A lot has changed since the Save Honolua Coalition formed in 2007, but the mission remains the same: maintain open space, public access and revitalize the ecosystem of the Honolua ahupuaa through community-based management utilizing Hawaiian values and practices. SHC has been working with Maui Land & Pineapple Co. to care for the area by adding Porta Potties and performing community cleanups. We are grateful to have a positive relationship with ML&P and that they have fully withdrawn plans for development in the Honolua area.
So has Honolua been saved? The concern is that the 580 acres that was slated for development (Lipoa Point and the lands mauka of the highway) could be sold off to a private investor. Despite General Plan designations and community sentiment, it still could be developed. Think they wouldn’t do it? ML&P is a publicly traded corporation; its bottom line is the bottom line. Ten years ago, no one could have imagined that the Plantation Course would be sold for $50 million or that its Bay Course would sell for $26.7 million, but these assets were sold due to severe liquidity problems stemming from downturns in real estate, tourism, as well as pineapple. The number of employees working for ML&P has decreased to fewer than a hundred. If ever there were a time to save Honolua, the time is now.
The Save Honolua Coalition is hopeful that ML&P will not sell this valuable real estate but knows that like any other publicly traded company it comes down to profits. They need to entertain all reasonable offers. Our current mayor, Alan Arakawa, is both business friendly as well as community friendly, so we feel that right now is the most favorable time to make a deal for conservation. There are many ways that the county could create value for ML&P, which owns about 23,000 acres of land in Maui.
In 2007, the community stood up and let the world know that we did not want a golf course on Lipoa Point. We do not want luxury homes mauka of Lipoa, and we do not want a “surf park” at Honolua. The company listened.
Now is the time to come together again to save Honolua for good and for forever.
* Tamara Paltin is president of Save Honolua Coalition. She is a resident of Napili.