State Fights for Power Over Land Developers

Sophie Cocke at Civil Beat has written an article on the Land Use Commission’s power to revert zoning to Ag when developers violate their conditions and change the project.  This has big implications for the Giganta Mall (Pi’ilani Promenade) in Kihei:

“Hawaii’s attorney general is fighting back against a recent decision by a Big Island judge that critics say weakens the power of the state to hold developers to their promises.

Attorney General David Louie recently filed a notice of appeal challenging Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Strance’s ruling that the state Land Use Commission couldn’t revert a property’s urban land use classification back to agricultural because the developer had repeatedly failed to build affordable housing that the state required as a condition of its approval of the project.

The LUC’s decision last year to change the land slated for the Villages of Aina Lea back to ag halted development of the $250 million resort community and put in limbo housing that had already been built on the property”….Read more at Civil Beat