By BRIAN PERRY
Staff Writer - The Maui News
October 31, 2001
WAILUKU — Members of the Maui County Council Land Use Committee have recommended approval of zoning for a new Makena
Resort master plan, but with conditions aimed at concerns over traffic, water and affordable housing.
The committee met until past midnight Tuesday in reviewing the plan that provides for approximately 1,100 new residences
and a new hotel or time-share project.
The committee recommendation, approved on a 5-3 vote, will need two readings before the full council for approval.
Council members Jo Anne Johnson, Wayne Nishiki and Charmaine Tavares dissented; while Committee Chairman Alan Arakawa
and council members Dain Kane, Robert Carroll, Riki Hokama and Mike Molina voted to recommend approval.
Council Chairman Pat Kawano remained hospitalized and was excused from the committee meeting.
Among the conditions imposed by the committee was one suggested by Hokama, calling for the developer to provide
affordable homes equivalent to 10 percent of the market-priced homes in the resort. The condition would require
that the affordable units be built at the same time as market-priced units. Also, at least half of the affordable
homes would need to be single-family residences, and half of them would need to be located in the Kihei-Makena
region.
Committee members also approved a condition proposed by Kane to reduce the density of apartment units on 119 acres
within the resort from 10 per acre to eight per acre.
Nishiki was able to get fellow council members to include in the conditional zoning bill for the resort the 22
conditions attached by the state Land Use Commission when it approved urban designation for the project district
in February 1998.
The Land Use Commission conditions include:
* A requirement that the developer provide affordable housing opportunities for low, low-moderate and gap group
income residents.
* A mandate that the development be incorporated into the county’s Water Use and Development Plan for South Maui
and that the plan prevent overpumping the Iao aquifer.
* A requirement that the resort contribute to the development, funding and construction of school facilities.
* Requirements that the developer implement soil erosion and dust control measures, and initiate and fund a near-shore
water quality monitoring program.
Tavares offered an additional condition, adopted by the committee, that all construction be phased in with major
roadway improvements in the South Maui region.
Under Tavares’ condition, the developer could proceed with construction of up to 100 units. But, the resort could
not go ahead with the next 300 units until the temporary widening of Piilani Highway from two to four lanes has
been completed.
Then, the Makena Resort could not proceed with its next 300 units, whether they be hotel rooms or residences, unless
the initial phase of improvements to Mokulele Highway has been completed.
Then, the resort’s next 300 units could not move forward unless the second phase of work on Mokulele Highway has
been finished. And finally, the resort could not move ahead with its final build-out until a permanent expansion
of Piilani Highway has been done and an extension of Piilani Highway into Makena has been completed.
According to committee staff, the developer could go beyond the allowable number of units if the resort pays an
“interim” infrastructure assessment of $5,000 per residence or hotel room.
Despite the conditions, Tavares said she could not support the project overall because it could not meet a provision
in the Kihei-Makena Community Plan that says “prior to the construction of major projects south of Kilohana Road
or mauka of Piilani Highway” the Piilani and Mokulele highways would need to be widened to four lanes.
Tavares, who serves as the council’s Planning Committee chairwoman, said her work on revising the nine county community
plans has made her aware of all of the provisions of the plans.
Council members who voted with the majority felt the project would be an economic benefit. They also pointed out
the project already was included in the latest Kihei-Makena Community Plan update, and providing zoning would be
fulfilling that part of the plan.
The Makena Resort is owned by Seibu, a Japan-based conglomerate with railroad, real estate, construction and the
Prince hotel companies. Seibu bought its first 1,000 acres in Makena in 1973.
Some of the resort’s plans have been scaled back. For example, a 545-room hotel planned on nearly 30 acres on the
Puu Olai side of the Maui Prince Hotel was reduced to a 100- to 200-room facility, probably a time-share complex.
Although the rezoning calls for redesignating approximately 756 acres, most of the rezoned area would put 437 acres
of the resort’s north and south golf courses in the county’s golf course zoning. Nearly all but approximately 100
acres is reconfigured zoning, according to resort officials. The new hotel property, apartments and residences
make up approximately 100 acres of “new” zoning.
When the zoning is approved, actual construction of any projects in the resort would require special management
area permits from the Maui Planning Commission.
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