Council opposes
Lahaina housing tractConcerns about traffic prompt
a resolution against the 254-lot,
state-backed project
WAILUKU >> The state's attempt to put a private housing development on a fast track in West Maui has been derailed by the Maui County Council.
Siding with recommendations from Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa, Council members passed a resolution opposing the Pu'unoa Village development with its proposed 254 lots and homes on former sugar cane land mauka of Honoapiilani Highway and the entrance to Lahaina.
Developer Kent Smith said 152 of the homes would have sold fee simple for between $125,000 and $307,000, and the remaining 102 homes would have been sold at market prices.
"The working-class people would finally get a chance where only the rich buggas live," he said.
Arakawa and some Council members said a major worry was the impact of additional traffic on the two-lane Honoapiilani Highway at the entrance of Lahaina.
David DeLeon, Arakawa's senior executive assistant, said the administration was also worried about the developer's plan to build private water and waste-water systems and the possibility that the county would eventually have to assume responsibility for them.
DeLeon said the proposed subdivision also had only 35 units that were going to be priced in the "affordable range" for families of four people earning an annual household income of $50,000 or less.
"It's not a matter of being anti-affordable housing," DeLeon said. "This project just didn't cut it."
Smith, whose project was voted down by the Council Tuesday, said traffic has been a problem in Lahaina for the past 30 years.
"Traffic is really not going to be significantly different," he said. "You have to make a decision whether housing for the working people is more important than traffic."
Smith said he does not know if he will resubmit the project.
"There's a limit to what I'm willing to do," he said.
The state Housing and Community Development Corp. had granted Smith fast-track approval, giving the Council 45 days, ended yesterday, to approve or reject the subdivision.
