Testify to Keep the South Maui Community Plan Community-Friendly 1/28/2025

1/25/2025 #kihei #smcp #mpc

The Maui Planning Commission (MPC) has a meeting on Tuesday, January 28 at 3pm to continue working on the South Maui Community Plan (SMCP). The meeting is intended to be the final review of the maps that determine what types of development are allowed where in our area. Besides the maps, the section includes area-specific policies for Piilani Promenade (the “MegaMall”) and Kīhei Mauka (a proposed large development above the highway). The MPC can revisit anything in any of the maps, and they are likely to talk about several of them.

Most of us in South Maui are primarily interested in housing for Maui’s workforce, not in more luxury or second homes.

1. The developer for the Kihei Mauka project working with the ranches originally told the CPAC their goal was 80% workforce housing; however the ranches refused to put that into the conditions. Instead, the ranches agreed to the text – “affordable as defined by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development: no individual or family should pay more than 30% of their total income for housing costs” – that was then adopted by the Community Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC). The MPC removed that language and weakened the plan by replacing it with “Housing units in North Kīhei Mauka should be built for Maui residents and families, with a range of housing types and price points to serve the needs of all of South Maui’s workforce.” Without a condition that the project is predominantly for Maui workforce housing, there will be little support for it in South Maui.

2. Kīhei Mauka may mean building 1,500 additional homes on 600 acres. The CPAC inserted a requirement into the SMCP that there must be a mauka road parallel to Piilani Highway through the development that can carry the additional traffic and provide an escape route when the next fire comes down the hill. The MPC removed the condition that the road must be in place before people start moving in to the new homes.

3. A greenway buffer is needed between Kīhei Mauka and the land above it to protect the residents from fire and stormwater runoff. It will also offer the residents a space to exercise, walk their dogs and enjoy a vegetated open space. The MPC removed the buffer from the SMCP.

4. The community has long been strongly opposed to the plans for a shopping center in the four parcels between the Ohukai center and the high school, called Piilani Promenade. In accordance with the community’s will, the CPAC designated the parcels for residential development, with the intent of making affordable housing available to South Maui residents and workers. The MPC changed all four parcels to “Small Town Center” which would allow unneeded and unwanted commercial development.

5. The new homes in Piilani Promenade need a buffer to the highway. Kids need to be able to get safely from Kaiwahine and Ohukai to school on a wide walkway/bikeway. Our residents and visitors deserve to see something more beautiful than the “Kihei Gateway” buildings when entering our town, like vegetation. The CPAC specified a 150′ setback from the highway for Piilani Promenade. The MPC reduced it to 50′.

Requests to the Maui Planning Commission

• Restore specific language about affordability in Kīhei Mauka, equivalent to the requirement agreed on by the CPAC and the land owners – “The primary goal for housing in North Kīhei Mauka is to be affordable as defined by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development: no individual or family should pay more than 30% of their total income for housing costs.”

• Change the Piilani Promenade land use designation back to Residential. We need affordable housing, not another shopping center.

• Restore the Piilani Promenade’s 150′ setback from the highway for the safety and peace of mind of its future residents, of the kids going to school and of our residents and visitors entering our town.

• Restore the requirement that there be a mauka escape route/road before first occupancy in Kīhei Mauka

• Restore the requirement for a green buffer above Kīhei Mauka
  

The Meeting is 3-7pm on Tuesday, January 28

How To Testify: You can sign up during the meeting to testify online, you can attend the meeting in person, or you can send in an email to the MPC.

In person: At the Planning Department Conference Room, Kalana Pakui Building, 250 South High Street, Wailuku

Meeting link for online testimony: https://mauicounty.webex.com/mauicounty/j.php?MTID=m16ab40dffe305bc982ee1cb2a6b50c74

Email your testimony: Email the Planning Commission

Agenda and meeting materials: Agenda (with hyperlinks to meeting materials) – SMCP