ACTION ALERT! NOVEMBER 18 - MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
Provide Testimony:
SIGN THE PETITION:
SHOW UP ON NOVEMBER 18, 9am at the Kalana Pakui Building Planning Conference Room (250 South High Street, Wailuku)
Testify Remotely: http://tinyurl.com/HLU-Committee
EMAIL TESTIMONY TO: HLU.committee@mauicounty.us
Once again, Councilmember Uʻu-Hodgins is fast tracking the 40-acre EC Pāʻia Town Development slated for former sugar cane lands. Her goal is to pass the development through the Housing and Land Use Committee on November 18 and then through a single reading in front of the County Council before the new, progressive majority council is seating in January.
SHOW UP at the Housing and Land Use Committee Meeting on November 18 at 9am and ask the Committee to DENY or DEFER any decision making on the Pāʻia development until additional environmental, community impact, and public safety impact studies are completed.
We need housing, but we need housing that truly benefits Maui residents. Key talking points:
👉 Require at least 50% of the single-family housing to be designated for 80%-120% AMI and include both deed restrictions and owner-occupancy requirements
👉 Reduce commercially zoned areas and increase housing for locals
👉 Require Environmental Impact Assessment prior to any decisions by the Council. The proposed potable water pump system is located in the Special Management Area and in the tsunami evacuation zone. In addition, the Pāʻia and Kahului freshwater aquifers are already operating over capacity. Environmental concerns should not be pushed off for future consideration.
👉 On-site Wastewater facilities will be located directly upstream of Baldwin Beach Park and Pāʻia Bay, with potentially significant environmental impacts to these marine and coastal areas. Environmental Assessments should proceed any further approvals given the potential impacts to sensitive habitats.
👉 EC Pāʻia Traffic studies are inadequate and completed during the middle of the summer when traffic along Mauiʻs north shore is significantly lower than during winter months. The study was also completed during summer break when school was not in session.
👉 Require a public meeting where community members can share their concerns directly with Councilmembers at a time and in a location that is convenient for community members.
👉 Require EC Pāʻia to conduct a Social Impact Assessment that incorporates and addresses community concerns.
👉 Public Safety and evacuation routes, including an actual Pāʻia Bypass, need to be discussed and formalized before more homes, residents, and commercial facilities are integrated into Pāʻia town.
👉 Increase public serving facilities such as a North Shore library, community pool, parks/playgrounds, outdoor spaces, community gardens, etc.
There is a real opportunity for development to benefit the existing Pāʻia community, but benefits donʻt always come in the form the more concrete buildings or fast tracked processes that hide under the guise of affordable housing.
Make your voice heard. We need people to show up on November 18 in person! You can also email testimony to HLU.committee@mauicounty.us.
Planning Department Flags Critical Lack of Environmental Review and Community Input for A Project This Size
Residents are questioning why Maui County is advancing major land-use changes for the privately proposed development before critical questions about water, wastewater, traffic, emergency evacuation and environmental impacts have been adequately addressed.
The project is being advanced through an unusual Council-initiated community plan amendment and change in zoning process, introduced by Councilmember Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins. This approach allows the County to move forward with land-use changes ahead of the project's full environmental review, effectively fast-tracking key entitlements while leaving significant questions about the project's impacts unanswered.
These issues were highlighted by the Planning Department, who noted in their recommendation to defer changes in zoning "...it is the Department's position that bypassing the normal application and environmental review procedures/analysis expected of a private development project of significant magnitude will result in a significant reduction in the level of impact analysis normally performed by the Department, Planning Commission and Council, result in relatively little community input, and may result in potential impacts to the community. For these reasons, the Department recommends that projects of significant size require that the private property owner initiate such amendments and be required to submit the necessary application materials and environmental analysis as required per MCC and HRS as opposed to a Council initiated amendment that does not require the submittal of such materials and analysis."
Planning Director Jacky Takakura also noted that since the project was being considered as a Council-initiated project, “the review requirements are different for projects proposed by the Council versus projects proposed by applicants… There are less requirements.”
