TESTIMONY ON THE DRAFT SOUTH MAUI COMMUNITY PLAN
Requested Technical Correction to Section 4.4, Action 3.06
Aloha Chair and Members of the Committee:
I respectfully request a narrow technical correction to Action 3.06. The July 2026 MPC Draft currently directs the County to “identify the locations and support the conversion of cesspools,” primarily in Māʻalaea and Maui Meadows, by 2030.
For Māʻalaea, the most relevant problematic wastewater disposal methods are injection wells. Importantly, the Plan’s directive to “identify the locations” is already complete as to the Māʻalaea injection wells identified in the attached drawings. Those drawings document the locations of injection wells at Māʻalaea condominium properties and should be incorporated by reference into the Plan’s administrative record.
REQUESTED AMENDMENT — ACTION 3.06
Replace:
“Identify the locations and support the conversion of cesspools to a regional wastewater treatment system or environmentally appropriate alternatives, primarily in Māʻalaea and Maui Meadows, by 2030.”
With:
“Identify the locations and support the conversion of injection wells in Māʻalaea and cesspools in Maui Meadows to a regional wastewater treatment system or environmentally appropriate alternatives by 2030.”
For Maui Meadows, the proposed Maui Meadows Community Facilities District provides a concrete implementation pathway for sewer collection connecting the neighborhood to the Kīhei Wastewater Reclamation Facility, together with recycled-water infrastructure supporting an R-1-irrigated greenbelt firebreak. The proposal was developed under the direction of the Kīhei Community Association, with input from Council Member Tom Cook incorporated. tinyurl.com/MMCFD-Act
The proposed CFD also provides a legal framework for grants, gifts, donations, nonprofit funding, and implementation through memoranda of agreement and other lawful instruments. The concept is intended to comprise the first section of an integrated irrigation reuse greenbelt firebreak along the length of South Maui, to help increase survivability during a future wildfire emergency in the beloved region.
Consistent with that framework, Kai Action Institute was designed to operate as a 0% overhead “financial circuit” through which private philanthropy may be routed to the County of Maui for eligible public infrastructure, subject to appropriate Council authorization and all applicable County fiscal, appropriation, procurement, ethics, tax, and other legal requirements. This structure can provide a pathway for philanthropic funding of these improvements through an appropriate Council-authorized memorandum of agreement. kaiaction.org
This correction would accurately distinguish problematic wastewater disposal methods in Māʻalaea from those in Maui Meadows, recognize that identification of the Māʻalaea injection-well locations is already complete through the attached drawings, and preserve the Plan’s existing 2030 implementation objective. I respectfully request adoption of the amendment above and incorporation of the referenced drawings into the record.
I have invested many years developing a solid plan to eliminate harmful groundwater effluent discharges in both the Māʻalaea and Maui Meadows neighborhoods and would welcome the opportunity to present on the integrated plan to an appropriate Council Committee.
Respectfully submitted,
Travis A. Liggett, MS
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
REFERENCES
1. DRAFT SOUTH MAUI COMMUNITY PLAN Section 4.4, Action 3.06.pdf — existing language addressing cesspool conversion primarily in Māʻalaea and Maui Meadows.
2. Ma'alaea injection well locations at condos - 2023.pdf — Drawings identifying injection-well locations at Māʻalaea condominium properties.
3. Maui_Meadows_CFD_WWRF-greenbelt-reuse_Maui_County_Code_Chapter_3.XX.pdf — Proposed Maui Meadows Community Facilities District provisions addressing sewer connection to the Kīhei Wastewater Reclamation Facility, recycled-water infrastructure, greenbelt/firebreak improvements, funding, and implementation mechanisms.
4. kaiaction.org — Kai Action Institute page where philanthropists can find projects ready to fund now.
5. FlushAware.com — Public wastewater information and mapping resource.
Chair and Members of the DRIP Committee:
After everything that has happened with Bill 9, I have one basic question:
Does Maui County actually know what it considers a transient vacation rental to be, where that use appropriately belongs, and what type of property should legitimately operate as visitor accommodation?
