The Planning Commission can be contacted at:
Phone: (808) 270-7735
Fax: (808) 270-7634
planning@mauicounty.gov
The proposed Maui Medical Plaza at Kanaha was awarded a Special Management Area (SMA) permit in August of 2011 at a time when the property was more than two years delinquent on its property taxes. The developers each declared personal bankruptcy shortly after SMA approval; liens were filed against the development by a long list of contractors not paid for their services. Now, three years after the SMA approval the developers, owing more than $120,000 in back taxes, are given a special payment plan by Maui County.
The County’s Dept. of Finance recently accepted a down payment of $30,297 with a second payment of $9,089. due on June 20th. In requesting 2013-14 records from Dept. of Finance we find that only one other property owing a similar amount ($126,000) with a payment plan. Scheduled payments for that property are to be paid in full within six months. The Medical Plaza at Kanaha, with very public financials problems, was given a more leinient payment plan to be completed in a year.
The Wailuku Kahului Community Plan says that “Drainage channels should not be used for building sites but rather for public open space” adding that we should “Protect shoreline wetland resources and flood plain areas as valuable natural systems and open space resources.” The plan explicitly states “Future development actions should emphasize flood prevention and protection of the natural landscape” and that “Higher building forms up to six stories should be sited in the central portion of commercial blocks.”
In commenting on the project the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believed that the state wildlife preserve at Kanaha was essential for the preservation of Hawaii’s endemic waterbirds.
The County’s Planning Dept. also had concerns that the project’s construction activities would result in “irreparable damages to the immediate site and potentially the entire Kanaha Pond Wildlife Sanctuary.”
Hawaii’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife in its 2009 letter to the Army Corp of Engineers (ACOE) stated it “strongly feels that the wetland status of this site should be valued and that no filling and construction be allowed.” They encouraged ACOE “to protect this wetland habitat from development, runoff, erosion, and fill.”
Somehow all of this was ignored by the Maui Planning Commission and the SMA permit was granted. Only the developers’ dire financial situation and state water quality permits still being reviewed have prevented building at the site.
Why has the County given this sweet deal to developers of a highly controversial project with a shaky financial history? Mayor Arakawa was a consultant for the project in between his terms of office. Once back on the 9th floor he sent a recommendation for the project, written on the Mayor’s letterhead, to the commission just as the SMA permit was being considered. Could a similar recommendation have influenced the Dept. of Finance?
With the developer’s goal, as stated in the June 12th Maui News article, of breaking ground within the next three months, simple math shows that not even half the debt from the tax lien will be paid by the time digging begins. The SMA permit is set to expire at the end of August and a request for extension of the permit has now been filed with the Planning Dept. Please join Maui Tomorrow and others who care deeply for the state of our disappearing wetlands and write the Maui Planning Commission to ask that a public hearing take place in order to take a second look at this project and the many changes that have occured since the permit was granted in 2011.
Clifton M. Hasegawa, President and CEO, Clifton M. Hasegawa & Associates, LLC
Mayor Arakawa, Members of the Maui County Council, the Maui Corporation Council and the Maui County Planning Commission should take a lesson from the prolonged and delayed problem of the Naniloa Hotel on the Big Island. This is a financial disaster for the Big Island because no one did the right thing by saying, “Enough is enough, we have heard of your financial plight, we understand, we are moving on as you have defaulted and we will not continue to operate to favor your business over others.”
Mayor Billy Kenoi and the State of Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources have bent over backward to assist, in hopes to get financially compensated for the arrearages. They have been promised and the promises have not been kept.
The State of Hawaii and the County Governments in conducting business with developers understands there is risk involved. The State of Hawaii and the County Governments are not a charitable organization, entitled to non-profit status. The State of Hawaii and the County Governments are not financial institutions to bail out businesses – restaurants and businesses fail, they go out of business. The State of Hawaii and the County Governments are not standing by to bail them out.
While there is some leeway, enough is enough!
The permit issued expired on its own accord when the developer went into default. The only entitlement left for the developer is to be allowed to make installment payments.
If this matter is not settled before the election, then the voters should consider their choices.