Trending
The Spencer family, who abandoned its 113 unit/lot Maalaea affordable housing development in 2016 because of opposition from community groups and an adverse court ruling, is now planning a 21-lot agricultural subdivision on the 257-acre parcel in the foothills of the West Maui Mountains.
The development will the family's last hurrah on Maui, family member Doug Spencer said Friday.
MVI LLC, the Spencer family development company, is seeking to down-zone to agriculture the parcel on the mauka side of Honoapiilani Highway, between Maalaea and the Kuihelani Highway junction.
Public hearings to change the community plan land-use designation and zoning will be held at 9 a.m. Sept. 11 before the Maui Planning Commission. The hearing will be held in the Planning Conference Room at the Kalana Pakui building in Wailuku.
Doug Spencer said critics of the family's plans to build the 113 unit/lot fast-track affordable housing development wanted the family instead to pursue an agricultural subdivision.
The 113-unit design, a reduction from original plans calling for 1,100 units, was an attempt to appease opponents concerned about water, traffic and density issues.
The strongest opposition to the development came from Maui Tomorrow Foundation and the Ma'alaea Community Association, who filed a lawsuit in December 2015 challenging the project's environmental assessment. They said the report contained erroneous statements and lacked legally required information.
In February 2016, a 2nd Circuit judge imposed a preliminary injunction on work on the Spencers' Ma'alaea Plantation housing subdivision. The Spencers announced after the ruling that the family would commission an environmental impact statement as requested by project opponents.
But in March 2016, the family announced it would abandon the affordable housing development, following the death of its patriarch, Jesse Spencer, earlier that year. The family said it couldn't risk or afford spending another $1 million to go through the environmental impact statement and the fast-track housing process for a third time.
As the project was being withdrawn in 2016, the family blamed the project's demise on its foes, but the years have calmed the tone. Doug Spencer is at peace with the end result, and there is no ill will, he said Friday.
"It's fine. We gave it our best shot," he said.
Doug Spencer said he has no regrets but is disappointed he couldn't get project approval before his father died. His father's vision was to build a school and to have some businesses in the area to make it a walkable community, which was much talked about on the island.
Project critic Maui Tomorrow remained opposed to construction in the area. Executive Director Albert Perez was not keen on the smaller subdivision concept.
"It's a very fire prone area, it's not a really good place to be living," he said, citing a fast-moving fire in the area in the summer of 2016. "If it were me, I wouldn't build anything there."
Doug Spencer, who now lives in Virginia with his immediate family, said the 21-lot agricultural subdivision is the final project for the family business on Maui. The majority of his family still resides on the Valley Isle.
"We had a good run all these years. Time to call it aloha and move on," he said.
Unlike some of its past projects, such as Waikapu Gardens, the family will not be seeking to build any homes, Doug Spencer said. It will just sell the lots.
The family has built 1,100 affordable homes on Maui. The Spencers initially started building homes in Hawaii in 1964 on Oahu, then moved to Maui in 1987 in Kihei.
Doug Spencer said the family did not take money from the government and sold homes at prices below what they could have under affordable housing guidelines.
September's public hearing involves MVI LLC seeking to change the community plan land-use designation from project district to agriculture.
It also involves changing county zoning from open space, road street reserve, and R-3 to agriculture, according to legal notices on the public hearing.
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.