Honua'ula wins committee OK

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The Maui News
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
By CLAUDINE SAN NICOLAS, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - With a 6-2 vote, the Maui County Council Land Use Committee ended months of deliberation Tuesday and recommended approval of the Honua'ula housing development.

"I'm grateful for the vote. I'm grateful for the confidence council members showed in this project," Honua'ula representative Charlie Jencks said following the committee vote.

Honua'ula Partners LLC applied for project district zoning for its residential development plans and an amendment to project district zoning previously granted for two golf courses on the 670-acre site. The proposal modified from the previous project district plans are for 1,400 housing units, 50 percent of which would be priced in accordance with the county's new Workforce Residential Housing Policy and half at market prices, which could be $1 million or more. The Honua'ula plan also includes a commercial center and a private golf course.

Listed on the Kihei-Makena Community Plan as the Wailea 670 project, the Honua'ula revision has drawn hundreds of residents to committee meetings to speak for and against the development plans. Many have lauded Honua'ula's willingness to build up to 700 affordable housing units and to contribute millions of dollars in park and school fees, while others criticized the development's expected impacts on traffic and the environment.

The Land Use Committee report, with its recommendation for approval of the zoning bills, probably will go to the full council for action by the second council meeting in December, according to Land Use Chairman Mike Molina. The meeting is scheduled for Dec. 21.

Normally, a committee report is prepared within two weeks after a vote for referral to the full council. Molina said given the lengthy deliberations and the multitude of conditions attached to the recommendation, his report will take a little longer to put together.

Committee members voting to recommend approval were Molina and Council Members Danny Mateo, Gladys Baisa, Bill Medeiros, Joseph Pontanilla and Mike Victorino. The two "no" votes came from Council Chairman Riki Hokama and Council Member Jo Anne Johnson.

Council Member Michelle Anderson, who for months has criticized Honua'ula's application and pressed for more details and strict conditions on its application, was excused from the meeting for personal reasons. Anderson had been expected to attend this week's meetings, but her staff said she had to leave the island for personal reasons and was not expected to return until the first week of December.

Every member speaking Tuesday prior to the vote said coming to a decision was difficult.

"It's been a very toiling experience," said Victorino, a freshman councilor.

All of the council members acknowledged that they had qualms on the various conditions imposed on the project, but nonetheless were ready to move forward on a vote Tuesday.

"It's been a heck of process," Molina said, expressing his thanks to the committee members, the developer and the general public for showing patience through 11 months of committee deliberations. "We've been criticized for taking so long. But that's the process," Molina said.

He said his support for the proposal stems from a desire to keep those born and raised on Maui from having to leave their home because of the lack of affordable housing.

"We're losing so many young families on this island," Molina said.

Mateo, who was previously chairman of the council housing committee that drafted the county's affordable housing policy, said that he saw Honua'ula as an opportunity to test the policy. The Residential Workforce Housing Policy requires all new developments to price up to 50 percent of the new homes in a project at affordable rates - depending on the prices of the other housing being developed.

"Seven-hundred affordable units is nothing to sneeze at," Mateo said. Of the 700 affordable homes, Honua'ula plans to build approximately 450 within the project district.

Mateo said he has never been in favor of the development of high-end golf courses or homes on Maui. "I don't think they're necessary. I don't think they're needed and I don't think they're wanted," he said.

But he said he realizes that Honua'ula needs the private golf course and high-end homes in order for the development to be profitable. "The reality is somebody has to pay for the affordable units," he said.

In speaking against the project, Hokama said he was concerned about Maui's limited water supply and how Honua'ula could tax the water system. If there's no water for high-end development, Hokama said, then there's no water for other types of projects in the future. He objected particularly to the developers' plan to build their own water system and wastewater treatment facility.

"For me this is a very low priority request," Hokama said, adding that he believed there were other more meaningful projects that addressed concerns about economic development, environmental protections and sustainability in the community. "I personally can wait for this development," he said.

Johnson said she simply did not believe that Honua'ula's application was complete and therefore could not support it. "We wouldn't be having to go all through this if everything was in proper order," she said.

Pontanilla said he was aware of the island's limited water supply, but has attended several meetings where county officials talked about strategies to tackle the problem. He said he supported Honua'ula because of its promise to provide affordable housing and the developers' willingness to contribute to a variety of community needs including the cost of extending Piilani Highway's four-lane construction into the entrance of Wailea.

Medeiros, like Hokama, said that he had concerns about land titles and Hawaiian claims to ownership of property within the Honua'ula site. However, Medeiros said he had been advised by county attorneys that those issues should be settled in court and were not within the authority of the county. His support for Honua'ula was based on the developers' contributions to community services including a payment of school fees ($3,000 per housing unit) and up to $5 million to help build a new South Maui community park.

