From the Maui News

Maui community groups say they’re determined to halt development of two planned megamall shopping complexes off of Piilani Highway, even to the point of seeking relief in court.

The Maui Tomorrow foundation, South Maui Citizens for Responsible Growth and Kihei resident Daniel Kanahele last month filed appeals with state and county agencies challenging the project being built on land zoned for light industrial use.

The groups contend that an industrial park approved in the late 1990s for former landowner Kaonoulu Ranch is a far cry from the retail projects being developed by Irvine-Calif.-based Eclipse Development Group…. read rest at Maui News

Groups dig in against mega-malls in S. Maui

Opponents contend that projects ignore community plan, conditions

June 21, 2012

By NANEA KALANI – Staff Writer, The Maui News

…”I’d like to think it will not have to go to court, but that is a possibility,” said Irene Bowie, executive director of the Maui Tomorrow Foundation. “If this development can ignore the county’s community plan, then something like this can happen anywhere.”…

… The company plans to build Maui Outlets, a 300,000-square-foot shopping center on a 30-acre site, and Piilani Promenade, a 400,000-square-foot retail complex on 68 acres, mauka of the Piilani Highway-Kaonoulu Street intersection.

Combined, the centers, expected to open in early 2014, would be larger than the 570,000-square-foot Queen Ka’ahumanu Center in Kahului…

…”My opinion is that the project that is now under way does not conform to the Kihei/Makena Community Plan,” said Mike Foley, former planning director for the county and a Maui Tomorrow board member….

…

South Maui state legislators Rep. George Fontaine and Sen. Roz Baker attended the meeting, and both have pledged to write letters to the governor and Land Use Commission.

“It’s apparent that a number of the conditions the LUC imposed when approving the switch to urban are not being enforced, and never have been,” Fontaine said after the meeting. “It just seems unbelievable that you can go from a light industrial park to a large mall or shopping center without having any community input. It’s disappointing that we have a process in place where there appears to be loopholes allowing a project of this size to go forward and simply telling the community that it’s a done deal.”…

…nitial hearings on the groups’ petitions are scheduled for July before the Board of Variance and Appeals, and in August before the Land Use Commission, Bowie said.

“This project, if it goes forward, is going to forever change the character of South Maui irretrievably,” Hyde said.

Read the entire article at Maui News

Note from Maui Tomorrow:  The key problem here is that although in general Light Industrial may include commercial, this particular project was required by the Land Use Commission permit to have only “minimal commercial” and to conform to the original plans submitted which showed low-traffic-impact light industrial buildings (warehouses etc) and a frontage road…NOT a huge shopping mall that will snarl traffic among other negative impacts.  Additionally the Community Plan is quite emphatic on the point that this area will have only “minimal commercial”.