Commission to mull final OK for Kihei housing plan

MAKENA — The state Land Use Commission is scheduled to consider acceptance of a final environmental impact statement Thursday for a 94.35-acre residential project proposed by A&B Properties in north Kihei.

The A&B Kihei residential project is proposed for a parcel along the Waiakoa Gulch and abutting the Hale Piilani subdivision. It is classified state agricultural and is designated agricultural in the Kihei-Makena Community Plan.

A draft EIS for the project, which will require county zoning and community plan amendments, was submitted in September 2007. It is on file with the Office of Environmental Quality Control at hawaii.gov/health/environmental/oeqc/index.html. There are no EIS documents on file on the Land Use Commission site.

The Land Use Commission is scheduled to meet at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Maui Prince Hotel.

According to the A&B Properties petition and draft EIS, the Kihei residential project would provide 600 residential units, as well as a park and a neighborhood business site. The project would be subject to the Maui County Residential Work Force Housing Policy, requiring at least 40 percent of the units to be affordably priced based on federal income standards.

The draft EIS said there are no known cultural sites on the former sugar cane land and no endangered or threatened native species of plants, insects, mammals or birds.

Access to the development would be from the Piilani Highway on a new roadway connection and from Kaiwahine Street and other roadways through Hale Piilani. A traffic study said the Piilani Highway and Mokulele Highway — which is being widened to four lanes in the vicinity of the proposed project — will be overcapacity by 2016 even if the Kihei residential project is not built. It said major traffic improvements will be required, including development of a Kihei-Upcountry highway and modifications of the Kihei Road-Piilani Highway connections.

The draft EIS projected average water use at 530,000 gallons a day. A&B Properties is exploring surface water sources and new groundwater sources in Central Maui, the environmental study said.

The draft EIS said the land is classified E77, or poor quality for agriculture, but 38 acres are in use by the Monsanto seed corn operation and a truck farmer is leasing 12 acres for farming. The draft said A&B will assist the lessees in locating alternative sites for farming.