The Battle For Roads and Infrastructure

02/13/2025  #kihei #southmauivoiceteam #SMVT #housing

We need your help! Read on and also follow the link at the bottom.

Kihei, if you don’t know, has a development problem. Not that development is bad. People want to move here like most of us did and we also need affordable housing. So houses and apartments need to be built. However, the problem in South Maui is development without adding infrastructure. Currently, there are plans for over 4000 units to be added to South Maui in the next five to ten years, without any expansion of the Pi’ilani or the addition of another egress point from Kihei.

Imagine your favorite stoplight, which I am sure is at Pi’ilani and Lipoa. During rush hours, we can have hundreds of cars backed up trying to get through. And of course, if the Pi’ikea light is red while Lipoa is green, very little moves. This is one of our main current traffic issues (we’ll save South Kihei Road for another article). Our current main road, the Pi’ilani, is already inadequate at peak traffic times.

Now, add in 1000 residential units from Wailea 670 (in red in the picture above). If just 100 of those cars get added to the stoplight at Pi’ilani/Lipoa during peak times, we’ll be sitting at that chokepoint for 10 minutes plus, just waiting to get through. Then, add 3000 more homes from the other projects (Ledcor and McKenna Mauka) a few years later and if just 10%  of those cars join peak traffic usage, development could add 400 cars to the already backed up Lipoa stoplight!

Do you want to be in that mess? Neither do we! Want to help us chart a better path that requires infrastructure before or along with development? You can click the link below and join the South Maui Voice Team. It’s free to join, membership in KCA is not required, and you can help us fight for a better South Maui! You’ll get one email a month stating the issue (Wailea 670 is the current issues) , who to contact, and what to say. You send in an email or testify via zoom at a county council meeting and you’ll be helping S Maui get better!

https://gokihei.org/join-the-kiheis-voice-team