Grassroot event on Maui focuses on how to expedite fire recovery
from Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
What’s at stake, and why is it important to get the regulatory conditions right in the rebuilding of Lahaina?
Well, imagine Maui being an even more expensive place to live than it is now.
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii researcher Jonathan Helton says that’s a risk officials are taking by not actively clearing some of the most important legal barriers to rebuilding in Lahaina in the wake of the tragic August 2023 wildfires.
Helton joined Grassroot Executive Vice President Joe Kent at a well-attended event last week in Kahului on Maui, sponsored by Grassroot and moderated by Grassroot President Keliʻi Akina, to talk about the findings laid out in Grassroot’s report “Six ways to speed up the recovery and rebuilding of Lahaina.”
After Akina asked Helton what’s at stake regarding Maui’s fire recovery, Helton presented a graph, compiled by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization in 2008, that shows how Kauai permanently lost about 10% of its population after Hurricane Iniki struck in 1992.
“If you’re a business owner, you know, maybe you leave. So that means that [for] the people who stay, there’s less job opportunities,” Helton said. “So what’s at stake is that … Maui loses its culture because people can’t afford to be here. There’s no homes, so they leave.”
Helton began his lively presentation talking about four successful policies that Kauai County implemented post-Iniki and how Maui could build on those ideas.
Specifically, he said that Kauai waived building permit fees; reduced property taxes; allowed buildings to be rebuilt as they were before they were destroyed, even if they did not conform with current county zoning codes; and established an emergency permitting department that processed about 3,400 residential building permits and more than 100 non-residential building permits in just 11 months.
Helton said Maui County has passed a bill that allows building fees to be deferred until the house has been completed, but it has not outright waived those fees.
He said Grassroot especially recommends waiving permitting fees for temporary housing projects, noting that a state project currently underway would have had to pay $1.1 million in fees if it didn’t have an existing statutory exemption.
Helton said Maui County also has an existing law on the books that allows nonconforming structures destroyed in an historic zone to be rebuilt as they were, but only within two years. A county bill is under consideration, however, that would extend that window to five years.
And Maui County has waived property taxes for affected properties, Helton said, but he suggested the exemption might need to be extended beyond 2025, given how slow-moving the building process has been.
Regarding emergency permitting, Helton said Maui County contracted with a private firm in April that has processed approximately 83 building permits for people wanting to rebuild residential buildings in the burn zone. He noted, though, that fire debris removal is much more time consuming than it is for a hurricane.
Helton also emphasized that that contractor, 4LEAF, had been enlisted to assist only with building permits. That recently changed, however, with the Maui Department of Planning’s launching of an expedited Special Management Area exemption process for certain single-family homes and accessory dwellings in the Lahaina disaster area that will also be managed by 4LEAF.
To illustrate how much more involved rebuilding is than just obtaining a building permit, Helton walked the audience through identifying the different approvals that a specific property on Front Street might need in order to be rebuilt.
“The state and the county need to get together, and they need to waive a lot of these laws. Make it simple for people to rebuild,” he said.
Helton said rebuilding along Front Street can include the costly and time-consuming processes of obtaining an SMA permit, Maui County Cultural Resources Commission approvals that necessitate extensive environmental reviews, zoning variances, shoreline assessments, flood zone permits, and complying with state rules relating to the National Historic Landmark District, water rights and even requirements for street improvements.
“The real issue is the time,” he said. “Because you’re going to have to go through all … of these different levels of approval for every single property. I mean, unless something changes, that’s impossible, right?”
Finally, Helton discussed good laws Maui County already has passed, including extending the permissible time for temporary housing structures from six months to as long as five years; and positive legislation that is in progress, such as a bill to legalize more accessory dwelling units, and one that would waive street improvement fees for rebuilding.
“Where Kauai was one year after Iniki was a better place than where Maui is one year after the fires, in terms of getting things rebuilt and having more of a plan,” Helton said.
“But these bills indicate to me, at least, that there’s a reason to have hope. And so I’m hoping that through conversations like these, that hope becomes reality.”
TRANSCRIPT
9-24-24 Maui seminar
Keli’i Akina: Well, good afternoon everyone, and let me call you together at this time. Aloha mai kākou, aloha.
Audience: Aloha.
Akina: On behalf of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, I want to welcome you to our presentation here at the Maui Arts and Culture Center: “How to help Lahaina rebuild and reduce Maui’s housing shortage.” Something that’s on all our hearts.
We’ll all remember Aug. 8, 2023, about a year ago, and that day has left its imprint on all our hearts and minds. It’s changed life forever in Lahaina on Maui and throughout the state of Hawaii.
I think that as we reflect upon this past year, the people who come to mind the most are those who lost their lives and their homes, families that were affected and altered. In addition to that, we’ve seen so many heroes: first responders, ordinary citizens, government officials.
And much outpouring of the community has taken place in terms of helping to meet the immediate needs of those who have suffered. And I’m so proud of many of you who are here today and your efforts and what you’ve done, and I want to thank you.
On behalf of Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, I want to say we’ve been very proud to be part of the effort. Our particular contribution has been in the space of public policy. Taking a look at those kinds of issues that, from a legal point of view or a government regulatory point of view, can sometimes interfere with what we all want to do — which is to see the rebuilding and restoration of Lahaina, to see ultimately the thriving of the people here on Maui and throughout our state.
Today, I think you’re going to enjoy yourself and learn as we share a little bit with you about our policy work. This year, we’ve been very busy. In January, Grassroot Institute sent a memo to Gov. Josh Green and Mayor Richard Bissen, and the members of the Maui County Council and the state legislature, in which we got very specific about restrictions that need to be lifted and waived in order for the work of recovery and restoration and rebuilding to go forward.
It was well received; we’re very glad for that. So we sent another memo in July called “Six ways to speed up the [recovery and] homebuilding of Lahaina.” You can have a copy of this; it’s available free on our website. It detailed policy reforms that can help ease the rebuilding process. And again, we’re very glad for its reception.
Then this month we published a policy brief that looks at the water-fixture unit policy. And that’s become a very important issue and highlights how no small detail is too small for consideration, and everything needs to be looked at.
In fact, one of the things we’ve discovered is that it would take an army of people to comb through, line by line, every code, every regulation, every government restriction and rule relating to, in some fashion, the restoration of Lahaina.
But that’s why I’m glad for the energetic team at the Grassroot Institute, and there are two members today I want to ask to join me here at the stage. One will be our primary presenter, and that’s Jonathan Helton. He’s a summa cum laude graduate of the Freed-Hardeman University. He studied law and politics. He’s been published not only by Grassroot Institute, but the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Maui News, TravelPulse, RealClear[Policy], the Mises Institute and numerous other publications.
He’s become a recognized expert in terms of the regulations and government dimensions of Maui and Lahaina. And I think you’re going to enjoy meeting him, although many of you know him and have worked with him quite a bit already.
