time and energy,” Paltin said. “I would love to invest in a business district in a safer location.”

Paltin said the county and community need to come to the table and hash out creative solutions that could include mobile businesses or other contingency plans for rising seas and erosion. 

“So instead of trying to recreate something … we’ll never 100% fully recreate, maybe we can make something different, but better, a little more inclusive of our residents and community,” Paltin said.

Patel thinks it’s possible to figure out how to safely build back along the shoreline, with solutions such as building more vertically instead of going out over the water.

“At the end of the day, it wasn’t a water event that took out these buildings,” Patel said. “It was a fire. It existed along that shoreline for a long time. And we know that when these are rebuilt, if they’re allowed to be, it’s going to be with better technology than was used before. …

“People are waiting, and the sooner that there’s a resolution on the makai side, I think things are going to move a lot faster.”