Honua'ula meeting in Kihei scheduled for Sept. 10

The Maui News
Saturday, August 25, 2007

By MELISSA TANJI, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - After eight recessed meetings and nearly 40 hours of public testimony and discussion, the council's Land Use Committee adjourned its meeting on the Honua'ula land use request Friday.

Committee Chairman Mike Molina adjourned the four-week-long meeting and announced the committee will convene to allow for public testimony at a special meeting at 6 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Kihei Community Center.

If all members of the public wishing to speak cannot be heard Sept. 10, another evening meeting at the center will be held Sept. 14.

Molina adjourned the committee session to begin the new meeting in Kihei in response to a demand from three council members that additional public comment be accepted at a meeting to be held in Kihei at night, when residents who work during the day can attend.

Council Members Michelle Anderson, Jo Anne Johnson and Mike Victorino had asked for a public hearing on the Honua'ula project district request, which involves zoning for a 670-acre property mauka of the Wailea Resort. Rather than a hearing held by the council, Molina agreed to schedule a meeting to accept more public testimony.

Over the past four weeks, the Land Use Committee has been reviewing more than 30 conditions for the 1,400-unit residential project that also includes a golf course and commercial center.

Molina said after Friday's meeting that the committee has gone through all of the conditions that have been proposed by the Planning Commission and the Honua'ula development group. The committee has reached a consensus on 12 conditions.

After receiving additional public testimony, Molina said the committee will continue its discussions of proposed conditions on which the members still have not reached agreement.

He said he hopes the committee will be in the decision-making process by late September or October.

On Friday, the committee reached tentative agreement on conditions to:

Provide pedestrian- and bicycle-access routes within the project.

Provide construction access from Piilani Highway to the construction sites and prohibit construction access for the project from the Wailea Resort.

Anderson, who holds the South Maui residency seat on the council, said she wanted a conceptual map to show where the pedestrian- and bicycle-access ways would be in the project.

She said she wanted assurance that those plans would be implemented in the project after the council approves it.

Johnson suggested that in addition to having construction traffic prohibited in Wailea Resort, construction traffic also should be prohibited from the surrounding neighborhood at Maui Meadows.

The committee also continued discussions on conditions relating to wastewater systems for the development.