The other presenter today will be Joe Kent. You know him as the executive vice president of Grassroot Institute. He has led our Maui-focused research. In fact, it was over a decade ago that I actually met him. When I came to Maui in my capacity as a Grassroot Institute team member, I found him as a very engaged community member who was a teacher at King Kamehameha III High School in Lahaina.
Joe Kent: Elementary School.
Akina: Elementary School, yes. That’s right, elementary School. And there, I could sense his heart for serving the public good, and so he’s joined us since then. Sad to say, King Kamehameha III was burnt to the ground in the recent wildfires, so Joe has both a professional and a personal dimension to share with you today.
Without further ado, please welcome our colleague at the Grassroot Institute, Jonathan Helton. Jonathan.
[applause]
Jonathan Helton: So, I need to tell you a little bit about myself before we begin this presentation. There are two main things that you need to know. Number one is that I used to do debate in high school, and I’m now a debate coach.
And if any of you have ever been around high school debate, you might know that debaters tend to talk really quickly, and then they also use words that they don’t define, and so you don’t understand. And so, what I tell my students is that the two most important things about debate are: You have to define your terms, and you have to ask lots of questions.
So, I would give that to you as well. If there’s something that I say that doesn’t make any sense, raise your hand and say, “Hey, can you slow down? Go back.” Or if you have a question, you can stand up and ask. Now, we’re going to do Q&A at the end, so that might be a better time for the question, but I wanted to share that with you.
And the second thing I wanted to share is about my capacity as a researcher at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. At the Grassroot Institute, we are a think tank. We comment on state and local policy.
I think that there’s something that all of us probably wish that we knew more about, and that’s disaster recovery. Because Hawaii had not had a disaster of the scale of the wildfires that affected Lahaina since Hurricane Iniki in the 1990s, which is before I was around.
So there are — I am not someone who has professional expertise as someone who is a manager of disaster recovery. And I think that that’s something that probably we wish the state probably had more of leading up to what happened last year.
But with that, I’ll share with you what I am. And that is: I’m a researcher. I work on land and tax policy — especially — in my job. So I try to identify things that get in the way — in this case, of rebuilding Lahaina.
So with that, let me tell you what we’re going to talk about today. Because, again, if you’ve been around speech or debate, you know that one of the rules is you tell people what you’re going to tell them, and then you tell them that. And then you tell them what you told them.
So here’s what we’re going to do: First, we’re going to talk about what we believe that Maui could learn from what Kauai County did after Hurricane Iniki. We’re going to look at what worked in their response to Iniki and maybe some things that Maui County can improve on.
The second thing we’re going to do is we’re going to go through an exercise of looking at a property on Front Street and trying to identify the different approvals that property might need in order to be rebuilt.
Third, I’m going to talk about two different policies that are outlined in the reports that would assist with Maui’s housing crisis as a general rule.
And then the last thing we’re going to do is that Joe and I are going to take questions from you all and from Dr. Akina and hopefully listen to the concerns you have that we might have missed.
Because I’ll tell you up front, in my research and looking at Lahaina and Hawaii’s housing crisis generally, what I’ve noticed is that we can change one law, and that can do a lot of good. But ultimately, if we want more abundant and more affordable housing so that people can afford to stay here and raise their families, we’re going to have to look at a whole lot of different rules.
So with that, let’s begin. Let’s look at our response as a policy research organization. Dr. Akina talked about the three things that we produced, so I’ll just outline them briefly.
What we’ve done is that we’ve tried to work with stakeholders to identify some of the barriers to rebuilding Lahaina. We’ve testified on bills at the state and county levels — I’ll be getting into some of the details of those bills later on. And then finally, we’ve issued three memos on Maui Housing.
Dr. Akina mentioned those, and I’ll just put them up here. First, back in January, we sent a letter to the governor, the mayor, some other legislators, and that was in response to the temporary housing plan that was released. It was either in early January or late December of last year. So the temporary housing plan, we have seen some units go up. There have been challenges there.
But in July, we issued this brief, which is a little bit more detailed. And it detailed six ways that we could remove some of these rules to make it easier to rebuild homes in Lahaina and on Maui in general.
And then finally, as Dr. Akina mentioned, we issued a brief about the water-fixture unit policy and how that kind of makes it harder to expand and renovate homes. I was the lead author on both the Lahaina brief and the fixture-unit brief.
So now, let’s look at what Kauai did after Hurricane Iniki. We published an article, and we’ve been looking at this for probably the past year: What can we learn about what Kauai did?
So, I think there’s four things especially. The first thing relates to building permit fees. This is something that’s very, very simple, in my view.
Kauai waived the building permit fees after Hurricane Iniki. And the scale of destruction there, I mean, it was pretty significant. Iniki — there were about 1,400 homes that were destroyed and 5,000 other homes were damaged. And so waiving the building current fees, that was a simple start.
On Maui, that has not happened yet. There is, there has been a bill that has passed that I’ll talk about in just a minute, and it allowed the option of fees to be deferred until the house has been completed, but it didn’t waive them. And that can add several thousand dollars to any home that’s been destroyed and to the rebuilding cost.
And then finally, talking about temporary structures. We have seen several projects that have been proposed to be built — either by the state or by nonprofit partners — that would house people who’ve been displaced by the fires, and they’ve had to pay some pretty significant fees.
So let me just give you a couple of statistics there. The Ohana Hope Village, which I’m sure a lot of you’re familiar with — they had to pay over $35,000 in fees. The Kapalua golf course project, which I believe was recently completed — they had to pay over $15,000.
The state has a project that’s in Lahaina, and the state has a special exception in Maui County code where they don’t have to pay building permit fees. But to give you an example of just how much the state would’ve had to pay, they would’ve had to pay $1.1 million in fees if they didn’t have that statutory exemption.
So one of our suggestions is, “Hey, why don’t we exempt anyone who’s trying to build temporary housing or anyone who’s trying to rebuild their home or business, exempt the building permit fees?” Now that’s really simple.
Let’s talk about the second thing. This is a little bit more substantive: emergency permits. Now, as I’m sure a lot of you know, there has been [an] emergency permit process set up for homes — and hopefully, eventually businesses — that would rebuild in the burn zone.
So let’s talk about what Kauai did. They set up a very similar process. They partnered with FEMA, and FEMA funded it, which was super helpful, but they — let me share some statistics on just how successful this was.
So in the first 11 months after Iniki struck, this Office of Emergency Permitting in Kauai, they were able to issue about 3,400 residential building permits and over 100 non-residential building permits, which — let me share, by contrast, what the permit expediter, 4LEAF, has been able to do so far.