Because after reading the latest Planning Commission discussion, I am not sure that question was answered before Bill 9 was passed.
Bill 9 removed transient vacation rental use from Apartment zoning.
Then the Council created H-3 and H-4 Hotel Districts so affected properties could potentially continue operating as transient accommodations through subsequent land-use changes.
Now thousands of units, some Minatoya and some not, are being considered for Hotel zoning.
And the Planning Commission is asking for objective standards to determine what actually qualifies as a hotel.
That should have happened first.
Before changing the permitted use of thousands of properties, this Council and the Administration should have answered some fundamental land-use questions.
What is residential housing?
What is a hotel?
What is a timeshare?
What is a legitimate transient accommodation?
What physical and operational characteristics distinguish them?
Where should each use occur?
And what happens when a property has legally operated one way for decades even though its underlying zoning says something different?
In a functioning community, the basic framework should not be complicated.
Residential districts should primarily provide homes for residents.
Hotel and resort districts should primarily provide accommodations for visitors.
Mixed-use areas can accommodate both, but transient use should be controlled so it does not consume the residential housing supply.
Limited owner-occupied bed-and-breakfast and home-sharing uses can reasonably exist in residential communities under appropriate rules.
And legacy properties should be evaluated based on what they actually are, not simply the zoning designation placed on the property decades ago.
A traditional hotel is fairly easy to recognize. It is purpose-built for transient occupancy, generally with centralized management, guest services, common facilities and a business model based on rotating visitors.
A residential condominium is also understandable. It is principally designed for people to live in and functions as residential housing.
The difficult category is the condominium property that falls somewhere between the two.
Some Maui condominiums may have Apartment zoning but have operated overwhelmingly as visitor accommodations for decades. Others are genuinely residential properties where individual units happened to become vacation rentals.
Those are not the same thing and should not be treated the same way.
Establish objective standards.
Look at the original approvals and intended use.
Look at how the property was designed and how it has actually operated.
Determine the historical percentage of owner-occupied units, long-term rentals, transient rentals and timeshares.
Look at centralized management, front desks and visitor services.
Look at kitchens, laundry, storage and parking.
Look at maintenance fees, insurance and financing.
Look at whether the surrounding area is residential or visitor-oriented.
And most importantly, determine whether the property can realistically function as housing for Maui residents.
Having a kitchen does not automatically make a unit practical housing.
Having Apartment zoning does not automatically make a property residential.
And having historically operated as a vacation rental does not automatically make a property a hotel.
Look at the facts and classify the property according to what it actually is and what its appropriate long-term use should be.
But there is another part of this discussion that I think you are missing.
Not everybody who needs temporary accommodation on Maui is a tourist.
I have personal experience with private-pay skilled nursing care at Hale Makua costing approximately $18,000 per month.
Obviously, skilled nursing is not a vacation rental. That cost includes healthcare, staffing and services that an STVR does not provide.
But it illustrates something about living on an island.
People need different forms of accommodation for different periods of their lives.
A traveling nurse or other temporary worker may need housing for several months.
A family displaced from its home may need temporary housing.
Someone relocating to Maui may need somewhere to live while looking for permanent housing.
A family member coming to Maui because a parent is in skilled nursing may need accommodation for weeks or months.
Someone whose home is being repaired or rebuilt may need temporary housing.
Those people are not necessarily tourists.
Temporary accommodation is a legitimate community need in its own right.
Maui needs permanent resident housing.
Maui needs workforce housing.
Maui needs temporary and transitional housing.
Maui needs skilled nursing and assisted living.
And Maui needs visitor accommodations because tourism remains an important part of the economy.
These are different needs. Good land-use planning should determine how much of each Maui needs, where each belongs, and how they work together without one consuming the supply required by another.
That brings me to the larger question:
How much transient accommodation should Maui actually have, and where should it be located?
