Wailea 670 (Honua`ula)

WAILEA 670 - Preliminary INJUNCTION GRANTED by Judge Cardoza

Attorney Lance Collins represented five individuals who questioned whether the County Council acted properly in holding a long succession of recessed meetings, -- allowing the developer to make comments and participate, but NOT allowing the general public to testify again.

Wednesday morning, April 23, Judge Cardoza agreed and issued a preliminary injunction halting further action on Wailea 670.

 

Read the Final Conditions Approved for Wailea 670 (aka Houa'ula)

 

See Reality Check to dispell the misinformation.

Wailea 670, Honua'ula, is a proposed development of 1400 units, a golf course, shopping center and sewage treatment plant which would sprawl from Maui Meadows to Makena. The Maui County Council is expected to hold a public hearing and vote on this project sometime in June, 2007. Please take action now.

Sign the Petition

Latest News: Wailea 670/Houa'ula wells inadequate - cannot supply enough water

 

Read Chandrika McLaughlin's letter to the Wailea 670 developer to see the real truth behind their claims.

Affordable Housing? Only if you can afford $2,000 to $4,500 per month housing payment. Read the analysis by a local real estate agent.

Iao Aquifer: Already maxed out. Summary by James Williamson: BCE, FASCE, PE(ret). Read more from the USGS . And a summary on water here.

Now Wailea 670 proposes to get water from the Kamaole aquifer. Wayne Bachman, geologist, investigates this claim and suggests that further study is required. Read pdf report.

What's in a Name? by Ed Lindsay, President Hawaiian Cultural Lands

1988 Wailea 670 EIS (Out of date with glaring errors)

More than 200 people gathered at Kihei Community Center on the evening of May 14 to hear the possible impacts of continued South Maui development. Read more...

Study of rare native forest habitat within Wailea 670 (updated version 2)
(Slated for 95% development)

Scarce Water

Photos of Archeological sites on Wailea 670. View photo of part of Heiau complex of several dozen sites, first recorded 35 years ago Makena Resort lands. It is preserved as a neglected site in the golf course rough.

The State Historic Commission recommended the highest allowable fine for Wailea 670's contract archaeologist. Aki Sinoto has also done archaeological review for Makena Resort. Read all about it in this Honolulu Advertiser article. Read more.

Economists seem to live on a different planet.
Their model is like that of cancer cells; that the economy must grow forever.
But we've used up what should be the rightful legacy of our children and grandchildren.
David Suzuki, scientist and environmentalist

Since 1980, big money investors have dreamed of developing 670 acres of South Maui scrub pasture into a luxury golf resort community. Originally, two golf courses were conceived in the project area. That changed in 2000, when WCPT/GW Land Associates purchased the property. They proposed a gated community holding 600 single-family and 800 multi-family housing units.

Hiring former county Public Works Director Charlie Jencks, they began addressing traffic, water, sewage and other concerns to bring their Project District plans forward to the Planning Commission and County Council for approval. And in a public relations move, they changed the project name from the dry though technically correct Wailea 670 to "Honua`ula," the old Hawaiian name for the South Maui land stretching to Makena and all the way to Kaho`olawe.

Of course, the adoption of the traditional name did not make the owners any more local. In fact, the investors in WCPT/GW Land Associates LLC, registered in California, are among the biggest fish in the global investment pond. Lehman Brothers ranked 62nd on the Fortune 500 list in 2006, with assets topping $503 billion. Cargill Group is part of the world's largest privately owned corporation, and as such is not required to file Security and Exchange Commission reports on income profit, or executive salaries. The third largest worldwide agricultural conglomerate, Cargill brought in revenues of $66 billion last year.

It's easy to see Wailea 670 as just another Monopoly board piece in a familiar community debate over losing open space, cultural sites and quality of life while over-stressing our infrastructure. But contractors, realtors, landowners and investors seem ever willing to support even the largest projects. And as they do, high-end luxury developments have widened the chasm between the haves and the have-not's, adding elements of stress to our island's social fabric.

The Maui News reported that the Maui County Council, which deferred the zoning request until early summer, focused their discussion on two topics: a private water system and potentially needed highway improvements. But the paper missed reporting on testimony on native plant habitat, community needs versus developer wishes and specifics of affordable housing promises. They also failed to note a vintage performance by Council member Michelle Anderson, who took issue with the Planning Department's failure to require a complete zoning application or to assess cumulative impacts of all South Maui planned developments.

Given how most of our elected leaders like to follow the status quo, South Maui Council member Anderson is an exception. At the Mar. 14 Council meeting, she highlighted zoning application requirements that were inadequate, or missing altogether: no Department of Transportation comments on the traffic analysis; no baseline study or preservation plan for environmentally sensitive areas; no state-mandated provision for access trails for native gathering rights; no details of water delivery plan; no cumulative impact analysis of all South Maui developments, especially on over-stressed beach parks.

She noted that Alan Arakawa, during his tenure as Council Land Use Committee Chair, declared he would not accept incomplete applications. Things got better for about six months, she said, and then the Planning Department reverted to their old ways.

Deputy Planning Director Colleen Suyama retorted that they rely on other agencies to provide comments on impacts. It's easy to pass the buck, Anderson shot back, if you don't have enough info in the application to provide worthwhile comments in the first place.

Committee Chair Mike Molina attempted to hold the debate in check, but Anderson held her ground. "I won't belabor the issue, Mr. Chair, I just want to make a point," she said. Jencks, sitting three rows behind Anderson in the Council gallery, snickered and feigned histrionics to the supporters and consultants sitting with him.

Anderson noted that there is just one road in and one road out of the area. The only consideration for an emergency evacuation plan would be to, as she put it, "put on your tennis shoes and run." With no current plan for a reliever two-lane road, planning for an alternate road should be happening right now. But no mauka road corridors were included in project maps.

"We should have maps showing surrounding properties," Anderson said. "Good grief!"

Council member JoAnne Johnson chimed in where Anderson left off. She noted that five more traffic signals would be required on the Pi`ilani Highway. She couldn't fathom how that would work since there seems to be a disconnect between the specific project and the Big Picture.

Relegated to the back burner of the Wailea 670 discussion was a recent study by University of Hawai`i Professor Lee Altenberg of a remnant native dry land forest community, located on an a`a lava flow at the property's south end. The habitat is one of only three sites on Maui where Rock's nehe, Lipochaeta rockii, survives, and one of only five sites on Maui where you can find candidate endangered species awikiwiki, Canavalia pubescens. There are also wiliwili trees 40 feet tall and likely hundreds of years old on the property.

Wailea 670 hopes to construct a portion of their golf course in this area, with a wastewater treatment facility at the southeast corner. Testifier Kehau Filimoeatu said that Hawaiians are not content to have their culture put in a museum or preserve. They need real, living places where they can practice the culture, she said.

Suzuki, who works with Canadian indigenous people, or "First People," said that elders are a repository of knowledge that we desperately need now. It remains to be seen whether that urgency will be recognized by those wanting to cash in on Maui with luxury developments, or by the elected officials entrusted with planning our island's future.