Since they, since 4LEAF, opened operation, which I believe was in April of this year, they’ve been able to process 83 permits. Now, that doesn’t sound like very much, but, you know, let’s be fair. Rebuilding after a fire is much different than rebuilding after a hurricane. The debris removal that you need to do for fire cleanup is much more significant. And that’s not totally done; I believe it’s, either it was just finished or is almost done for residential, and they’re hoping the commercial will be done by January.
So that’s part of the factor. The other part that I’d like to share is what 4LEAF has been able to do. So what 4LEAF has been able to do is just look at building permits. So if someone built their house within, say, the last five years, they can go to 4LEAF — this permit expediter — and they can get through the process really, really quickly.
They’ve, 4LEAF issued one residential rebuilding permit within five days. So that’s, it’s pretty quick, right? Any of you who’ve worked with building permits here know that the average is going to be three or four months at least. So five days is good.
Some of the permits have taken over 100 days. And of course, that doesn’t sound very fast. They’re an expediter after all. But the thing is, 4LEAF is only working on building permits. They are not working on your other land-use approvals.
So if you’re in the Special Management Area — which I’ll talk about in a minute, so I’ll give you the definition [then] — or if you need any sort of other approval that’s outside of the normal building permit process under [the Maui County Department of Public Works], that’s not really under 4LEAF’s control. So that’s why some of the permits have taken a lot longer than you would’ve hoped.
But, overall, we really like what Maui county has done for emergency permits, and we hope that continues.
The third thing that Kauai did after Iniki was to reduce property taxes. This is something that Maui County has already done. So, Kauai cut tax rates for commercial and industrial properties about a year and a half after Iniki struck. This was a one-year reduction. They cut the tax rates basically by half, which was pretty significant.
And what Maui has done is something that’s a little bit different, but we think it’s very helpful. So at the end of last year, Maui passed Bill 95, and Bill 95 addressed properties that were in the burn zone. So if your property was in the yellow, green or red burn zones, its property taxes were waived for the fiscal year that ended in July and this fiscal year. So no one in that area will be paying property taxes until August of 2025. So that’s pretty good.
Now, it’s an open question as to whether or not people will really be able to rebuild by August 2025, so I do think we may need to consider having that waiver extended until people can really adequately have the chance to rebuild. But this is something that we thought was good for both Kauai and Maui.
And then here’s a chart. Don’t we love charts? And if anyone, anyone who wants this chart, I can send it to them. This is just the amount that taxes were reduced by tax class in Maui.
Finally, nonconformities, which is a big word that has to deal with zoning. So to explain it, let me give you an example. Let’s say you own a piece of land zoned for an apartment building. And let’s say it’s the 1980s, which is also before I was born.
So in the 1980s, you build a 20,000-square-foot apartment building on this piece of land. But then, what happens if the county changes the zoning rules? Let’s say that after you build this 20,000-square-foot apartment building, the county changes the rules and says that now, for your size piece of land, you can only build 10,000 square feet of apartment building. That would make your building something that is known as nonconforming.
And so, one of the things that Kauai did was they said, “Hey, we’ve got a lot of old buildings that probably don’t meet the current zoning code. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to pass a bill that grandfathers in those nonconformities.”
So if you had one of those apartment buildings that, you know, was built before the zoning code changed, you would be allowed to rebuild it to its previous level of density. So I know that’s kind of confusing, but basically you’d be allowed to rebuild what you had.
So for Lahaina, this is really, really important. A lot of the buildings there were very, very old, and a lot of them weren’t legal to rebuild again today. And so, as I said, Kauai passed the grandfather ordinance.
We are really hopeful that Bill 105 has a shot. That’s been approved by the planning commissions, I think that was back in January, and it’s been introduced at Council. I think it’s had one hearing so far.
But what this bill would do is it would create a five-year window in which a property could be rebuilt, and it could be rebuilt at the previous level of density. So it would do basically the same thing that Kauai did.
So we are hopeful for this bill. We’ll talk about how it’s important a little bit later. But those are the four things we learned from Iniki. We learned that you really ought to be waiving some of these fees that get in the way; that an emergency permitting office is a good idea; property taxes can be reduced; and nonconformities.
So, part one is done. Let’s move to part two.
Let’s rebuild a Front Street business. I have picked 700 Front Street, which is the former home of Hawaii Gelato, just as an example. And I’m going to give you a couple of disclaimers first. The first disclaimer is that in this exercise, we are going to assume that this building has adequate access to sewer and water.
That’s a bad assumption. Why is that a bad assumption? Because typically, it can be really hard for any sort of new building to have access to water or wastewater. But for the purposes of this example, we’re going to assume that.
So now, what kind of permits would you need to rebuild this specific building? Well, anyone want to guess how many there are? SMA — we’ll talk about that in a minute. Yep, there are a lot. So let’s look at the ones that I have just as an example.
So SMA, that’s first. All right, the Special Management Area is shown on this map. So that’s quite a significant amount of Lahaina that’s covered in the SMA.
Basically what the SMA law is, is Hawaii believes that sea level rise could affect these areas and the areas nearby the coast. And so what the purpose of the law is, is to place additional restrictions on what can be built along the coast so that you don’t have someone building, you know, a 40-foot tower right on the beach and then it tips over. More or less, right?
So you’re going to need your SMA permit. Now, there are a couple of different SMA permits you could get. But for the purposes of our exercise, any building that is valued over $500,000 is going to need an SMA use permit, and that’s basically the most intensive level of review that an SMA permit would have.
So, where would you need to get this use permit? Well, you would have to get all of your materials together, and you would have to file an application with the Maui Planning Department.
The Planning Department would send that application to the Planning Commission, and they would need to vote to approve it, or they could deny it, or they could say, “Hey, can you change these things about the project, and then we’ll approve it?”
Normally that takes a while. Maybe you could get one in four months — maybe? No? I mean, probably not even normally.
[inaudible]
Helton: Oh my, OK. Eight months.
[inaudible]
Helton: So I’m being generous. So I think, I’ve heard the statistic that maybe the Maui County Planning Commission has issued 40 SMA-majors over the past decade. So four a year.
I mean, how many structures are we talking about rebuilding? You know, we’re talking about hundreds, and we can’t wait a thousand years, right, to rebuild Lahaina. I mean, at that point, it really might all be underwater for all I know. But the point is, if you — if we’re, OK, SMA, that needs to be addressed.
So let’s look at the next thin. Because that’s just one, right? You’re going to have to deal with the historic district zoning for this particular parcel. Here’s a map. These are the Historical District 1 and Historical District 2 zones in Lahaina.
And so what would you need to do if you wanted to rebuild at home in a historical district? Well, you would need to go before the Cultural Resources Commission, a different commission of Maui County.
And so, you’d need to get all of your materials together, you’d need to say, “Here’s what I want to build, here’s what it would look like,” because they want you to build it in the historical style of the time. And then you need to get their approval to build it. Well, if any of you have been reading the news, you know that a lot of Maui’s boards and commissions don’t have enough people on them, and that’s for a lot of different reasons.
