WAILUKU - It'll be at least another year before landowner Alexander & Baldwin turns over a 50-acre plot in Kahului to Maui County officials for affordable housing, a community center and park.
The land donation was a requirement imposed on Alexander & Baldwin in 2008 when the county granted zoning for the company's Maui Business Park Phase II project, which occupies 179 acres on both sides of Hana Highway.
The undeveloped 50-acre parcel - located away from the business park - is within A&B's proposed Wai'ale master-planned residential community, near the terminus of Kamehameha Avenue and adjacent to Pomaikai Elementary School.
While construction of the business park started in January - and initial lot sales expected to close by the end of the year - a timeline for providing the affordable housing lands is unclear, according to an update A&B Properties provided Monday to the council's Planning Committee.
County Council Chairman Danny Mateo questioned the delay.
"It just seems like, you know, the wait gets longer and longer," Mateo said.
A&B Properties Vice President Grant Chun told the committee that the company has been tied up in the state and county entitlement process for the land. The 50 acres is to include 40 acres for housing, 7 acres for a community multipurpose center, and 3 acres for parks.
Chun said A&B Properties has been working with the county's Department of Housing and Human Concerns, which, he said, wants the land to be properly entitled before having it turned over.
"Getting the property entitled with its proper land use designations takes time," Chun said. "We'd been in the queue for a while with the Land Use Commission. We're happy that process got done."
In June, the state Land Use Commission granted A&B Properties' application to reclassify the land as urban.
The property also has been included within the urban growth boundaries in the county's updated General Plan that is being finalized. Chun said a burial treatment plan for the property has been accepted by the state Historic Preservation Division.
The next step, he said, is to apply for zoning from the county. He said A&B Properties has hired Wailuku-based Munekiyo & Hiraga to help with the zoning application.
"We would anticipate that the application will be ready for submission . . . and hopefully a follow-up review by the Maui Planning Commission starting the second quarter of next year, so by the middle of next year," Chun said. "With the submission of the application to the county, our hope is that we'll be able to provide that property to the county as soon as it gets zoned."
* Nanea Kalani can be reached at nkalani@mauinews.com.
