Build on land that will be under water?

11/10/2024 #kihei #smcp #slrxa #mpc

As part of the South Maui Community Plan process, 13 South Maui residents worked for a year, from October 2022 to November 2023, to produce a vision and plan for our area that will benefit both residents and visitors for 20 years while preserving our natural environment and cultural heritage. Over 80% of the Community Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC) decisions were unanimous. There was also extensive participation by community members; 35 of the suggestions made by residents at the CPAC meetings were incorporated into the final plan.

However, the Maui Planning Commission (MPC) is now removing many of the protections in the plan to allow for greater freedom for the large developers to do what they want in South Maui. If that disturbs you, you can testify over Webex (a remote video application) at the MPC meeting on Tuesday, November 12 at 3pm:

https://mauicounty.webex.com/mauicounty/j.php?MTID=m3cd19b740ca34a7da2fa10a1329217a1

The agenda can be found here:

https://www.mauicounty.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/32274

Building on land that will be under water

One of the issues discussed at length in the CPAC was preventing new construction on undeveloped lots that will be partially or completely under water with a 3.2′ sea level rise, anticipated to happen as early as the 2050’s. Hawai‘i has defined those properties as within the Sea Level Rise Exposure Area (SLRXA). A viewer for exploring the various related threats can be found at https://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/shoreline/slr-hawaii/.

The following map identifies the undeveloped properties that will be partially or completely under water with a 3.2′ sea level rise.

The CPAC assigned Open Space (green) as the land use designation for those properties in South Maui.

The Planning Department is proposing to remove that designation and make 21 of them Residential (yellow) and 6 of them Small Town Center (pink) (for considerable commercial building!), allowing them to be developed.

The cost of bailout and restoration after sea level rise damages or destroys these properties will be very high. It makes no sense at all to build on them. As Open Space they can instead help absorb water and prevent it from damaging other properties.

The Planning Department argues that a few of the SLRXA properties have already received some entitlements. That was a very bad decision on the part of the Planning Department to allow building on properties that will be under water, and certainly no reason to make very bad decisions in the future. Keeping them as Open Space will prevent additional bad decisions.