Whatever the reason is, the Cultural Resources Commission just canceled a lot of its meetings last year because they didn’t have quorum. And so, now, all of your buildings that have been damaged or destroyed in these blue areas, they’re going to need to go there, and they’re going to need to get approval as well. So that’s your second one.
But wait, there’s more. You’re going to need to deal with the National Historic Landmark District. This is a federally-imposed district on the area around Lahaina. Here’s a map. So the National Historic Landmark District is the black-lined area. The green and the yellow are the county historic districts.
So if you’re, if you happen to be in both of these or even just in the National Historic Landmark District, what do you need to do to build something? Well, you know, here’s some exceptions, but generally, you’re going to need at least an environmental assessment to be done.
So you’re going to have to go out, find a consulting firm, pay them to do the environmental assessment, and then you have to submit that to either the Planning Commission or the Cultural Resources Commission, and you’re also going to have to get Cultural Resources Commission approval to build there.
So that’s the third thing. And keep in mind, it’s going to take time to draft an environmental assessment, and that’s going to cost a lot of money. And you have to do it right, because if you don’t do it right, someone might protest that you’ve done something wrong and that you’ve overlooked a part of it that is really important.
So, all right, that’s the third thing. What’s the fourth thing? You might need a zoning variance.
So for this particular structure, if any of you are familiar with it — and I had to look on Google Maps just to be able to see what it looked like, you know, before the fire — there’s no parking. And anyone who’s built a business or home before knows that the county has rules that you have to provide a certain number of parking spaces.
And so if you want to be able to rebuild this, well, now half of that plot might be a parking lot. So now that’s half, you know, that’s half as less? That’s not the grammatically correct way to say that. You have half of the building that you did. That’s the point.
Now, I will say, I put the asterisk there because there is in county code a rule, and this is a good rule, that if you are rebuilding in a historic district, that you can — they can kind of give you an exemption so that you might not need a variance.
This relates to nonconformities, right? So if you had a nonconforming structure in an historic zone and that was destroyed, then you could rebuild it with the nonconformity, only if you did that within two years.
So if things are not able to be addressed in terms of this particular issue, within two years, now, half of Lahaina is going to be a parking lot, realistically. So, OK, well that’s a problem. Is there more? Yes, there is.
Street improvements. There’s a county rule that says if you’re building something like a business or a residential unit that has more than three dwellings on the lot — and there’s a couple of exceptions — but the general rule is, you’re going to have to pay to improve sidewalks, you’re going to have to pay to maybe underground the utilities or widen the road, put in gutters, et cetera, and that costs a lot of money, right?
So now, once you’ve gotten your permits, you’ve gotten your plans together, now they’re going to require you to rebuild the roadway around this business.
And once we get through all that, now you can get your building permit. And that’s not cheap either, right? If you’re building a large business, that’s going to cost a lot of money just for the building permit.
So what do we get? In total, at the very least, $10,000 in fees to the county. That does not include any number that you would pay to have someone come in and be a consultant to work on your environmental assessment, any of that. That’s just county fees right there.
But that’s not the real issue, right? The real issue is the time. Because you’re going to have to go through all six of these different levels of approval for every single property. I mean, unless something changes, that’s impossible, right?
And we’ll talk a little bit later about, you know, why it’s really important that the county, you know — I’m sure a lot of you already think that, “Yeah, it’s important for the county to try to clear some of these hurdles where it can.” But it really is.
Because if the mom-and-pop businesses that owned a lot of these lots, if they can’t rebuild, you know, that land is zoned commercial, it’s zoned apartment. Somebody with deep pockets who has no connection to the community is going to come in and rebuild.
Someone’s going to rebuild something in these areas, right? So for anyone who’s with the county, with the state, it doesn’t matter whoever you are, the question is: Who do we want to rebuild? We can make it really hard, and then people who have no ties to Lahaina, they’ll be the ones to rebuild. But if we want to try to restore some of the feel of Lahaina, you’re probably going to need to clear some of these barriers.
So let me tell you: This list of six is incomplete. Let me read just a couple more that I didn’t read because they don’t apply to this specific building. So if your building is a little bit closer to the shoreline, you’re going to need a shoreline assessment, and you might need a shoreline variance. That’s going to cost time and take money. The other way around that’s going to take money. Anyway, you know what I mean?
You will also — probably you also could need a flood zone permit, depending on where it’s located. You might also have to deal with the State Commission on Water Resources Management, the Urban Design Review Board, et cetera. You can add a lot more approvals depending on where the property is located.
So, what’s our suggestion? Well, our suggestion is — I think it’s simple, at least it sounds simple, and it’s that the state and the county need to get together, and they need to waive a lot of these laws. Make it simple for people to rebuild.
All right, we’re going to number three. And then after number three, I will sit down, and you no longer have to listen to me talk. All right. You can ask us questions, that’ll be fun. All right.
The number three is: What can Maui County do to help the housing crisis as a whole?
So the first thing it can do, and we think this would be really helpful, is legalize more accessory dwelling units. So those are those little backyard cottages that people talk about a lot these days.
So, at the state level, we worked really hard with different members of the House of Representatives and the Senate and a lot of other people interested in housing, and we were able to get a bill through, and Gov. Green signed it, that legalized, that basically told the counties, “You need to allow more accessory dwellings in your county.”
And so we’re hopeful that this can lead to more housing. At the Maui County Council, you know, the rule is, more or less, you can do one accessory dwelling per lot. If your lot is above 7,500 square feet, you can do two, unless you live on the islands of Lanai or Molokai. You know, as I said, this is the general rule.
Now, there are a couple of bills at the Maui County Council right now that would seek to legalize more ADUs per lot. So it’s Bill 103 and Resolution 24-143. Those are not quite — bill 103 has been approved by the Planning Commission; the resolution has not yet been sent to the Planning Commission. So both of these bills are in the very early stages, but we are hopeful that they’ll get passed soon because they have to comply with state law.
So that’s number one. Number two is update the fixture-unit rules. This is another one that needs a definition. So, what’s a fixture unit? OK, so, as best as I can describe it, your sink is a fixture unit. Anything that uses water is a fixture, right?
And so what the Maui County Department of Water has done is it has said, “All right, if you’re going to put in an extra sink, that’s going to cost you a fixture unit,” which is more or less a measurement of how much water that water fixture would use at a given time.
So what’s the problem with these fixture-unit rules? Well, that’s a good question; we wrote a report about it, I hope you’ll read it. But the main problem is that Maui County hasn’t updated these since 1995. And things have changed since 1995, right?
Water appliances have gotten a lot more efficient, so you might not really need to use as many fixture units now than you would have in 1995. So how is this a problem for housing? Well, it’s mostly a problem for housing because if you need more fixture units on your water meter, you have to pay the county more on fees, or you have to buy a bigger water meter.
