WAILUKU - Maui Planning Commission members recommended Tuesday returning a major development at Olowalu to the Maui Island Plan and restoring the Pulelehua housing project in West Maui to its full size.
The commission concluded its review of growth areas in the Maui Island Plan's maps. The panel's plan would provide for 3,024 acres of new growth over the next 20 years, generating an estimated 14,963 new homes. That's 34 percent more than population forecasts predict demand for new housing will be in 2030 - the largest surplus that has existed during the General Plan update process.
The commission is expected to make a formal vote to finalize the plan maps sometime in its next three meetings. The panel's version of the plan will advance to the Maui County Council.
The Maui Island Plan has been in the works for several years. It outlines the island's growth through the year 2030. In addition to written recommendations for how growth and infrastructure projects should proceed, it includes maps drawn with "urban-growth areas" showing where dense development can occur. The boundaries are meant to make it easier for developers to build in designated areas and sharply restrict their ability to build outside them.
As it has throughout the planning process, proposed development at Olowalu attracted some of the most controversy Tuesday.
The General Plan Advisory Committee had supported including the project in the plan, while the county Planning Department opposed it.
The Planning Commission voted 5-2 to recommend approval of the Olowalu development, which as proposed would build 1,500 homes on 290 acres to create a "new town" above Honoapiilani Highway in West Maui.
Critics said they continued to be deeply concerned about the project's impact on traffic, its distance from jobs and infrastructure, and the potential for runoff and wastewater injection wells to degrade some of the healthiest reefs remaining in West Maui.
"We are the guardians of the reef," said Commissioner Jonathan Starr, who voted against the project. "If we allow something to occur that will destroy this resource, let it be upon us forever."
Commissioner Ward Mardfin also voted against including the project.
But Commissioner Kent Hiranaga, who led the effort to put the development back into the planned growth areas, said he was moved by the testimony of Olowalu residents who testified they wanted jobs and homes for their families in the area.
Hiranaga said he was willing to take a "leap of faith" in developers Olowalu Town LLC that they would build the project in the environmentally responsible way they promised.
"We need to find a balance between preserving nature and taking care of people," Hiranaga said.
Other key provisions in the planning maps endorsed by the commission include:
* Pulelehua. The General Plan Advisory Committee had proposed reducing the size of Maui Land & Pineapple Co.'s worker housing project to 116 acres, to create a larger buffer with Kapalua Airport. But the planning commission recommended restoring the project to the 279 acres originally proposed by ML&P.
* West Maui buffer. The commission voted to designate a 400-foot swath as a green-space buffer along the shoreline from the edge of Lahaina to near Olowalu. The designation is meant to support plans for a "Pali to Puamana Parkway" that would provide open space and recreation in West Maui.
* Wailuku Country Estates. The commission voted to remove "rural" boundaries from Wailuku Country Estates, leaving the area designated "agriculture." A dense cluster of homes within the subdivision would receive "rural service center" designation. That designation would allow for rural-density growth and some small commercial development.
* Central Maui Baseyard. The industrial baseyard in Puunene would get an additional 108 acres within urban-growth boundaries to allow for a proposed expansion.
But the commission was unable to reach a consensus on plans for Makena Resort. Some commissioners proposed to take the project out of urban-growth areas, while others said it would be unfair to change the development's designation after it had already received full approvals to move forward.
The panel expected to pass out the Maui Island Plan without making any recommendation on the issue.
"My feeling is we're deadlocked, and we'll continue to be deadlocked," Starr said.
* Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.