Maui has limited land, housing, water, roads and infrastructure.
Tourism is important. But Maui is also a community where people need to live, work, raise families and operate businesses.
A sustainable economy cannot allow visitor accommodations to consume the housing required by the people necessary to support the rest of the community.
But the opposite does not make sense either.
Government should not eliminate productive visitor accommodations and simply call those units “housing” when their location, configuration, carrying costs or historical operation make them poorly suited to resident housing.
The goal should not be maximum tourism.
The goal should not be maximum housing on paper.
The goal should be a sustainable balance.
Determine how much permanent resident housing Maui needs.
Determine how much temporary housing Maui needs.
Determine how much visitor accommodation Maui can sustainably support.
Determine where each belongs.
Protect genuine residential neighborhoods from excessive transient use.
Concentrate visitor accommodations primarily in areas designed and serviced for tourism.
Establish reasonable limits in mixed-use areas.
Establish objective standards for legacy properties that do not fit neatly into either category.
And connect all of it to Maui's actual infrastructure capacity—water, wastewater, roads, emergency services and the other systems required to support residents and visitors.
That is planning.
Instead, Maui property owners, buyers, sellers, residents, Realtors, lenders and businesses have been operating in the middle of unresolved government policy.
And the condominium market is under pressure.
Properties are sitting longer. Sellers are reducing prices. Buyers are negotiating substantial discounts.
I am not telling you Bill 9 caused every change in Maui's condominium market. The data does not establish that.
I am telling you that government introduced substantial uncertainty into an already difficult real-estate market before completing the fundamental land-use analysis that should have preceded the legislation.
Now the Planning Commission is asking a question that should have been answered at the beginning:
What actually makes a property a hotel?
Answer it.
Create objective standards and apply them uniformly.
Determine which properties are genuinely residential and which are legitimately visitor accommodations.
Then measure what Bill 9 is actually producing.
How many affected units became owner-occupied resident housing?
How many became long-term rentals?
How many were purchased by Maui residents?
How many remain vacant?
What happened to prices?
What happened to rents?
What happened to County revenue?
And what happened to the people who owned these properties when government changed the rules?
A unit prohibited from operating as an STVR is not automatically housing.
A vacant condominium is not a housing success.
A second home is not workforce housing.
A condominium that Maui workers cannot reasonably afford to purchase or rent has not solved the affordability problem simply because its legal use changed.
And eliminating one form of temporary accommodation without determining whether Maui needs that inventory can simply create pressure somewhere else.
Measure the actual outcome.
This analysis should have been done before Bill 9.
It wasn't.
So do it now.
Define the uses.
Establish where they belong.
Determine how much Maui can sustainably support.
Protect genuine housing.
Recognize legitimate visitor accommodations.
Recognize that temporary housing serves residents and workers too.
Measure the consequences.
And then make permanent land-use decisions based on the facts.
Stop trying to solve Maui's housing problem by changing labels on properties.
Decide what Maui actually needs, determine where those uses belong, and plan the island accordingly.
That is what should have happened before Bill 9.
It is what should happen now.
Edward Codelia
Maui Resident
I am a Keala O Wailea homeowner opposed to the proposed changes to the Blue Course. My concerns are both personal and community-wide. Keala O Wailea was designed and marketed in a setting defined by open space, low density, privacy, golf, and views across the Blue Course toward the ocean. Replacing that open space with housing would permanently change the character of our community and could affect privacy, views, recreation, and property values.
I am also concerned about whether South Maui’s infrastructure can safely absorb additional density. As someone with a background in engineering and experience in development economics projects, I believe cumulative infrastructure capacity should be demonstrated before more housing is approved.
Maui County’s own records show that the Central/South water system serving Kihei and Wailea is already operating at roughly 90% to 92% of reliable potential supply, and that additional water-source development can take years. The County’s capital program also identifies major South Kihei sewer upgrades as necessary to accommodate continued growth in the South Kihei/Wailea area.