So anyone who’s looking to add one of those accessory dwelling units in their backyard, or maybe you’re wanting to do a renovation on your house, you might run up against this fixture-unit limit. And either the county will say, “Hey, yeah, we can allow you to have more sinks and more toilets, but you’re going to have to pay $4,000,” or they might say, “Your water meter is at its limit, you’re going to have to buy a new water meter,” which would cost you maybe $15,000.
So what we identified in this report is what Dr. Akina talked about, and what I talked about at the beginning. You know, we can identify one big rule change that we think will help. Let’s legalize more accessory dwelling units. But if you don’t identify the 10 other little rules that also affect how houses can be built and where, you might not really have any housing getting built. So that’s what we wanted to do with this report.
Finally, let’s talk about some legislation that’s at the county that we’re really hopeful about. There’s three bills that have passed that we really like. We’ve already talked about the property tax waiver; we’ve already talked about the emergency permitting that they passed. And then the one thing I did want to let you guys know about is that the emergency permitting bill that passed a couple of months ago at the Council, it’s now law.
It basically said, “Hey, if you are a nonprofit and you got a building permit to put up temporary structures, what we’re going to do is we’re going to allow those temporary structures to be in place for at least four, possibly five years.”
Now, the reason that’s important is because, well, we’re not rebuilding things very quickly. And so realistically, we’re going to need to keep those temporary structures around for more than six months, which had been the previous rule. So the four or five years will, we think, definitely be very helpful for the county’s housing situation.
And then finally, we have a couple, there are a couple of good bills in process. And I see some of you writing this down, we will be happy to send you this slideshow if you would like.
We talked about legalizing more ADUs, little cottages per lot. That Bill 104 would legalize more small kitchens. Bill 105 would address those non-conformities we talked about earlier that deal with the zoning variances.
And then there is a bill, Bill 110, that would give a waiver to the street improvement fees that we discussed. And then finally, Bill 98 would change how modular and manufactured homes are permitted.
So, you know, I’ve talked about how there’s all these rules in the way. And, you know, frankly, where Iniki was, or excuse me, where Kauai was one year after Iniki was a better place than where Maui is one year after the fires, in terms of getting things rebuilt and having more of a plan.
But these bills indicate to me, at least, that there’s a reason to have hope. And so I’m hoping that through the conversations like these, that that hope becomes reality. So with that, I think that Joe and I will be happy to answer any questions that you have.
[applause]
Akina: Thank you, Jonathan. That was an excellent presentation. As you head over to the table there and Joe Kent joins you, think this through a bit, and I’ll let you answer as soon as you get to another microphone.
What’s at stake, Jonathan, right now? Why is it so very important for us to get the regulatory conditions right?
Helton: Check, check. OK, there we go. So, I might need the clicker back. I have a slide I want to show. So, what’s at stake? Well, I talked about some of the things that are at stake in terms of, you know, are we going to get the community feeling of Lahaina back, or are people just going to leave?
But I want to talk about what happened to Kauai after Hurricane Iniki. So all of this information that I’m about to share is from a 2009 study. It was done by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, so UHERO. They did some pretty interesting math. And here’s — now, it’s a chart, and I don’t like charts sometimes. They’re confusing. Let me explain it to you, because it doesn’t make any sense if you look at it.
So, the red line is Kauai County; the blue line is Maui County. After Iniki hit, which is right here, Kauai County’s population dropped. And then, as you can tell, it should have been along the same trend line, but it dropped, and it never came back.
UHERO estimates that Kauai lost 10% of its population permanently. And that was — and keep in mind, this study was done in 2009, that was 17 years after Iniki. And the last day here is 2005, so 15 years after — no, wait, math — 13 years after, the population never recovered.
There’s one more chart. This is jobs. It’s the same thing. Kauai County is in red, Maui County is in blue. After Iniki hit, Kauai lost a lot of jobs; trendline never came back. UHERO estimates that that was the equivalent of about 3,000 jobs going away and never returning. The economy lost $200 million.
Now, in human terms, you know, we can talk about [gross domestic product] and jobs, but in human terms, that means that 10% of Kauai’s population left and didn’t come back. The island didn’t bounce back, even 15, 17 years later. So what’s at stake is, you know, Maui County has a population of I think about 200,000 people.
So, you know, what happens if 20,000 people leave? We’re not sure how many people have left already because the U.S. Census doesn’t report data in real-time. But what’s at stake is that people leave. If you’re a business owner, you know, maybe you leave.
So that means that [for] the people who stay, there’s less job opportunities. Probably means Maui gets more unaffordable, if that’s even possible. You’re already seeing that now with what rents have done after the wildfire.
So what’s at stake is that, is, you know, Maui loses its culture because people can’t afford to be here. There’s no homes, so they leave. So that’s what’s at stake. And as I said, I am hopeful that that’s not what happens.
Akina: Thanks, Jonathan. And as all you know, what Jonathan mentioned is compounded by the fact that we have a trend statewide of an exodus from our state for economic reasons.
Joe Kent is monitoring very closely some rebuilding efforts here on the ground in Maui, and particularly in Lahaina. Joe, are there some general challenges that you’re seeing that you’d add to what Jonathan has presented?
Kent: Yeah, so our whole team has talked a lot with people who are trying to build housing on Maui, and especially after the rebuilding, and we’ve been — we’re kind of like therapists for people who are having a lot of troubles getting through the system. And, you know, I’ve had people cry telling me their story. I’ve had exasperated conversations.
There’s a huge culture of fear about this, by the way. Nobody wants to be named in their struggles, lest the powers that be come down on them like a hammer. And so — and a lot of emotion too, which I think now we’re at the time where it may all evaporate. We’re at kind of the make-or-break time for a lot of these projects.
You know, after the tragic fires on Aug. 8, I’ve heard stories of people who were sitting up in bed, you know, stayed up all night trying to make the decision about whether to move forward and invest millions of dollars into a project that may never see the light of day. And they, you know, moved forward because they felt the need there.
And now, after a year, they’re reassessing this. They can’t get the permits that they need, and the money isn’t coming in to keep it going forever. And so, a lot of projects, I think we’re going to see, are going to give up over the next few months, sadly.
At the same time, you see a lot of the government, the state-run projects, and so on, that do seem to be moving forward, and some of the private projects are being sold to the state. So we’ll see what happens, but it’s, you know, a lot of tragedy.
Akina: Yes, indeed. Jonathan, you mentioned in your presentation that after 1991, government officials on Kauai came up with a workaround process to help people get their permits.
Could you say a little bit more about that, and do you think that could be applicable and used here on the island of Maui?
Helton: Yes. So, I did talk about that a little bit. But to share just a couple of statistics: In our research on what happened on Kauai, the people were estimating that rebuild would take four years, which, you know, that sounds like a long time, but that wasn’t what happened.
