Mixed-use makeover planned at R&T park

Hotel, homes, village center among proposed additions to Kihei campus

June 30, 2012
By NANEA KALANI – Staff Writer, The Maui News
 

Owners of the Maui Research & Technology Park hope to give the sprawling Kihei campus a $1.4 billion makeover to help attract a broader range of business activities and build out hundreds of undeveloped acres within the park.

An updated master plan released this week calls for a major shift from the existing traditional tech park to “an integrated and vibrant mixed-use community focused around a regional knowledge-based industry employment base.”

…The updated master plan seeks amendments to the county’s Kihei-Makena Community Plan, the state land use district boundary and county zoning….

Dick Mayer, vice chairman of the county’s General Plan Advisory Committee, said the residential component of the park’s master plan never came before the committee.

“In the context of all of the development proposed along Piilani Highway, can the highway handle all the traffic?” Mayer asked. “These 1,250 units, another 1,000 in Kihei Mauka, and the developments at Wailea 670 and Makena – this seems to be more units than South Maui needs. . . . Maybe this project is better than some of the others, and maybe others should be dropped. It should be about which of these are the best projects for Maui.”…

* View the draft EIS: oeqc.doh.hawaii.gov

Read the entire article at the Maui News