Heartfelt celebrations are happening in Napili now, as Maui County announced that a stop-work order has been issued to halt the Greg Brown tower that shamelessly pilfers Napili’s skyline.

To many in the Napili community, the ongoing Brown development has been a source of anger and pain, as well as unending frustration at the hesitant and grinding process of Maui County to stop and remedy it.

Finally, for a moment, we can exhale.

But this stop-work order is just the start of Maui County rectifying the terrible wrong being perpetrated by the Brown construction here. The residents of Napili will not be satisfied until the deconstruction of this towering building is ordered and completed.

The tower is for a hotel — despite being granted a permit for a single-family home — and it violates law and regulation in fundamental and unfixable ways.

Its height is nearly double the limit as required by county ordinance. The square feet far exceed the limits, and the surrounding wall is guilty of multiple violations.

It makes a mockery of the administrative process that all honest developers are subject to. It throws doubt on our own sense that we govern ourselves.

That the county finally acted to halt the construction is a credit to the activists who have made their case tirelessly to Maui’s public officials, and some credit certainly to Maui County itself for siding with truth despite relentless bullying, obfuscation and dissembling from the offending offender.

Josh Downer

Napili