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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 1:43 p.m., Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Vote on Maui housing development stalls

By CHRIS HAMILTON
The Maui News

WAILUKU — Maui County Council Chairman Riki Hokama said he wanted to get a key vote on whether or not to move forward the controversial Wailea 670/Honua'ula housing development in a special session before it became dark Monday night, The Maui News reported.

It didn't work out.

Councilors faced objections from the developers on several of about 15 council-member amendments to conditions on the 1,400-unit housing project.

Instead of pressing forward on a first-reading vote on the three bills, councilors decided to wait until another special meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday. Council members said they would need a few days to address Honua'ula Partners LLC's concerns, including one item, a three-mile-long wastewater transmission line, that owner's representative Charlie Jencks said would cost $50 million. That issue alone could make the project, which has been 20 years in the making, cost prohibitive.

If councilors and developers are able to reach a compromise Thursday, the Honua'ula bills could still receive a second and final reading Feb. 22:

Here are the bills:

  • Repeal the existing Kihei-Makena Project District 9 (Honua'ula) for 396 acres of golf course and 6 acres of park and create a new chapter to reflect the current proposal.

  • Change zoning from the agricultural and open space districts to Kihei-Makena Project District 9 (Honua'ula) conditional zoning for 268 acres.

  • Amend the Kihei-Makena Project District 9 (Honua'ula) zoning for about 402 acres and add 13 new conditions.

    Hokama said that if a final resolution cannot be reached, he could send the bills back to the Maui County Land Use Committee or even the Maui Planning Commission for reconsideration. The developers also have some appeal options, Hokama told councilors.

    Councilor Bill Medeiros said he didn't think that the developer would make a unilateral agreement to the nearly 15 new amendments raised in a special meeting Monday, so he wanted to wait a few more days to work things out.

    Public testimony on the issue already consumed all of Friday's regular County Council meeting, and the latest version of the plan has been in discussions for five years, including about six months before the Land Use Committee last year.

    The 1,400-home, 670-acre Honua'ula development needs council approval for the South Maui project to move forward with construction, which should begin within the next five years if it receives further approvals from the Maui Planning Commission and Planning Department director.

    For more Maui news, visit The Maui News.