Chair and Members of the DRIP Committee:
I oppose advancing Bill 108 until this Committee answers the infrastructure and capacity questions that are now directly in front of you.
After this week's hearings, these questions are no longer theoretical.
The draft contains 145 implementation actions. Testimony identified only eight with actual cost estimates, while 65 have no cost figure. The costs that are identified already total approximately $554 million. Transportation projects alone total approximately $373 million in 2022 dollars, while there is no comparable prioritized and fully costed list for water and wastewater.
More importantly, the Department of Water Supply has reported that Central Maui water resources are near maximum reliable capacity under conservative conditions. South Maui depends heavily on those Central Maui sources.
At the same time, Planning confirms that approximately 4,552 housing units referenced in the materials are already approved and another approximately 3,500 units represent potential future development.
Planning's explanation is that identifying future growth areas allows the County to plan infrastructure in advance, and that infrastructure is supposed to be provided before or concurrently with development.
I agree with that principle.
Now put a measurable and enforceable system behind it.
Other governments use principles commonly known as concurrency and adequate public facilities requirements.
The concept is straightforward:
Measure capacity. Establish minimum standards. Identify deficiencies. Fund and schedule the necessary infrastructure. Then allow additional demand.
If adequate capacity does not exist, development can be mitigated, phased or deferred until the infrastructure necessary to support it is available.
Maui does not need to copy another jurisdiction. Maui should create a system appropriate for an isolated island.
Start by determining the actual capacity of South Maui's critical systems: potable water, wastewater, drainage, roads and intersections, evacuation routes, fire and EMS, electrical and communications systems and other essential infrastructure.
Determine existing capacity.
Determine how much is already being used.
Determine how much is already committed to approved development.
Determine reasonable emergency reserve capacity.
Then tell the public how much capacity actually remains.
That last part matters on Maui.
Capacity cannot be measured only for a normal day when the roads are open, electricity is working, water is flowing and ships and aircraft are supplying the island.
Maui should also know what its essential systems can support when a road closes, a wildfire occurs, electricity fails, communications are interrupted, water service is disrupted or outside supplies are delayed.
South Maui's limited evacuation routes make that especially important.
Councilmembers do not have to become engineers, hydrologists, transportation planners or emergency-management specialists.
Your responsibility is to require the work to be done.
Maui County already has Planning, Water Supply, Environmental Management, Public Works, Transportation, Fire and Public Safety, emergency management, professional staff and consultants.
You already have a County budget and Capital Improvement Program.
Planning Director Takakura has now said the Department can obtain additional detail on proposed actions from the County departments responsible for them if the Council wants it.
Then ask for it.
You are considering a plan intended to guide South Maui for approximately twenty years. The County has until August 4, 2027, to adopt it.
Use that time.
Connect the government you already have:
Community Plan → Infrastructure Capacity → Development Demand → Deficiency → Capital Project → Funding → Construction → Growth.
Before advancing Bill 108, I ask this Committee to do three things.
First, audit the 1998 Kihei-Makena Community Plan before repealing it.
Show residents what was promised, what was completed, what remains unfinished or abandoned, what was spent, why projects remain incomplete and which unfinished commitments are now being carried into another twenty-year plan.
Second, require a South Maui infrastructure-capacity assessment.
Establish measurable existing capacity, committed capacity, remaining capacity and reasonable emergency reserve capacity. Establish objective minimum levels of service for the systems necessary to support South Maui.
Not simply goals.
Measurable standards.
Third, establish an island-appropriate concurrency policy.
If additional development would exceed an adopted infrastructure-capacity or level-of-service standard, require the necessary infrastructure or mitigation to be funded and scheduled before or concurrently with that additional demand, using the appropriate legal mechanism determined by Corporation Counsel.
This is not simply about stopping development.
It is about pacing development with infrastructure.
And Bill 108 itself recognizes the problem: South Maui's major roads are already heavily used and at capacity, additional development will place further burdens on them, and growth-related impact fees will recover only a portion of government expenditures, leaving existing residents responsible for part of the cost.
The Committee is now hearing the same problem with water, wastewater, transportation, drainage and evacuation.
So the question is no longer whether these problems exist.
The question is what you are going to require before approving another twenty-year plan.
You have the departments.
You have the professional staff.
You have the budget.
You have the Capital Improvement Program.
You have the ability to request the additional information.
And you have the time.
Before government creates additional demand, determine what infrastructure is necessary, what it costs, who pays for it and when it will actually exist.
Before repealing the old plan, show the public what happened to it.
Before adopting another twenty-year plan, demonstrate how this one will actually be implemented.
And if Planning says infrastructure must be provided before or concurrently with development, make those words mean something.
Measure the capacity. Establish the standards. Fund and build what is necessary. Then grow within what Maui can actually support.
