#zoning code

The Maui County Department of Planning outlined its multiyear effort Wednesday to rewrite the County’s outdated Title 19 zoning code — a rulebook that shapes nearly every aspect of how and where homes, businesses and farms can be built across Maui Nui.

Maui County planners are managing a “relentless” amount of work, including permit applications for Lahaina rebuilding, while operating with 15 staff vacancies, acting Planning Director Jacky Takakura told Maui County Council members Wednesday.

The Maui Planning Commission heard more than seven hours of often impassioned testimony Tuesday, then deliberated nearly three hours before recommending that the Maui County Council approve a bill to phase-out of thousands of short-term rentals in apartment districts, mostly in South and West Maui.