Transportation and emergency access are equally important. During the 2025 tsunami warning, some of us were stuck for hours trying to leave Wailea. South Kihei Road is also vulnerable to flooding and closures, which pushes even more traffic onto Piilani Highway. Residents, visitors, employees, emergency responders, and future residents of approved and proposed projects in Wailea and Makena all depend on the same limited north-south transportation network.
The Blue Course proposal should therefore not be evaluated in isolation. South Maui already has substantial approved, proposed, and contemplated development, including major projects in Wailea and Makena. The proper question is whether the combined effect of these projects can be supported by available water, sewer capacity, roads, drainage, and emergency evacuation infrastructure.
Before additional major residential density is approved on the Blue Course, I respectfully ask the County to require a transparent cumulative infrastructure analysis covering all approved, proposed, and reasonably foreseeable development in Wailea, Makena, and South Kihei.
This is not an argument against all housing or all future development. It is an argument for responsible sequencing: infrastructure should be shown to be adequate before irreversible additional density is authorized.
Once the Blue Course and its open space are converted to housing, that decision cannot realistically be reversed. For these reasons, I oppose redevelopment of the Blue Course for substantial housing and support the WCA compromise preserving the Blue and Gold Courses.
Thank you for considering my testimony. Amy Shuen, owner, 67 Wailea Gateway, Unit 203.
I oppose eliminating the Blue Golf Course for housing because it would permanently reduce Wailea’s open space, privacy, recreational character, and emergency capacity, and I instead support the Wailea Community Association’s compromise approach that preserves the Blue and Gold courses while allowing more limited development.
Amy Shuen
67 Wailea Gateway Place #203
I am against the development as proposed. As a compromise, I support the plan submitted by the Wailea Community Association, which represent the interest of all of at in Wailea, not just the interest of a wealthy Canadian trying to extort our community for his personal gain.
Cheryl Herrmann
59 Wailea gateway place #102
TESTIMONY ON THE DRAFT SOUTH MAUI COMMUNITY PLAN
Requested Technical Correction to Section 4.4, Action 3.06
Aloha Chair and Members of the Committee:
I respectfully request a narrow technical correction to Action 3.06. The July 2026 MPC Draft currently directs the County to “identify the locations and support the conversion of cesspools,” primarily in Māʻalaea and Maui Meadows, by 2030.
For Māʻalaea, the most relevant problematic wastewater disposal methods are injection wells. Importantly, the Plan’s directive to “identify the locations” is already complete as to the Māʻalaea injection wells identified in the attached drawings. Those drawings document the locations of injection wells at Māʻalaea condominium properties and should be incorporated by reference into the Plan’s administrative record.
REQUESTED AMENDMENT — ACTION 3.06
Replace:
“Identify the locations and support the conversion of cesspools to a regional wastewater treatment system or environmentally appropriate alternatives, primarily in Māʻalaea and Maui Meadows, by 2030.”
With:
“Identify the locations and support the conversion of injection wells in Māʻalaea and cesspools in Maui Meadows to a regional wastewater treatment system or environmentally appropriate alternatives by 2030.”
For Maui Meadows, the proposed Maui Meadows Community Facilities District provides a concrete implementation pathway for sewer collection connecting the neighborhood to the Kīhei Wastewater Reclamation Facility, together with recycled-water infrastructure supporting an R-1-irrigated greenbelt firebreak. The proposal was developed under the direction of the Kīhei Community Association, with input from Council Member Tom Cook incorporated. tinyurl.com/MMCFD-Act
The proposed CFD also provides a legal framework for grants, gifts, donations, nonprofit funding, and implementation through memoranda of agreement and other lawful instruments. The concept is intended to comprise the first section of an integrated irrigation reuse greenbelt firebreak along the length of South Maui, to help increase survivability during a future wildfire emergency in the beloved region.