"It is difficult not to take that into consideration," he said.

Baisa emphasized that Honua'ula's buildout is estimated at a minimum of 20 years. She said she understands that critics have said that Honua'ula's developers should have been required to give more to the community and that the project could hurt the beauty of the island.

"We would love to see our open space stay the way it is," Baisa said, adding that tradeoffs are required to address the need of residents to live and work here.

As a first-term councilor, she said she would be vigilant in following up on whether Honua'ula fulfills the promises made. Victorino promised the same, saying that other developers should be on notice that they, too, will be required to make major contributions in order to get approval for major developments.

"Mr. Jencks has raised the bar for everyone else," Molina said, also agreeing to mandates that new developers contribute to Maui before they get their projects approved.

After the committee meeting, Jencks said Honua'ula was committed to do the things it promised including building affordable housing and contributing millions of dollars in school and park fees. "Absolutely, you have to give back to the community."

Panel OKs Honua'ula TVR, water conditions

The Maui News
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
By CLAUDINE SAN NICOLAS, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - Acting with a bare quorum of five members, the Maui County Council Land Use Committee made it virtually impossible to operate a transient vacation rental in the proposed Honua'ula project and mandated that the developer follow county guidelines and community plans in establishing its own private water source.

Still, at the end of deliberations Monday, committee members had not voted on whether to recommend approval for the residential development planned on 670 acres south of Maui Meadows.

Formerly called Wailea 670, Honua'ula is seeking a change in zoning and a project district amendment to build as many as 1,400 residential units and develop commercial areas and a private golf course.

Land Use Committee members made it clear Monday that they did not want any of the housing units turned into transient vacation rentals. A condition prohibiting such accommodations was amended to say that no special use permits or conditional permit for vacation rentals within the Honua'ula project would be accepted by the Planning Department.

"I'm sure people will say, 'This is redundant, overkill,' " Council Member Jo Anne Johnson said after recommending the no-permit prohibition.

Johnson said she was recommending the amendment anyway to avoid the possibility that transient vacation rentals would pop up in the future, as they have in other residential areas on Maui.

County officials announced this summer that they would be enforcing a current ordinance prohibiting transient vacation rentals from operating without conditional permits beginning in January. The situation has resulted in business owners criticizing Mayor Charmaine Tavares' administration for changing a county practice that had allowed vacation rentals to operate while county rules governing them were being changed.

"The problem is not the restriction," Deputy Corporation Counsel Michael Hopper told Land Use Committee members Monday. He said that prohibiting vacation rental permits in Honua'ula would force any future developer or homeowner to seek a change in zoning, which often involves a lengthy and arduous county review process.

Honua'ula representative Charlie Jencks said developers have never had any intention to build housing that would turn into transient vacation rentals. He added that a change in zoning would effectively stop anyone from trying to operate a vacation rental business in Honua'ula.

On the water condition, Johnson joined Council Member Mike Victorino in requiring Honua'ula to develop its water source within county standards and statutes, and in compliance with community plans. That would prohibit the developer from transporting water from one district to another.

In addition, Honua'ula must comply with all reporting requirements on its water source development to the state Commission on Water Resource Management.

The amended water condition included deleting a previous condition that required, among many things, an expert analysis of Honua'ula's water system and a verifiable water source.

Victorino said his intent was to simplify the water condition and to make it consistent with county statutes and with a bill passed on first reading Friday that would require future developments to show that water supply is available before they could proceed.

"All developers from this point forward will have to comply," Victorino said. "No water, no development - very simple."

Jencks said Honua'ula plans to build its own water source in South Maui, and it would abide by county and state requirements.

Since the beginning of this year, the Land Use Committee has held more than 25 meetings to deliberate on Honua'ula's housing proposal. It also has reviewed more than 35 zoning conditions for the development.

Absent and excused from Monday's meeting were Council Chairman Riki Hokama and Council Members Danny Mateo and Michelle Anderson, who has been at the forefront of raising questions about the development project and proposing zoning conditions.

According to committee Chairman Mike Molina, Hokama and Mateo both said they would not be available for Monday's meeting. Anderson had planned to attend, but Molina's staff received word Monday morning that she could not participate because of personal reasons.

Anderson's staff said the council member had to leave the island suddenly and was not scheduled to return until the first week of December.

That left the committee with Molina, Johnson, Victorino, Joe Pontanilla, Gladys Baisa and Bill Medeiros, who had to leave for other appointments and missed the last 90 minutes of the meeting.

Molina recessed his committee meeting until 2:30 p.m. today in the eighth-floor Council Chambers of the Kalana O Maui Building.