#West Maui

FEMA began moving temporary housing units from the staging site in Lahaina to private and secondary sites on June 26, 2025. Movement will continue over the next several weeks, providing further available housing for wildfire survivors in West Maui. The first unit was moved to a private site on Thursday, with additional units to follow. 

West Maui state Rep. Elle Cochran missed 51 of 60 House floor sessions — an 85% absence rate — during the 2025 legislative session while collecting $22,725 in per diem payments intended to cover off-island living expenses, according to House records. Her near-total absence from legislative proceedings in Honolulu, coupled with her acceptance of these taxpayer-funded […]

Tournament officials announced today that The Sentry is contributing a tournament record $747,704 to local nonprofits, continuing to drive impact on Maui as a result of its 2025 event.

The Maui County Council gave initial approval to its version of the fiscal 2026 budget Friday, retaining full $12 million funding for Maui United Way’s Countywide ALICE Initiative: Kamaʻāina Credit program.

To maintain reliable service, Hawaiian Electric crews and contractors will be upgrading utility poles using bucket trucks on Honoapi‘ilani Highway between mile markers 21 and 22 between Lahainaluna Rd. and Hinau St. in the West Maui area from Monday, May 5 to Friday, May 9, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A proposed $1.85 million project to rebuild an oceanfront home on wildfire-ravaged Front Street in Lahaina is getting support from neighbors who also want to rebuild while taking hits from critics concerned with coastline impacts, rising sea levels, and what one opponent called “another mansion on the shoreline.”

Maui County is hoping to bring another well online by this summer, but it would be limited to temporary housing projects and homes rebuilt after the 2023 wildfire.

A $250,000 check was presented to the West Maui YMCA for its Community Center Partnership Park. The check, from Rotary D5000 Foundation Maui Fires Relief Fund, will support the construction of a Dual Modular unit that will serve as both a youth space, office space, flexible program space and an additional covered area for the community.

Nearly a year and a half after the devastating August 2023 wildfires, new survey results from the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization (UHERO) highlight persistent housing unaffordability, elevated poverty and unemployment rates, and ongoing economic hardship among fire-impacted households on Maui. Launched in August 2024, in partnership with the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, the Maui Recovery Survey: Housing and Jobs is designed to […]

Sewer service is now active for 153 properties from Kenui Street to Dickenson Street, makai of Honoapiʻilani Highway. With this latest update, approximately 90% of Lahaina’s County sewer system is now active.

A Maui County Council plan to contract its own study of the economic impacts of Mayor Richard Bissen’s proposed phase-out of Maui County vacation rentals has fallen to the wayside, and Council legislative analysts will conduct research in-house instead.

Federal laws prevent the state from barring commercial boat activity in the area.

A revenue bond with repayment funded by a rental car surcharge is being proposed as a source of funding for building the northern portion of the Lahaina Bypass.

The US Department of the Interior has awarded the Maui County Department of Environmental Management a $15.6 million grant for recycled wastewater facilities in Lahaina, according to an announcement.

About a 6-mile segment of Honoapi‘ilani Highway from Ukumehame to Launiupoko would be moved mauka, beyond the reach of rising sea levels, to protect a vital roadway to West Maui. Even now, portions of the highway from Pāpalaua Wayside Park to the Lahaina Bypass are a mere stone’s throw away from the ocean.

Commercial operators at Kā‘anapali Beach say the court order could force them to shut down if their permits are not renewed this year, jeopardizing jobs of people impacted by the August 2023 wildfires. 

Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. announced the selection of Kainoa Casco as Vice President of Land Productivity and Asset Management. Casco is responsible for developing and executing strategies to create value by increasing the productivity of unimproved land in West Maui.

Tetsuji “Tets” Yamazaki of Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa has become the first Maui hotel general manager to be awarded “General Manager of the Year – Resort Property” by the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

“Whose Future?” draws solely from the public record to tell the story of how the community sought to shape its own land use future. This narrative gains renewed relevance in light of the tragic August 2023 fire, as West Maui faces complex decisions around disaster relief and rebuilding.

Members of the Central East Maui Little League enjoyed the Westin Maui’s new Social Space on Saturday. The hometown heroes were among the first to experience the resort’s cutting-edge social space in celebration of a successful season that advanced them all the way to the Little League World Series tournament.