Consistent with that framework, Kai Action Institute was designed to operate as a 0% overhead “financial circuit” through which private philanthropy may be routed to the County of Maui for eligible public infrastructure, subject to appropriate Council authorization and all applicable County fiscal, appropriation, procurement, ethics, tax, and other legal requirements. This structure can provide a pathway for philanthropic funding of these improvements through an appropriate Council-authorized memorandum of agreement. kaiaction.org
This correction would accurately distinguish problematic wastewater disposal methods in Māʻalaea from those in Maui Meadows, recognize that identification of the Māʻalaea injection-well locations is already complete through the attached drawings, and preserve the Plan’s existing 2030 implementation objective. I respectfully request adoption of the amendment above and incorporation of the referenced drawings into the record.
I have invested many years developing a solid plan to eliminate harmful groundwater effluent discharges in both the Māʻalaea and Maui Meadows neighborhoods and would welcome the opportunity to present on the integrated plan to an appropriate Council Committee.
Respectfully submitted,
Travis A. Liggett, MS
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
REFERENCES
1. DRAFT SOUTH MAUI COMMUNITY PLAN Section 4.4, Action 3.06.pdf — existing language addressing cesspool conversion primarily in Māʻalaea and Maui Meadows.
2. Ma'alaea injection well locations at condos - 2023.pdf — Drawings identifying injection-well locations at Māʻalaea condominium properties.
3. Maui_Meadows_CFD_WWRF-greenbelt-reuse_Maui_County_Code_Chapter_3.XX.pdf — Proposed Maui Meadows Community Facilities District provisions addressing sewer connection to the Kīhei Wastewater Reclamation Facility, recycled-water infrastructure, greenbelt/firebreak improvements, funding, and implementation mechanisms.
4. kaiaction.org — Kai Action Institute page where philanthropists can find projects ready to fund now.
5. FlushAware.com — Public wastewater information and mapping resource.
Please see attached summary information regarding North Kihei Mauka.
Chair and Members of the DRIP Committee:
After everything that has happened with Bill 9, I have one basic question:
Does Maui County actually know what it considers a transient vacation rental to be, where that use appropriately belongs, and what type of property should legitimately operate as visitor accommodation?
Because after reading the latest Planning Commission discussion, I am not sure that question was answered before Bill 9 was passed.
Bill 9 removed transient vacation rental use from Apartment zoning.
Then the Council created H-3 and H-4 Hotel Districts so affected properties could potentially continue operating as transient accommodations through subsequent land-use changes.
Now thousands of units, some Minatoya and some not, are being considered for Hotel zoning.
And the Planning Commission is asking for objective standards to determine what actually qualifies as a hotel.
That should have happened first.
Before changing the permitted use of thousands of properties, this Council and the Administration should have answered some fundamental land-use questions.
What is residential housing?
What is a hotel?
What is a timeshare?
What is a legitimate transient accommodation?
What physical and operational characteristics distinguish them?
Where should each use occur?
And what happens when a property has legally operated one way for decades even though its underlying zoning says something different?
In a functioning community, the basic framework should not be complicated.
Residential districts should primarily provide homes for residents.
Hotel and resort districts should primarily provide accommodations for visitors.
Mixed-use areas can accommodate both, but transient use should be controlled so it does not consume the residential housing supply.
Limited owner-occupied bed-and-breakfast and home-sharing uses can reasonably exist in residential communities under appropriate rules.
And legacy properties should be evaluated based on what they actually are, not simply the zoning designation placed on the property decades ago.
A traditional hotel is fairly easy to recognize. It is purpose-built for transient occupancy, generally with centralized management, guest services, common facilities and a business model based on rotating visitors.
A residential condominium is also understandable. It is principally designed for people to live in and functions as residential housing.
The difficult category is the condominium property that falls somewhere between the two.
Some Maui condominiums may have Apartment zoning but have operated overwhelmingly as visitor accommodations for decades. Others are genuinely residential properties where individual units happened to become vacation rentals.
Those are not the same thing and should not be treated the same way.