Planning Commissioners Recommended Denial of the Change in Zoning Due to Major Environmental & Traffic Concerns
In September, Maui Planning Commissioners Mark Deakos and Crichton Lind recommended to deny the change in zoning, also citing concerns about the lack of information received from EC Pāʻia related to potable water, waste water, traffic impacts, lack of environmental assessment, and the use of the council initiated process. Commissioner Deakos noted that the significant amount of traffic infrastructure, potable water, waste water systems, and more seemed like substantial impacts for only 34 workforce rental units. Commissioners Deakos, Lind and Kealoha all cast dissenting votes to approve the Change in Zoning.
At the Planning Commission hearing, Hanna Lilley of the environmental group Surfrider Foundation noted that the Council Initiated Process “essentially [puts] the cart before the horse. We’re concerned about dangerously normalizing a process where a Council initiation can be used to push forward private development without important safeguards of environmental review, and that matters because there’s a lot of unanswered environmental questions.”
Albert Perez, executive director of Maui Tomorrow Foundation, also raised concerns about rainwater runoff from the project, and shared concerns about the usual project review being followed.
“It bypasses the true public engagement that is called for in the Countywide Policy Plan,” he said. “When this project originally came before the Council in May, it was clear that the developer had worked behind the scenes to gather support,” Perez said. “But this project was a big surprise to the larger Pāʻia community. That is not promoting and ensuring public participation.”
Major Concerns That Have Yet to Be Adequately Addressed:
Potable Water: The development is projected to require approximately 75,738 gallons of drinking water daily. Developers propose private wells, raising questions about the sustainability of drawing additional water from the Pāʻia aquifer and the long-term reliability of the proposed supply. The proposed water pump system is from former sugar cane operations and is located in both the Special Management Area and tsunami evacuation zone. Commission on Water Resource Managementʻs Deputy Director Ciara Kahahane provided updated pumping figures showing the situation has gotten worse, not better since November 2025 report.
For the 12-month moving average through May 31, 2026, the daily water draw was 15.175 million gallons a day (mgd) for the Pāʻia aquifer—about 217% of its 7 mgd sustainable yield—and 7.760 mgd for the Kahului aquifer, about 776% of its 1 mgd sustainable yield. Both figures are higher than the ones the water commission provided to Maui Now in November last year.
Wastewater Disposal: Questions remain about the capacity, feasibility and environmental consequences of the proposed wastewater treatment solutions, including a private treatment facility. The facility would be located directly mauka and upstream of Baldwin Beach Park and Paia Bay, with potential ocean and aquifer impacts.
Traffic and Congestion: An additional 170 households and commercial activity will place further demands on Hāna Highway, Baldwin Avenue and already congested intersections. Residents question whether proposed road improvements, including a new traffic light across from Paia Bay, will adequately address existing and future traffic.
Public Safety and Emergency Evacuation: Pāʻia has limited routes in and out of town. The development raises serious concerns about evacuating hundreds of additional residents during wildfires, tsunamis and other emergencies. The project's location includes areas within the tsunami evacuation zone. Residents question adding 500-800 more residents without a clear plan for a Paia Bypass above Lower Paia.
Environmental Protection: Portions of the project are within the Special Management Area. Residents are concerned that major land-use decisions are advancing without a completed Environmental Impact Statement evaluating cumulative impacts to coastal resources, water, drainage, cultural resources and surrounding neighborhoods.
Parks and Public Open Space: Despite its scale, the proposal does not provide adequately defined and guaranteed playgrounds, parks or meaningful public open spaces for the families and children who would live there.
Pāʻia Needs Housing that Actually Benefits Pāʻia
Community members emphasize that Maui desperately needs housing, but housing proposals must be evaluated in the context of infrastructure, environmental protections and the needs of existing residents. In addition, supporting housing doesn’t require supporting every development simply because the word “housing” is attached to it. Rather, County leaders should support housing Maui actually needs, rather than allowing the housing crisis to become justification for rushing major land-use decisions.
Currently, the EC Pāʻia project is NOT an affordable housing project. It will provide only 34 workforce rental units and 26 "gap" houses for high income earners. The remaining single-family houses will be sold at market rate (1.2-1.6 million). Residents are calling for less commercial zoning and an increase in the number of both affordable units and gap units, particularly for the 80%-120% AMI.
Residents are calling on the Maui County Council to halt further land-use approvals until comprehensive environmental review, infrastructure assessments, social impacts/community needs assessments, and emergency evacuation planning are completed and made available for meaningful public scrutiny. ʻ
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