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WAILUKU – The Maui Planning Commission deferred action Tuesday on a proposed mixed-use campground facility in Lahaina for commercial and homeless campers, suggesting that the developer confer with neighbors who oppose the project.
More than 40 people testified during a commission meeting Tuesday that drew about 100 people and had to be moved from the Planning Department’s conference room to Maui County Council chambers. While many West Maui residents spoke against moving the Kauaula Campgrounds project forward, several supporters, including former homeless residents, testified about the universal need for a safe place to sleep.
“I’m trying to better myself. I used to be a heavy alcoholic, and now I don’t drink at all,” said Joseph Rizzo, adding he was homeless on Maui just a couple years ago. Now, he stays at a shelter. “My problem then was I didn’t have nowhere to go to stay out of the rain, and it nearly killed me.”
If approved, the project would provide eight camp “pods,” or sites with space for a tent and picnic table, on about 2 acres of private land along Hokiokio Place adjacent to the Lahaina bypass. Additionally, the nonprofit would install showers, laundry facilities, bathrooms, landscaping, an electronic charging station and a farm on which individuals may work to earn their keep.
The pods would be available to both commercial campers and transients for a nominal fee (estimated $10 per person per night). All transient applicants who apply for a camp pod would be screened and interviewed by the camp manager, who would live on-site and be available around the clock, according to nonprofit Ho’omoana Foundation, which has proposed the project.
If the campground becomes established, the foundation would consider adding eight additional pods per year, with a maximum of 26 pods or 80 campers on an 8-acre portion of a 22-acre lot owned by Kauaula Land, a subsidiary of West Maui Land Co.
Foundation Executive Director Lisa Darcy said homeless individuals would be allowed to stay for two to four months. She said she sees the project more as an interim measure to help individuals in transition get back on their feet or wait for a space to open up at the shelter.
Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center operates the only homeless shelter in West Maui, and the Lahaina facility has a waiting list of 150 people, including more than 60 children, according to Erin Lowenthal, the center’s chief executive officer.
“All too often, I’m faced with the heart-wrenching task of turning away families in need of shelters, knowing they will sleep on the beach or in a car . . . I think we can do better,” Lowenthal said. She supports Ho’omoana’s project as a partnership to assist those families who are waiting for a spot to open up at the shelter.
But commissioners cited concerns over safety, traffic and neighbors’ concerns that still need to be vetted. They unanimously voted to defer approval of the measure for at least 60 days to give three commissioners who were absent Tuesday a chance to review minutes from the meeting and to give the Ho’omoana Foundation a chance to ease some of the concerns raised by neighbors.
“My feeling is that there’s too many things that I don’t think were done correctly,” commissioner Keaka Robinson said. “I think the need is there, the compassion is there, we all want to make this happen, but there’s still the safety issue, the support of the surrounding neighbors . . . I feel the applicant didn’t speak with the community enough and get info from outside of their circle and more ideas of what other people think.”
Commissioner Larry Hudson agreed, adding that the foundation “notified neighbors, (but) I do not believe the neighbors had ample opportunities to respond.”
“In my neighborhood, if someone is going to have a party, they let everybody know. That’s called being a good neighbor,” Hudson said.
The Ho’omoana Foundation did host a community meeting earlier this month that drew about 40 residents, Darcy said. Still, several neighborhood associations, including Puamana, Pu’unoa, Shark Pit and others, submitted testimony against the project. An online petition seeking to delay approval of the camp had garnered more than 760 signatures by Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t think this campground at such a busy intersection as you enter Lahaina is really what we want on the welcome wagon. It is literally by the city limits,” said Lahaina resident Cheryl Henderson. “Mixing commercial (users) and the homeless seems silly.”
Others suggested the location is in an extremely hot area and situated far from Lahaina town where homeless individuals could seek jobs or access resources to get help. Increasing traffic to the area would only exacerbate backups on Honoapiilani Highway already being caused by the traffic light at Launiupoko.
Still, all commissioners acknowledged the need for creative solutions to address the island’s growing homeless population. A 2015 Statewide Point in Time count estimated Maui County has more than 1,137 people who are homeless.
“You see it on the street, on the roads, on the highways. This (project) isn’t going to resolve everything, not everything works and this might not work, but we’re hoping it does,” said commissioner Ivan Lay. “If we can educate these people and get them back into society, it’s a good thing. If we leave them, it’s just going to get worse. As it is now, nothing’s happening, and we have more and more homeless people coming. We have to do something.”
Commissioners John Keone Ball, Sandra Duvauchelle and Jason Medeiros were absent and excused Tuesday.
* Eileen Chao can be reached at echao@mauinews.com.