Ohana Kai $500 million, 1,000-home, 257-acre development under state's fast-track affordable housing law

 

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Workers, buyers flood presentation for proposal on Ohana Kai

Developer: Sheer number of applicants testament to need for jobs and housing

By Chris Hamilton, Staff Writer
reprinted courtesy Maui News 9/26/10

 

WAIKAPU - Maui County Council Member Gladys Baisa remarked that the Maui Tropical Plantation "looked like the county fair" on Saturday afternoon as Jesse Spencer gave a public presentation under a massive tent on his proposed affordable housing development down the highway mauka of Maalaea.

By the time Spencer took the stage to rousing applause at about 1:30 p.m. to describe his Ohana Kai Village project, construction workers and families had already filled out at least 1,000 applications for jobs to build the single-family homes and another 1,000 applications to buy them. Like Spencer's other projects, a lottery would determine who gets a chance to buy homes at Ohana Kai.

"This group here today is a testament that we need jobs and we need affordable housing," Spencer said. "My project is the best thing going, and I'm hoping we can get it going now."

Spencer has used the state's fast-track affordable housing law to expedite his $500 million, 1,000-home, 257-acre proposal to get a decision from the County Council, where it will first go to the Public Services Committee. Review by the panel will most likely come in December or January, after new council members take office, he said.

The first step is for the project's environmental impact statement to be published in the state Office of Environmental Quality Control bulletin, and then there's a 60-day period in which legal challenges may be mounted.

The day after the project gets a green light from Maui County, Spencer said he'd put between 200 and 300 people to work for seven years, the estimated length of time it would take to complete Ohana Kai.

Spencer called on the crowds to contact the mayor and council members to show their support for the development. He said many in county government "don't seem to care."

Some people have complained that placing three entrances and exits along the highway would aggravate traffic congestion at an already notorious bottleneck to West Maui. They've also said it would add more wastewater injection wells and lead to more pollution in a bay already beset by the negative impacts of runoff from the shore.

Spencer said he addressed all those concerns, some of them "silly," in the hefty environmental study for the project that has been "accepted" by the county Department of Housing and Human Services.

But Ohana Kai also has been opposed by Mayor Charmaine Tavares' administration, her planners and volunteer community advisers who've said they consider it to be urban sprawl because it would be located on ranch land not directly adjacent to existing homes.

On the south end of the project, it would also be across the street from existing Maalaea condominiums, a shopping center, restaurants, a small amusement park and the Maui Ocean Center.

However, at a recent mayoral candidate forum, Tavares said the decision whether to build Ohana Kai is completely in the County Council's hands because Spencer is using the state's fast-track approval process, which allows developers with at least 50 percent affordable homes to bypass much of the state and county requirements, as long as the development does not negatively affect the health and safety of the general public.

In an interview, Tavares' opponent in the Nov. 2 general election, former Mayor Alan Arakawa, declined to state his position on Ohana Kai, saying it's not relevant at this time.

Despite the apparent exemptions available to him, Spencer's plan calls for 18 acres of parks, sports fields, a community center, sidewalks, a main boulevard and a large parking lot. He said the project also "has space for a possible charter school" and maybe a market and gas station.

Spencer's lead designer, Ken Jencks, called Ohana Kai a walkable community and centrally located. It's the kind of smart planning that elected leaders are always asking for these days, he said.

However, Baisa made it known that Spencer only said it was "possible" to build a new school, which she thinks would be needed, "especially with all those children." And she said she's curious to see his ideas for dealing with the traffic congestion.

But, overall, Baisa said she was keeping an open mind and was really at the event just to get a feel for what the people wanted, which on Saturday, was Ohana Kai.

"I also wanted to know who would be here, and, obviously, it's our local families who are looking for work and homes," Baisa said.

She was the only council member to attend the event. However, Elle Cochran, the primary election's leading vote-getter for the council's West Maui residency seat, was there. Spencer said he also has met privately with eight of the nine current council members.

The homes themselves will start at $260,000 and would be situated in an area that stretches south from Honoapiilani Highway's intersection with North Kihei Road.

Spencer said his project has three water wells, two of which are capable of pumping out 750,000 gallons a day, as well an 800,000-gallon water tank that is almost finished. He said he would also build a wastewater treatment plant.

The plant would have the capability to irrigate the development's lawns and parks and much of the state-owned and bone-dry pali - which has proved this summer to be a nasty fire hazard - if he can get an agreement with the Department of Land and Natural Resources, he said.

Spencer also said he could get Maalaea condominium owners off their aging injection well, "if they pay their fair share for it." He did not say what that might entail for the state, county or Maalaea residents.

The Maalaea injection wells are at least partially blamed for contributing to the degradation of Maalaea Bay's coral reef. If Spencer can't get the state's and county's help, he said he'd probably have to dig his own injection well for Ohana Kai.

Several residents who filled out applications Saturday said many of the opponents are Maalaea residents, and no matter what their arguments might be, it all comes down to a "not-in-my-backyard" attitude about the project.

Francis Michael Patrick Lydon, of Maalaea, was unafraid to step up to the microphone to oppose the project to a smattering of boos from supporters. And he stood his ground when a large man with a red face got in Lydon's face afterward and tried to shout him down.

Lydon said Ohana Kai won't be part of the community plan when it's rewritten in a couple of years as part of the General Plan 2030 update. The former sugar cane fields might not be ideal agricultural land, but it's "elbow room," he said. And maintaining agricultural and open space must remain a big part of Maui's future, Lydon said.

Kihei resident Andrew Ilderton works at a Maalaea restaurant and said most of the opponents only live on Maui part time. A lot of them just want to keep Maalaea's beaches to themselves, he said.

Ilderton also said the project and new neighbors would instantly rejuvenate the little town's struggling restaurants and shops.

"They just don't want Maalaea to change," he said.

He applied for a home so his wife and two young children could finally have their own home. It was the fourth time he's applied for an affordable home, and he estimated he's spent about $250,000 on rent over the past 30 years.

Tiffany and Kenny Mancao, of Wailuku, were among those who applied for both a home and a job. Kenny Mancao has been laid off from construction since 2007 (76 percent of Maui's carpenters are unemployed), and he's been working odd jobs to make ends meet.

His wife said the project won't hurt the aina, but it would allow families to stay together, and not relocate to the Mainland to seek work.

Spencer also doesn't run a union shop, but he said he isn't opposed to unions. Whoever provides the best low bid would get the construction contract, union or not, he said.

As the crowd thinned out, he said Saturday proved that many more people are in favor of the project than against it.

"I've already sunk $300,000 into putting this project together (over the past three years) that if it doesn't go through, I'll have the best designed cow pasture ever," Spencer joked after the meeting.

* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.

 

reprinted courtesy Maui News 9/26/10, original link www mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/540944/Workers--buyers-flood-presentati---.html

 

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