Establish objective standards.
Look at the original approvals and intended use.
Look at how the property was designed and how it has actually operated.
Determine the historical percentage of owner-occupied units, long-term rentals, transient rentals and timeshares.
Look at centralized management, front desks and visitor services.
Look at kitchens, laundry, storage and parking.
Look at maintenance fees, insurance and financing.
Look at whether the surrounding area is residential or visitor-oriented.
And most importantly, determine whether the property can realistically function as housing for Maui residents.
Having a kitchen does not automatically make a unit practical housing.
Having Apartment zoning does not automatically make a property residential.
And having historically operated as a vacation rental does not automatically make a property a hotel.
Look at the facts and classify the property according to what it actually is and what its appropriate long-term use should be.
But there is another part of this discussion that I think you are missing.
Not everybody who needs temporary accommodation on Maui is a tourist.
I have personal experience with private-pay skilled nursing care at Hale Makua costing approximately $18,000 per month.
Obviously, skilled nursing is not a vacation rental. That cost includes healthcare, staffing and services that an STVR does not provide.
But it illustrates something about living on an island.
People need different forms of accommodation for different periods of their lives.
A traveling nurse or other temporary worker may need housing for several months.
A family displaced from its home may need temporary housing.
Someone relocating to Maui may need somewhere to live while looking for permanent housing.
A family member coming to Maui because a parent is in skilled nursing may need accommodation for weeks or months.
Someone whose home is being repaired or rebuilt may need temporary housing.
Those people are not necessarily tourists.
Temporary accommodation is a legitimate community need in its own right.
Maui needs permanent resident housing.
Maui needs workforce housing.
Maui needs temporary and transitional housing.
Maui needs skilled nursing and assisted living.
And Maui needs visitor accommodations because tourism remains an important part of the economy.
These are different needs. Good land-use planning should determine how much of each Maui needs, where each belongs, and how they work together without one consuming the supply required by another.
That brings me to the larger question:
How much transient accommodation should Maui actually have, and where should it be located?
Maui has limited land, housing, water, roads and infrastructure.
Tourism is important. But Maui is also a community where people need to live, work, raise families and operate businesses.
A sustainable economy cannot allow visitor accommodations to consume the housing required by the people necessary to support the rest of the community.
But the opposite does not make sense either.
Government should not eliminate productive visitor accommodations and simply call those units “housing” when their location, configuration, carrying costs or historical operation make them poorly suited to resident housing.
The goal should not be maximum tourism.
The goal should not be maximum housing on paper.
The goal should be a sustainable balance.
Determine how much permanent resident housing Maui needs.
Determine how much temporary housing Maui needs.
Determine how much visitor accommodation Maui can sustainably support.
Determine where each belongs.
Protect genuine residential neighborhoods from excessive transient use.
Concentrate visitor accommodations primarily in areas designed and serviced for tourism.
Establish reasonable limits in mixed-use areas.
Establish objective standards for legacy properties that do not fit neatly into either category.
And connect all of it to Maui's actual infrastructure capacity—water, wastewater, roads, emergency services and the other systems required to support residents and visitors.
That is planning.
Instead, Maui property owners, buyers, sellers, residents, Realtors, lenders and businesses have been operating in the middle of unresolved government policy.
And the condominium market is under pressure.
Properties are sitting longer. Sellers are reducing prices. Buyers are negotiating substantial discounts.
I am not telling you Bill 9 caused every change in Maui's condominium market. The data does not establish that.
I am telling you that government introduced substantial uncertainty into an already difficult real-estate market before completing the fundamental land-use analysis that should have preceded the legislation.
Now the Planning Commission is asking a question that should have been answered at the beginning:
What actually makes a property a hotel?
Answer it.
Create objective standards and apply them uniformly.
Determine which properties are genuinely residential and which are legitimately visitor accommodations.
Then measure what Bill 9 is actually producing.
How many affected units became owner-occupied resident housing?