In terms of getting the houses rebuilt, they said it took about two and a half years, actually. So things like the Office of Emergency Permitting that Kauai established did help, and they helped get things permitted faster.
Now, of course, Kauai had a problem with people building things without permits, but hey, at least they were building things, right?
So, yeah, I think that the infrastructure that Maui has set up with 4LEAF is something that could probably be expanded over the next several years to make sure that once people get through all the other approvals, once they get to the building permit, they can get it in five days maybe.
Akina: Thank you. And Joe, I know you’ve been busy, you and your team, monitoring government hearings and poring over testimony as well as statements made by our government officials.
What are some of the challenges you’re discovering in that research?
Kent: I think one of the big challenges has to do with SMA. Whenever you see that brought up at the County Council, I think Council members often speak in hushed tones or in some sort of code. But basically saying that it’s too political to reform a lot of these processes. That’s what they’re really saying.
The other one is the Commission on Water Resources Management. That’s another big elephant in the room. Jonathan brought it up a little bit. If you want to talk about that more, please do. But basically, that’s what I’m seeing is the big problem with a lot of these projects moving forward.
And then there’s the State Historic Preservation Division as well. Anyone who wants to dig or build infrastructure, water lines, they have to go through that.
And so basically, government officials are speaking in hushed tones and in code about whether or not these things can be waived. I mean, look at the waivers. The governor waived a lot of rules after the fires, but not the local rules.
Then you’ve got the mayor, who could, he could waive a lot of these rules through an emergency proclamation if he wanted to. But, I don’t know, maybe he’s delegating that decision to the county heads and bureaucrats, who also could waive their rules as well.
There’s a lot — for every single regulation, it can be opened and closed, but nobody actually wants to take the heat for opening and closing those regulations.
Akina: Thank you. Before I ask Jonathan the next question, I want to invite any of you to come up to this microphone over here and ask your question if you have a question or maybe even a comment that you’d want to add to what has been shared today. So just feel free to walk up to this microphone over here.
Jonathan, there’s a private sector solution that has been applied to some extent. 4LEAF, I believe, is the name of it. It helps people to get through the permit process and get the documents that they need. Has it had any tangible results?
Helton: Yes. So as I said, 83 permits have been issued so far. The rules around 4LEAF are that you’re supposed to be able to get your permit within 15 days. But as I said, that depends on you getting all of your other approvals in line first.
So that’s why we’re seeing it have a relatively limited effect now. But if I can just piggyback off of something that Joe said, I am going to make an assumption about you all that might not be a correct assumption. My assumption is that a lot of you want to see Lahaina rebuilt.
And I know there are people who have different viewpoints that maybe don’t want to see as much of it get rebuilt, or see it get rebuilt in a different way. And to talk about maybe building up parks or monuments there.
If that’s — a park or monument would be absolutely great. But as I said earlier, if the people who owned businesses there are not the ones who rebuild, someone else is going to.
And so, and secondly, I just wanted to say: If we’re looking at this with an us-versus-them — maybe it’s, maybe, “oh, I have a lot, and I want to rebuild,” versus the people who want to see Lahaina become something other than what it was, I think that everyone’s going to lose. Because I think everyone’s probably going to — they’re going to fight at the County Council, they’re going to fight at the Planning Commission. Unfortunately, we’re seeing some of that.
But I share some of the things that I do with everyone to say, like, if Lahaina is not rebuilt, if Maui doesn’t build housing somewhere, what happened to Kauai, that’s almost certainly going to happen here.
And, you know, and having our friends and family leave, that’s something nobody wants. So, that’s my two cents, I reckon.
Akina: Well, I appreciate that, Jonathan. And as you hear in Jonathan’s words and his voice, not only has he gained a keen overview intellectually of what’s going on, his heart is very much in what is taking place, and he has deep feelings. Joe, you as well, you recently met with a group of business owners or former business owners from Front Street.
Kent: Yes, there’s a group of business owners, Front Street Lahaina, who are trying to get together and bring the message out: “Don’t forget about us.”
In all of this talk about rebuilding housing, there were a lot of businesses that need to be rebuilt, and that’s why I’m so glad that Jonathan went through one of the examples as a business. Because that’s important too.
I kind of feel awkward talking about it. Because I’ll bet you there are people in the audience who are much — who have stories about this, and I would much rather hear from them too, so anyways, yeah.
Akina: Yes, indeed. If you have something to contribute, feel free to use our microphone. I’m going to start with Chuck over here. Thank you for your patience, Chuck.
Chuck Thorne: OK, is this working or what?
Akina: Thank you for being first.
Thorne: Oh, OK, yeah, you’re welcome. We’re not — just the people in Lahaina aren’t the only one that needs help. After the fire, all of our businesses in Maui have been down. After all this time, we’re still 40% down on what we should be.
And not only to reward us with that, at the beginning of this year, they raised our gross excise tax in Maui, and then they raised our property tax.
So I went into the tax department, I had a big argument, “Why do you raise my property tax?” “Because property values are — properties are selling for more around you.”
Yeah, well, some guy from China bought the lot next to me for $650,000. So now my property tax goes up because some guy in China bought a lot next door and paid way too much. It’s crazy why they punish us, and we’re all suffering.
I don’t think it’s a question, sorry.
[laughter]
Akina: Well, it’s a profound statement. Thank you. Give Chuck a hand. Thank you very much for sharing that.
[applause]
Please come to the microphone. We would love to be able to let everyone hear you.
Rick Nava: Go ahead, Susan.
Akina: Go ahead, Susan, one of our eminent journalists.
Susan Hallis: Former journalist, but semi-retired. I’m Susan Hallis. I’ve been a writer. I’ve written mostly land-use and politics since 1976. So I’ve had an opportunity — I was here for Iniki. I was here for what you just described.
What is of concern to me right now is there’s an awful lot of rumors that I hear about moving the whole town back as a, like, as managed retreat. The idea of what is going to happen to the buildings on the water side of Front Street all the way from Puamana to the old charthouse.
Are those going to be allowed to rebuild or is there going to be a new district proposed? That’s all like you folks in Ala Moana Park is, you know, long, green, open space. But that would have a really massive effect on a lot of people’s lives.
But it also would make sense to a lot of other people in terms of what are the realities of climate change and the likelihood that if you rebuilt on the ocean, you couldn’t get insurance or your insurance would be so much you couldn’t run your business because all your, you know, your revenue would go to paying your new insurance bill if you could get insurance.
So, Joe, you, I am told things that are rumors, and the general rule of thumb for reporters is if you hear it from three unrelated sources and it sort of matches up, doesn’t mean that it’s true, it means that there’s probably something to it.
So I have heard this from three, at least three, unrelated sources. Have you heard it, and do you have any comment on it?
Kent: I have not heard that, but I have heard about insurance as a major barrier in the rebuilding, of course.
