By Gordon Crocket writing in the Maui News Letters section:
Development of Olowalu will increase problems West Maui already has. Already entitled projects will more than meet expected housing needs and are closer to jobs and existing infrastructure.
These developers propose to add 1,500 units with many hundreds of additional ohanas that will generate 3,000 more vehicles. They offer a commercial area but we have to build schools for the 460-plus expected students, a needed fire station, a police substation, etc.
They claim 4,700 more jobs, but where will the workers come from and how will they get to the job site? These will come from somewhere else and will be traveling on our existing roadway, increasing gridlock and making it more difficult for both tourists and hotel workers.
And how many vacation rentals will be created?
The draft of the environmental impact statement has so many unsubstantiated claimed benefits, but closes its eyes on the problems that will be increased. It asserts that 1,000 permanent jobs will be created within the project but does not point out how the developers arrived at that exaggerated estimate.
Unfortunately, new Olowalu residents will add to the traffic by having to commute somewhere else.
Somehow, the developers believe that all this construction will not affect Maui’s largest pristine reef area offshore Olowalu.
The Planning Department has recommended against the Olowalu development and the County Council should not include it within the urban growth boundary.
Gordon C. Cockett
Lahaina
