|
Supporters turn out for Wailea project
By
ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer
reprinted courtesy Maui News 1/5/06
KIHEI – Maui residents had questions about traffic, affordable
housing and water at the County Council Land Use Committee’s opening
hearing Wednesday on Honua’ula, or Wailea 670.
There was
plenty of support for the project from people who thought the developers
had done a good job of involving community groups in the planning of the
project. At the same time, some were concerned the development would add
too many more homes to already-crowded South Kihei. About 150 people attended the committee hearing, held at Lokelani Intermediate School on Wednesday night.
Charlie
Jencks, who represents the owners, said he was pleased to be presenting the
project after waiting four years for a hearing with the County Council.
“I’m glad
we’re finally at the point where we can discuss this and hopefully get some
homes built,” he said before the meeting.
Many
testifiers liked the project’s affordable housing component, its low
density, public trails and open space.
“There are
no perfect projects, but Honua’ula seems to offer more positives than
negatives,” said Kula resident Mark Walker, who also favored the
development’s projected 20-year build-out schedule.
But Susan
Guard urged council members to ask questions about how the project would
benefit the community. She said the county already was suffering from
overdevelopment.
“Let’s
stop and catch up until we can fix the current problems caused by
unprecedented growth,” she said.
Maui
Meadows Homeowners Association board member Ed Kennedy said Jencks had
addressed many of his group’s concerns, but traffic was still an issue. He
said Piilani Highway was inadequate to serve the large
number of homes and worried his neighborhood could be impacted as a result.
“We don’t
want cars shortcutting through Maui Meadows to get to Wailea 670,” he said.
Honua’ula,
which is designated as the Wailea 670 project district in the Kihei-Makena
Community Plan, has applied for zoning and a project district amendment to
allow the project to switch from two golf courses to a single golf course,
1,400 homes and some commercial space.
The homes
would be 60 percent multifamily and 40 percent single-family, with 350
homes affordably priced, Jencks said.
Housing would
cover about 350 acres, including 56 acres of combined residential and
“neighborhood commercial” development, with 200 acres for the golf course,
and 90 acres of park and open space.
The
developers would build their own water and sewage treatment systems to
serve the project, according to Jencks. They also would pay more than $16
million in park assessment fees, contribute money for a Little League field
in central Kihei, pay $7 million in traffic impact fees and $4.2 million in
school fees.
The project
has a 20-year planned build-out.
Council
Member Michelle Anderson, who holds the Kihei residency seat, wasn’t ready
to take a position on the project. She had lots of questions for the
developers, including how they planned to address the Piilani Highway
“bottleneck,” how much market-priced homes would cost, and what they
proposed in the way of private water systems.
“There
still remains a lot of details to be worked out on this project,” she said.
Council
Member Mike Molina said he’d heard a lot of testimony in support of the
project but wanted more information before making up his mind.
“We still
have to do a lot of assessment for the long haul,” he said.
Greenways
Maui President Joe Bertram said the current proposal was “light years”
better than the luxury golf-course development planned for the site 10
years ago. He especially liked the community-based planning and the
walkable trails.
“We can’t
just keep saying no. We have to say yes sometimes, and this is something
good to say yes to,” he said.
Greg
Figueira liked the proposal. “Everything that I’ve heard here tonight is
positive,” he said.
But Marta
Sweeny of Kula felt the island already was overdeveloped, and that most of
the project’s supporters were motivated by profits.
“We’re not
construction workers. We’re not developers. We’re not Realtors. We’re just
your common everyday people trying to make a living,” she said.
Wailea 670
originally was planned as a luxury residential project, with two golf
courses and a 6-acre park, winning council approval in 1992.
After
years of inaction, the developers returned to the county in 1999, asking to
amend the plans for the project to expand the residential housing and
commercial space, with only one golf course.
The Maui
Planning Commission recommended approval in 2001, but the County Council
never took up the project request.
After
hearing from about 40 residents testifying on the plans Wednesday, the Land
Use Committee adjourned without taking action.
The land
is owned by an investment group, WCPT/GW Land Associates LLC, which bought
the property for $17.2 million in 2000 from previous owner Palauea Bay
Partners.
WCPT/GW
Land Associates involves partners: Lehman Brothers; the Cargill Group;
Trimark Pacific Homes; managing partner Woodridge Capital; and Golden
Wailea, the Japanese firm that previously owned the land and still holds a
small percentage of the company.
The land
now is valued by county tax assessors at more than $43 million.
On the
Net: www.honuaula.com
 Ilima
Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com
|