If you look at the Family Life Center project, the Ohana Hope Villages, insurance is a key issue there. With wildfire risk, even in Honolulu, by the way, we’re seeing wildfire risk reassessed and repriced. And so, so, yes, there, but I haven’t heard of the Lahaina part yet.
Hallis: OK. So that is, I want to reiterate, that is not a fact, that is a rumor. But I have heard it from multiple people. Most of them have been in some level of affluence. They either own property or they’re part of a hui, or they’re a management person in a larger firm.
And it keeps on, well, what about Kimo’s on the water or what about the old Bubba Gump’s, or what about the buildings across the street, or what about Fleetwood’s on Front? Are those —
I happen to hold an active real estate broker’s license, and I know some of those same people that you know on Front Street, and they’re telling me that they not only aren’t they getting answers, they’re not getting, they’re not even getting meetings.
So, comment? Rick?
Nava: Yeah, I’m very familiar with that group that’s been trying to get a meeting with the county, the group that you mentioned earlier with the, with Front Street, which is the same question that I have been asking all along that I asked Mr. with the economic recovery is that: How much economy did Front Street bring into the county?
Because as I’m telling people from the very, during the fire, right now, when people come to Maui, if they don’t go to Front Street, it feels like their visit to Maui is incomplete. Front Street is the center of Maui.
And so this is — and of course, nobody’s talking about it, which is really sad, because the people that need to be heard, they said, “Look, you know, either you tell us to rebuild or we don’t, and if you don’t rebuild, what is the next plan, what are we going to do?”
So, you know, Mousa Hassan has been very active trying to get that audience with the mayor, trying to figure out what can we do here. Because, if I could just stand up.
Hallis: Why don’t you take the —
Because here, here, I don’t want to speak to monopolize this big thing. Because to me, Joe and I lost our home. We are with the West Maui Taxpayer Association. The reason why Front Street is so big with me also is the fact that we talk a lot about the unemployed.
There’s so many Filipinos that are underemployed, and Front Street is where they were working. We keep talking about the unemployed there. There’s so much underemployed in the, in Lahaina that a lot of these people left the island to the point that a lot of the businesses now do not have employees.
Now, if you look at the population of Lahaina, what happened? It’s easy. Before the fire, Kamehameha III School had 600 students.
Right now, they only have 300 students, right? That tells you what’s happening. Maybe they move here on the other side of the island, maybe they move out of the, um, you know, maybe they move to somewhere else. But they have left Lahaina.
And in the great wisdom of the FEMA people or whoever was these people that they decided to do something about housing, they decided to put people in Haiku, all these places, knowingly that Lahainaluna is what gives the people in Lahaina to remain in Lahaina.
You do not pull us off Lahaina and say, “OK, we have a house for you in Wailuku.” No, you know, we have to be in Lahainaluna. You’re not going to send my child who’s been in Lahainaluna for three years and now you’re going to want to graduate in Baldwin High School.
See, the whole concept, the whole thing is so frustrating. Like I said, we live in Lahaina. Joe and I have been working furiously at our best since 2019 to have a fire station in Lahaina, and we’re able to do that.
I don’t know if you know the situation that’s going on in Lahaina right now, and I appreciate all these buildings that we’re talking about, but the one issue to me right now as we are getting all these permits: Are we addressing the issue of safety? See, people, this is what pisses me off the most, is that people, I understand that we want to rebuild our house.
People died on Mill Camp right behind the, you know, smoke sack because they could not get out of those roads. Now, if you were to go up on Kilauea or Moka 3 right now, where we’re trying to rebuild our home, if you were to go there at night, when all the workers come home from where they’re working because we do not have a good public transportation, so everybody’s back, you can’t get out of those roads.
So for us to rush to build homes right now because people are screaming, “We need housing,” no, we have a clean canvas.
We should really focus on, what are we going to do with all the homes on Kilauea Moka 1, Kilauea Moka 2, Kilauea Moka 3? Instead, “Oh yeah, we need the housing. We got to build. We got to build.”
No, we can’t build without thinking about safety. Safety should be first. You know, I’m sorry, I’m being ran out here, but that’s why I wanted to come here and listen, because I’m hearing all of this thing that “We need to rebuild, we need to rebuild.”
Well, can we focus on the safety first before we start rebuilding? Twenty-four people died in one area. So anyway.
Akina: Yes. Rick, thank you very much. No, your heart is good, and I appreciate your sharing that. Absolutely.
[applause]
And I want to assure you that in terms of our position at the Grassroot Institute, we’re looking at — we know we’re looking only at a slice of the problem, which is, how do we get the inventory back for people to be able to have homes?
But what you’re saying can’t be overruled. We have to put the health and safety of human beings first, always. Thank you for sharing.
Anyone else? Feel free to come to the microphone, please. Thank you. Kindly introduce yourself and ask your question or share what you’d like to share.
Jeremiah Savage: Hi. My name is Jeremiah. I just have a quick question, like, do you have any insight at all on the development or the process of redeveloping the harbor as it pertains to the rebuilding of Lahaina?
Because it’s a huge part of the economy, yeah. Definitely to what Rick was saying.
Akina: Thank you. Joe?
Kent: No, I’m sorry to say we haven’t researched that, but if there’s anyone here that could give us insight right now.
Call Angus McKelvey, they said. OK.
Akina: Good to look into. Yes, did you want to respond to that question or a different one? Please, come to the microphone and introduce yourself. Thank you.
Sarah: My name’s Sarah.
Akina: Hi, Sarah.
Sarah: And thank you for being here today. I just wanted to touch upon what you said about the businesses, the small business owners being such an intricate part of the fabric of Lahaina, not wanting to lose that. And I wondered if you guys had any stats on the ownership, because I do believe that most of those small business owners were renting as well.
So what does that look like in the big picture? Yes, they make up the heart of Lahaina, but as stakeholders, how powerful are they in reality? Because, isn’t it — how much of Front Street was owned by how many people?
I’ve heard anywhere from, you know, 80% to 87% of it might have been under ownership of one group, and so I’m just curious. They really would be the drivers in this, and who are those owners and are they part of this conversation?
Do they recognize what we’re saying, what we all know, who makes up Lahaina? I, yeah, was looking for some of that information.
Akina: That’s a good question. Jonathan, you want to —
Helton: I can comment on a part of that. So, UHERO has said that there were 834 businesses in Lahaina. I have looked at the U.S. Census Bureau website to see how, you know, how many jobs those businesses provided or how much [general excise] tax or [transient accommodations] tax they produced.
I don’t know a business ownership off the top of my head. I’ll look, and get back with you. But I did want to share: You know, when we’re talking about the businesses there, that’s probably the most important part.
But in any of these conversations, it’s important to note that, as you said, if people are visiting Maui, and they don’t get to visit Front Street, you know, what are they missing?
