8/4/16; Committee Chair South Maui resident Councilman Don Couch and his committee got an earful from some North Kihei residents concerning development along Kaiwahine and the effects on a long term (30 year) neighborhood resident. KCA also testified in support of the residents present & those who communicated with us prior to the meeting, but were unable to attend. In addition KCA testified our concerns of the DOE’s annual compliance report on the KHS. Moreover, KCA Director Andrew Beerer testified representing Kihei High-School Action Team (KHAT.) on the overall project, as he has been heavily involved for about a decade

While there were four agenda items, these two directly involving just Kihei, this last item for a “compliance report” on the 600+ unit residential development from A & B currently under construction, as well as this other “compliance report” from the State DOE concerning the under construction Kihei High School (KHS)

So what is the outcome of the meeting on these two items? To the best of our understanding, there will be no traffic relief for this North Kihei mauka neighborhood, no improvements to Kaiwahine in next couple of years, as the project builds out to conclusion.

For the status of KHS, while we found it very challenging to ascertain specifics, but we are left to believe that students may well not enter the first class until 2025. Boy do we hope we are dead wrong.

As always the entire meeting will be available Akaku CH 53, but we expect a professional written report will be in the Maui News, hopefully Friday morning.