Maui County Planning Director Jeff Hunt said Thursday that he will not support A&B Properties' request to the state Land Use Commission to reclassify 94 acres in north Kihei to urban until the county completes its long-range planning. Hunt explained the county's position while A&B presented its plans for a 600-unit residential project to the Land Use Commission meeting at the Maui Prince Hotel.
Waiakoa
housing project moving before General Plan is completed
by CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer
reprinted
courtesy Maui News 8/22/08
MAKENA - Maui County Planning Director Jeff Hunt said Thursday that he will not support A&B Properties' request to the state Land Use Commission to reclassify 94 acres in north Kihei to urban until the county completes its long-range planning.
Hunt explained the county's position while A&B presented its plans for a 600-unit residential project to the Land Use Commission meeting at the Maui Prince Hotel.
The company is "putting the cart before the horse" by not waiting until the county wraps up its Maui County General Plan and Maui Island Plan, he said. The General Plan update began last year and is expected to wrap up next year.
Part of the site running along the south side of Waiakoa Gulch is in use for a seed corn operation. The company is seeking to reclassify the property from agricultural to urban to allow a mixed-use residential project.
Hunt is reasserting a position that he and Mayor Charmaine Tavares took earlier this year to not allow amendments to county community plans or districts until the General Plan update is completed.
However, A&B Properties Vice President Grant Chun explained to the LUC that they were proceeding with the petition to the commission so the company can move forward on a parallel track. He and other company representatives said the development on Piilani Highway will provide for a critical need for affordable housing on the Valley Isle, which the county's policies endorse.
In A&B's plans for the Waiakoa Gulch project, 40 percent to 50 percent of the multifamily and single-family homes, or at least 240 units, will fit within federal income guidelines as affordable housing. The affordable units will be mixed within market-rate homes and include about 1.4 acres for commercial development as well as bus stops, parks, trails and a new school, A&B consultants said.
According to A&B's final environmental impact statement, the company also hopes to complete the $151 million project - along with substantial new road, water and wastewater systems - by 2016.
Michael Munekiyo, president of the Wailuku-based Munekiyo & Hiraga Inc. planning firm, testified that the area is set aside as agricultural in the current Kihei-Makena Community Plan. However, land use maps in the draft Maui Island Plan designate the site as urban, he said.
He said he respects the county's position but believes that new development should be considered on case-by-case basis with a balanced approach.
County leaders contended that the project site must be placed within the urban boundaries by Maui County - after approvals of the final General Plan maps by the County Council and mayor - before the state should consider reclassifying the property.
Generally, the Land Use Commission has followed county designation of development sites in county community plans. Once the LUC classifies land as urban, the county may establish zoning.
County attorneys noted during questioning that A&B had not yet sent in its applications to the county Planning Department, the Maui Planning Commission or the County Council.
But Munekiyo replied that the administration's current policy is not to consider those applications.
A&B representatives said they have been working with the General Plan Advisory Committee to have the project site included within the county's urban boundaries. They argued that the project works as "urban in-fill" since it abuts the Hale Piilani subdivision.
About two-thirds of the land is considered poor for agriculture, they said. Monsanto grows corn seed on about 40 acres but has negotiated a deal to move its operations to another A&B property.
The final EIS also said there are no known cultural sites on the former sugar cane land and no endangered or threatened native species of plants, insects, mammals or birds.
A&B's plans also call for perhaps some combination of upgrading existing pump facilities and drilling for new potable water sources, said engineering expert Bert Toba, senior vice president for R.M. Towill Corp. of Honolulu. The homes would consume about 530,000 gallons of water daily, and A&B wants to build an 800,000-gallon reservoir, storm water collection systems and retention basins, he said.
No one from the public testified for or against the project Thursday. The commission will continue its hearing today with testimony from the state Office of Planning. The county will present its official stance at a meeting scheduled for Sept. 12.
State Planning Director Abbey Mayer said on Thursday that he was reserving his comments on the project until after the county presents its case.
South Maui residents in the past have expressed concern that the project will put added stress on the area's infrastructure, particularly traffic congestion.
A&B's plans call for access to the project site from two new turnouts on Piilani Highway and from Kaiwahine Street, which runs through the Hale Piilani subdivision.
An A&B-contracted traffic study said the Piilani Highway will be over capacity by 2016 even if the Kihei residential project is not built. A&B traffic consultant, Keith Niiya of Austin, Tsutsumi & Assoc. Inc., testified Thursday that major traffic improvements will be required, including more bus routes, development of a Kihei-Upcountry highway, widening of the Kihei Road-Piilani Highway connections and building of another north-south roadway parallel to Piilani Highway to mitigate traffic.
Niiya said the Kihei-Upcountry highway, proposed to run from the Piilani-Kaonoulu Street intersection to Haliimaile, would reduce traffic by 25 percent. Design of the 10-mile, two-lane highway was initiated in early 2007.
* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
reprinted courtesy Maui News 8/22/08
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