Please listen to most citizens, especially in Kihei, in our efforts to stop the travesty of two mega-malls right in the heart of paradise.
The major thorn seems to be the zoning of this 68-acre parcel. If a developer can morph a light industrial into a commercial retail zoning, then let's just make things simple and do away with any zoning restrictions. This is an insult to the people's intelligence.
A local traffic engineer has reviewed the traffic pattern for this project, which has a rating system from A to F. This project, as a whole, is rated F, which means the existing roads leading to and from this complex will be gridlocked. It seems there is no frontage road or collector road planned for this 700,000-square-foot monster, so we will truly become "Waikikihei."
Sure, these malls will generate retail jobs, mostly at $8 or $9 per hour, with most of the money taken in going back to the Mainland, while our small business owners get phased out. Great for the California developer and disastrous for Maui small business.
Mary Starr Little
Kihei