Chair and Members of the DRIP Committee:
I oppose advancing Bill 108 until this Committee answers the infrastructure and capacity questions that are now directly in front of you.
After this week's hearings, these questions are no longer theoretical.
The draft contains 145 implementation actions. Testimony identified only eight with actual cost estimates, while 65 have no cost figure. The costs that are identified already total approximately $554 million. Transportation projects alone total approximately $373 million in 2022 dollars, while there is no comparable prioritized and fully costed list for water and wastewater.
More importantly, the Department of Water Supply has reported that Central Maui water resources are near maximum reliable capacity under conservative conditions. South Maui depends heavily on those Central Maui sources.
At the same time, Planning confirms that approximately 4,552 housing units referenced in the materials are already approved and another approximately 3,500 units represent potential future development.
Planning's explanation is that identifying future growth areas allows the County to plan infrastructure in advance, and that infrastructure is supposed to be provided before or concurrently with development.
I agree with that principle.
Now put a measurable and enforceable system behind it.
Other governments use principles commonly known as concurrency and adequate public facilities requirements.
The concept is straightforward:
Measure capacity. Establish minimum standards. Identify deficiencies. Fund and schedule the necessary infrastructure. Then allow additional demand.
If adequate capacity does not exist, development can be mitigated, phased or deferred until the infrastructure necessary to support it is available.
Maui does not need to copy another jurisdiction. Maui should create a system appropriate for an isolated island.
Start by determining the actual capacity of South Maui's critical systems: potable water, wastewater, drainage, roads and intersections, evacuation routes, fire and EMS, electrical and communications systems and other essential infrastructure.
Determine existing capacity.
Determine how much is already being used.
Determine how much is already committed to approved development.
Determine reasonable emergency reserve capacity.
Then tell the public how much capacity actually remains.
That last part matters on Maui.
Capacity cannot be measured only for a normal day when the roads are open, electricity is working, water is flowing and ships and aircraft are supplying the island.
Maui should also know what its essential systems can support when a road closes, a wildfire occurs, electricity fails, communications are interrupted, water service is disrupted or outside supplies are delayed.
South Maui's limited evacuation routes make that especially important.
Councilmembers do not have to become engineers, hydrologists, transportation planners or emergency-management specialists.
Your responsibility is to require the work to be done.
Maui County already has Planning, Water Supply, Environmental Management, Public Works, Transportation, Fire and Public Safety, emergency management, professional staff and consultants.
You already have a County budget and Capital Improvement Program.
Planning Director Takakura has now said the Department can obtain additional detail on proposed actions from the County departments responsible for them if the Council wants it.
Then ask for it.
You are considering a plan intended to guide South Maui for approximately twenty years. The County has until August 4, 2027, to adopt it.
Use that time.
Connect the government you already have:
Community Plan → Infrastructure Capacity → Development Demand → Deficiency → Capital Project → Funding → Construction → Growth.
Before advancing Bill 108, I ask this Committee to do three things.
First, audit the 1998 Kihei-Makena Community Plan before repealing it.
Show residents what was promised, what was completed, what remains unfinished or abandoned, what was spent, why projects remain incomplete and which unfinished commitments are now being carried into another twenty-year plan.
Second, require a South Maui infrastructure-capacity assessment.
Establish measurable existing capacity, committed capacity, remaining capacity and reasonable emergency reserve capacity. Establish objective minimum levels of service for the systems necessary to support South Maui.
Not simply goals.
Measurable standards.
Third, establish an island-appropriate concurrency policy.
If additional development would exceed an adopted infrastructure-capacity or level-of-service standard, require the necessary infrastructure or mitigation to be funded and scheduled before or concurrently with that additional demand, using the appropriate legal mechanism determined by Corporation Counsel.
This is not simply about stopping development.
It is about pacing development with infrastructure.
And Bill 108 itself recognizes the problem: South Maui's major roads are already heavily used and at capacity, additional development will place further burdens on them, and growth-related impact fees will recover only a portion of government expenditures, leaving existing residents responsible for part of the cost.
The Committee is now hearing the same problem with water, wastewater, transportation, drainage and evacuation.
So the question is no longer whether these problems exist.
The question is what you are going to require before approving another twenty-year plan.
You have the departments.
You have the professional staff.
You have the budget.
You have the Capital Improvement Program.
You have the ability to request the additional information.
And you have the time.
Before government creates additional demand, determine what infrastructure is necessary, what it costs, who pays for it and when it will actually exist.
Before repealing the old plan, show the public what happened to it.
Before adopting another twenty-year plan, demonstrate how this one will actually be implemented.
And if Planning says infrastructure must be provided before or concurrently with development, make those words mean something.
Measure the capacity. Establish the standards. Fund and build what is necessary. Then grow within what Maui can actually support.
Thank you for reading.
Edward Codelia, Maui Resident