Update WEBSITE IS UP!! GEN MEM MEETING ON COMMUNITY PLAN PROCESS DRAWS INTERESTED GROUP TUESDAY

UPDATE   8/25/17   and here it is:  SEE    https://wearemaui.org/   No, is is nor about wearing  WE ARE Maui

UPDATE  8/22/17.  Planning Director Will Spence stated the initial step, community outreach by the department was expected mid year, 2018 for our plan. Thus we are watching initial steps  by the Department with the West Maui Plan, as we are up next. So we see this Saturday there is a public meeting set in Lahaina at the Senior Center to hear from the public in a 4 hour open house. So we’ll watch how they do there.

In addition their long awaited “Community Plan Website” is expected to be on line the day before.

7/19/17 #kihei
Last evening’s meeting with County Planning Department’s senior long range planning duo of Jen Maden and Pam Eaton, offering a slide presentation on the Community Plan update process, and legislative comments from Councilor Kelly King retained the interest and generated numerous comments from about 65 attendees, including Planning Director Will Spence.

KCA believes our Kihei Makena Community Plan (KMCP) in an invaluable document, and while our existing one was put into place in law almost two decades ago, it still is in force and is relevant, giving direction for our future, even if inadequatly enforced. The fact that it remains relevant, even after nearly 20 years of very significant changes, demonstrates the wisdom of the guys who formulated it.

But this meeting was to focus on the process to best update it, perhaps beginning in 2018, so the planners offered their intent, under the supervision of the Planning Department’s hierarchy, as directed by the mayor. Everyone agreed on the need to shorten the process while keeping time for community input and indeed making it easier for the public to participate, but beyond that opinions differed. The planners reported that the investigated how community plans are developed in other parts of the country and found it was unusual to have both a period Planning Commission review and a period of Council review. It was pointed out that the Planning Commission does not contain planners, just political appointees of the mayor.

We felt we received a balance look at the process, with some alternative suggestions from Kelly King.

Toward the end of the meeting, spurred by an audience inquiry about the Pi’ilani Promenade/Mega mall hearings at LUC Wed & Thursday, Director Spence offered some comments reminiscent of his opinion expressed several years about the development before it went before State LUC. History showed the state’s volunteer commissioners did not see it his way.

We’ll see what they say in this round on Thursday.