gigantic Makena Resort proposal .... signs saying, "Save Makena" and "No More Hotels" as well as "Send Me Back to Work" and "Makena = Jobs." Dozens of Maui Prince Hotel workers wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the hotel logo.
Council panel to reconvene on zoning request
today
By CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer
reprinted courtesy Maui News 11/20/08
WAILUKU - It was a long day Wednesday of impassioned pleas to the Maui County Council - for and against the gigantic Makena Resort proposal.
The debate boiled down to a classic dilemma of development: jobs and dollars versus environmental and cultural impacts.
Almost 150 people signed up to testify before the council's Land Use Committee for the meeting in the Council Chambers. The meeting will resume today at 10 a.m. after the committee recessed at 7:45 p.m. to allow the panel to hear everyone out from among more than 400 folks overflowing the chambers and into the hallway.
They were heard and seen. They held up signs saying, "Save Makena" and "No More Hotels" as well as "Send Me Back to Work" and "Makena = Jobs." Dozens of Maui Prince Hotel workers, most of whom were paid a regular day's wage to attend the meeting, wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the hotel logo.
"No one was coerced to be here," said Makena Resorts and Maui Prince Hotel general partner, Everett Dowling. "They chose to be here. We are one of the only resorts not to lay anyone off . . . The hotel and golf course have been losing money. We want to keep our team together."
The opposing side wore blue "savemakena.org" T-shirts. People for and against appeared almost in competition to cheer for speakers they supported. Project opponents also repeatedly asked for an evening meeting in South Maui so more of the community can testify.
"I don't think your inaction will stop development in any way across Maui, including (Honua'ula) Wailea 670, which is right up the street with 1,600 units," said Dick Mayer, vice chairman of the Maui General Plan Advisory Committee.
Mayer said the council has approved 16,000 housing units, some long ago, and all are still awaiting groundbreaking. Some of those entitlements are owned by Dowling, he noted.
The committee has before it bills that would change the zoning for 603.3 acres of the 755.6-acre project. About 125 acres would remain vacant. Nine years ago, council committee members granted initial approval of the revisions to the resort master plan when they adopted revisions to the Kihei-Makena Community Plan.
Four years ago, the Land Use Committee also negotiated and accepted 41 conditions to make the plans a reality. The committee, and entire council, have been waiting since then for a unilateral agreement from the owner, which it finally received Nov. 7.
Dowling, who was the evening's last speaker, said he is prepared to accept all 41 conditions and sign the agreement. He also dispelled some rumors about the project, declaring that he will not build a second hotel or shopping mall or use wastewater injection wells. However, Dowling said he will build about 70 condos on the Maui Prince Hotel parcel that could be used as short-term rentals.
"We will be tearing the Maui Prince (Hotel) down, but not for several years," he said.
Dowling said he will avoid hotel employee layoffs by first getting online two new clubhouses at his Makena Maluaka luxury home development and golf course. He would temporarily transfer employees to those jobs and others while the hotel is rebuilt.
"The hotel is not competitive," Dowling said of the aging Maui Prince.
Council Member Michael Victorino has championed the effort to move Makena Resort forward through the council as a way to stimulate the local economy.
"If this is fast track, I'd hate to see slow track," Dowling said in response to criticism that he was trying to pull an end around.
Dowling said there are phases of the master plan that have been approved by the full council, but he has been waiting two years for the county to come through with building permits.
Council Member Michelle Anderson retorted that Dowling had until just recently refused to sign the unilateral agreement. There are also changes to the plans; that's why the Land Use Committee needs to review it again, she said.
Dowling and his partners purchased the land, plans and Maui Prince Hotel from the original Japanese owners in February 2007. His version of the Makena Resort project includes reducing the number of housing units from 1,600 to about 1,000.
Half would be multifamily units and the other half would be single-family homes. Dowling also said he plans to build about 500 affordable homes in the same community district in order to comply with the county work force housing ordinance and use existing wells, possibly with a desalination plant in order to comply with the county's requirements for a long-term water source.
The arguments in favor of the project included that it would:
* Create much-needed construction jobs for the next 15 years.
* Save the 400 jobs of workers at the Maui Prince Hotel by preserving the resort's long-term economic future.
* Provide 20 percent more permanent jobs to support the resort expansion.
* Preserve cultural sites.
* Help restore Maui as a premier vacation destination.
* Be constructed with green buildings that are all at least 50 percent more energy efficient than traditional construction.
* Increase property tax revenue for county.
* Have a solar powered water treatment plant that will provide for the entire development.
* Have enough water available to support entire project.
* Involve Dowling, who was described as a responsible, generous and environmentally conscientious developer.
The arguments against the project - and there were just as many, if not more - were that:
* Maui doesn't need more second and third homes for the wealthy.
* It would eliminate hundreds of acres of pristine undeveloped lands that some claimed were sacred.
* It would damage reefs, native animals and plants with pesticides, runoff and construction.
* It would eliminate another natural place that attracts people to Maui, further diminishing the reputation for natural beauty.
* It would destroy archaeological sites.
* There was not enough water for 1,000-plus homes.
* That construction jobs are short term.
* It would mean further urban sprawl.
* That there's nothing to stop Dowling from selling once the land-use entitlements are in place.
"You have green building, and you're destroying archaeological sites? That's not green building," said Michael Howden, an advocate for sustainable farming and a council candidate in the past election.
On the other side, one of the day's most emotional speakers was Ron Chapman, who works at the Maui Prince Hotel front desk.
"My kids are going the graduate from college, and what are they going to do?" said Chapman, who directed his testimony at Anderson. "How am I even going to put food on the table? We got no jobs. Let's do anything to support the economy. Get it moving."
During a break, Dowling responded to claims repeated at the hearing that his $220 million Makena Maluaka luxury development - which is considered to be a phase of Makena Resort - was put on hold this week. Dowling said the site preparation work continues and that he counted 27 people on the job Tuesday.
But Dowling said that he will take a three-month break on structural construction while he hunts for the right bid on that contract. He also said he is waiting to make more home presales.
* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
reprinted courtesy Maui News 11/20/08
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