Maui County · issues
Civic issues
Topics getting the most attention in Maui County public meetings, ranked by how frequently they come up.
South Maui Community Plan update (Bill 108)
The 20-year plan replacing the 1996 Kihei-Makena plan would guide where and how South Maui grows — housing, transportation, watershed management, and cultural site protection. Residents fear it locks in growth the roads, water system, and evacuation routes can't support.
H-3/H-4 Hotel District Zoning Referral
The committee is deciding which A-1/A-2 apartment-zoned condo properties can be rezoned to Hotel so their short-term rental uses continue after Bill 9 phases out TVRs in apartment districts. Each unit kept in TVR use is a unit not returned to the long-term housing stock.
Short-term rental zoning in the Sea Level Rise Exposure Area
Several testifiers warned that many affected buildings are oceanfront, in sea-level-rise impact zones and flood zones, with high insurance costs. One urged a sunset provision reverting vulnerable shoreline parcels to open space when erosion thresholds are hit.
Hotel rezoning of apartment-district TVR properties (Bill 9 exemptions)
Two resolutions would refer bills to the Planning Commission to let apartment-zoned short-term rental properties switch to hotel zoning and keep operating as visitor accommodations instead of returning to long-term housing. Most testifiers called this an unraveling of Bill 9 during a housing crisis; owners of flood- and erosion-exposed buildings pushed to be exempted. The committee adopted criteria 5-4 and put off any decision to September 9.
Rezoning 10 Walaka Street and Makai Sunset Inn (Res. 26-130)
The County is deciding which shoreline and near-shore condo properties get rezoned to Hotel districts so they can keep operating as short-term rentals instead of phasing into long-term housing under Bill 9. It's a tug-of-war between preserving tourism revenue and jobs versus adding units to the local housing supply.