How many became long-term rentals?
How many were purchased by Maui residents?
How many remain vacant?
What happened to prices?
What happened to rents?
What happened to County revenue?
And what happened to the people who owned these properties when government changed the rules?
A unit prohibited from operating as an STVR is not automatically housing.
A vacant condominium is not a housing success.
A second home is not workforce housing.
A condominium that Maui workers cannot reasonably afford to purchase or rent has not solved the affordability problem simply because its legal use changed.
And eliminating one form of temporary accommodation without determining whether Maui needs that inventory can simply create pressure somewhere else.
Measure the actual outcome.
This analysis should have been done before Bill 9.
It wasn't.
So do it now.
Define the uses.
Establish where they belong.
Determine how much Maui can sustainably support.
Protect genuine housing.
Recognize legitimate visitor accommodations.
Recognize that temporary housing serves residents and workers too.
Measure the consequences.
And then make permanent land-use decisions based on the facts.
Stop trying to solve Maui's housing problem by changing labels on properties.
Decide what Maui actually needs, determine where those uses belong, and plan the island accordingly.
That is what should have happened before Bill 9.
It is what should happen now.
Edward Codelia
Maui Resident
I am a Keala O Wailea homeowner opposed to the proposed changes to the Blue Course. My concerns are both personal and community-wide. Keala O Wailea was designed and marketed in a setting defined by open space, low density, privacy, golf, and views across the Blue Course toward the ocean. Replacing that open space with housing would permanently change the character of our community and could affect privacy, views, recreation, and property values.
I am also concerned about whether South Maui’s infrastructure can safely absorb additional density. As someone with a background in engineering and experience in development economics projects, I believe cumulative infrastructure capacity should be demonstrated before more housing is approved.
Maui County’s own records show that the Central/South water system serving Kihei and Wailea is already operating at roughly 90% to 92% of reliable potential supply, and that additional water-source development can take years. The County’s capital program also identifies major South Kihei sewer upgrades as necessary to accommodate continued growth in the South Kihei/Wailea area.
Transportation and emergency access are equally important. During the 2025 tsunami warning, some of us were stuck for hours trying to leave Wailea. South Kihei Road is also vulnerable to flooding and closures, which pushes even more traffic onto Piilani Highway. Residents, visitors, employees, emergency responders, and future residents of approved and proposed projects in Wailea and Makena all depend on the same limited north-south transportation network.
The Blue Course proposal should therefore not be evaluated in isolation. South Maui already has substantial approved, proposed, and contemplated development, including major projects in Wailea and Makena. The proper question is whether the combined effect of these projects can be supported by available water, sewer capacity, roads, drainage, and emergency evacuation infrastructure.
Before additional major residential density is approved on the Blue Course, I respectfully ask the County to require a transparent cumulative infrastructure analysis covering all approved, proposed, and reasonably foreseeable development in Wailea, Makena, and South Kihei.
This is not an argument against all housing or all future development. It is an argument for responsible sequencing: infrastructure should be shown to be adequate before irreversible additional density is authorized.
Once the Blue Course and its open space are converted to housing, that decision cannot realistically be reversed. For these reasons, I oppose redevelopment of the Blue Course for substantial housing and support the WCA compromise preserving the Blue and Gold Courses.
Thank you for considering my testimony. Amy Shuen, owner, 67 Wailea Gateway, Unit 203.
I oppose eliminating the Blue Golf Course for housing because it would permanently reduce Wailea’s open space, privacy, recreational character, and emergency capacity, and I instead support the Wailea Community Association’s compromise approach that preserves the Blue and Gold courses while allowing more limited development.
Amy Shuen
67 Wailea Gateway Place #203
I am against the development as proposed. As a compromise, I support the plan submitted by the Wailea Community Association, which represent the interest of all of at in Wailea, not just the interest of a wealthy Canadian trying to extort our community for his personal gain.
Cheryl Herrmann
59 Wailea gateway place #102