Well, in terms of, for the county, you know, the county is in a position where, in terms of money, the county’s about to have to pay a very significant settlement. Where’s the money going to come from? We can talk about that.
But in terms of what Lahaina added to the county’s tax base, that can’t be ignored when we’re having these conversations either.
And that’s a question I’m still trying to find the answer to in terms of how much did it add. But I just wanted to throw that out there to you guys, as well, as something to be thinking about and talking about with others as you have these conversations.
Akina: Thank you. Sir, please introduce yourself.
Lee Potts: Good afternoon. I’m Lee Potts. I’ve lived in Lahaina with my wife since 2006. And we lived in a condo, so that’s going to take a while to build back.
But just the complexity of building a single-family home and the amount of permitting that needs to go through, with all respect to Rick’s comments, is there any precedent for simplifying?
If I had a house in Lahaina, in Shark Pit, that’s been there for decades, why on Earth do I need to go through SMA and all the legal? I mean, you’ve got to have an architect, you’ve got to find a contractor, and I don’t know where a contractor is going to find skilled labor when all of this really gets rolling. But that’s a difference.
It would seem like there must be precedent somewhere to simplify the permitting process and eliminate the expense, I mean, beyond what was presented here. Thank you.
Akina: Thank you very much. Joe, do you want to take a response?
Kent: OK, well, I was thinking in my head about, you know, the county has allowed 4LEAF to privately run the permitting process, and that supposedly is going to help things. It supposedly has helped things actually.
On the mainland, permitting offices take two days, three days to get through. Some of them — many of them — are run by private companies, and I wonder if this could be a model in Hawaii.
But at the same time, with safety and acknowledging the need for that as well. But, go ahead.
Akina: Thank you.
Ryan Churchill: Thanks. Ryan Churchill, I am land-use chair on Front Street recovery, Mousa’s hui. I’ve been working since December on a lot of the things you brought up today, Jonathan. Great presentation, point on, on all the layers.
I think for our hui, which represents a group of landowners from 500 to 900 Front Street, kind of that core area, our goal has been looking for exemptions, fast-tracking the permit process and carve-outs. After waiting patiently about a year, which we did respectfully to let people grieve, let the residential get on track, we’ve started pushing more and more.
And what we waited for was a direction from the planning department and the mayor. [They said] there is no exemptions, process your permits as normal. And so what Jonathan just went through, we went through with the mayor’s office a couple of weeks ago.
And we’ve met with everyone, the planning director, Office of Recovery, State Office of Planning. We’ve gone through everyone about the rebuilding process. And as it’s come, a little over 13 months now, we’ve gone back to the solution is: exemptions and modifications to existing law.
So we drafted Bill 110, and we helped draft Bill 105. We have, I think, three bills that are going to go to the Legislature regarding exemption and fast track.
So basically, it’s to not circumvent the county, but make it so the county says, “Well, you got to follow the SMA rules,” which is a state law, coastal zone management law, and basically say, “Well, the state exempts it, the county, you don’t have to follow it.”
And so you’ll see a bunch of legislation coming in that impacts both commercial and the residential side to help come up with this more expedited process. Because the challenge is, despite how well-intended the county is, it is, as Jonathan said, impossible for them to process this many permits.
There’s 162 commercial buildings, another 100 or so single-family homes that are going to need a major estimate that cannot get through there.
So I think I just wanted to add that little commentary to the great presentation you guys did. Another note is, yeah, go to UHERO website. They just updated last Friday, and you’ll be shocked looking at the Maui statistics compared to the statewide that Carl Bonham just released on Friday.
And basically, I was at a conference in Honolulu, a land-use conference in Honolulu, on Thursday, and Carl Bonham presented and said we’ve gone from a, you know, a wildfire type crisis to a financial crisis in West Maui, and the state needs to get on it and help solve it.
Akina: Thank you Ryan. Appreciate that.
Churchill: Thank you.
Akina: Now we’ve got three more individuals before we close today, and if you’d help me out to quickly state —
Jim Kun: I’ll try to go quickly.
Akina: Thank you.
Kun: My name is Jim Kun. Our family runs Maui’s oldest charter boat company.
Akina: Yes.
Kun: We had 166 employees at the day of the fire, a third of them lived in Lahaina.
We had significant losses. We’re very grateful we didn’t lose everything. We are going to survive. But now we are, many of our workforce left because they lost their homes.
We — these are not easy times in the tourist industry right now, and yet our harbor just languishes. The harbor is the heart of Lahaina Town, and [the Department of Land and Natural Resources] already had the slips and everything — they already had all the material to rebuild half the harbor before the fire.
It’s sitting, it’s — they have it, it’s paid for, it’s ready. We could’ve had a harbor functioning within — the Corps did a great job in cleaning the harbor, but now the harbor’s just on a back burner.
It’ll probably be, at the current rate, who knows? Maybe five years, maybe longer, I don’t know. But without Lahaina, without Lahaina Harbor, and I want to mention that it was the charter boat industry, we were the first responders, we were the ones out there that first night rescuing people out of the water.
We were the ones transferring people up to Kaanapali, from Kaanapali back to Maalaea. We were the ones bringing the Maui Electric crew from Lanai over to Maui. Our government was absolutely absent for the first week, I mean, so be it.
But I’m just saying that we are an important part of the community, and we need some — Lahaina Harbor, Lahaina Front Street needs to be put back on the map.
Akina: Thank you Jim. We appreciate that. Thank you very much.
[applause]
Theo Stiller: Hi, good afternoon. My name is Theo Stiller. Great presentation. I moved here from Oahu about six years ago with my family, and we do business and financial planning.
And working with a lot of small business owners, many of them were in Lahaina, and they lost their businesses. And my initial thought, aside from the shock, was the ripple effect. What’s going to happen down the road?
It’s hard enough, even before the fires, for people to survive to live here, and they might’ve been on the fence about, “Do we stay, do we leave?” And this might’ve just pushed them over the edge.
So, I don’t know what the answer is. It’s just something that has been on my mind a lot as we’ve committed to keeping people here. And I mean, we work with a lot of people from medical professionals to construction. And even them, they’re on the fence about leaving.
When you were bringing up the stats about Kauai, and construction in particular, how, like, where did the construction workers come from, the companies come from?
Like, I mean, because that’s something that’s going to happen here as well, I foresee. I don’t know if you have any data on that, but I’d be curious. Thank you.
Akina: Thank you, Theo. Thank you.
Helton: Not off the top of my head. But now, I have another question to go answer, so I’ll get back with you.
Akina: Thank you.
Lorien Acquintas: Hello everybody. My name is Lorien Acquintas. Many people know me as Lolo from Front Street. I had two businesses, Maui Surf Culture and Maui Ink Culture, right at 602 Front Street, which was a walk, crosswalk through Kam 3 School where I could just —
Tito was one of the crosswalks, I could bring my daughter over there. But I just, I don’t really have a question. I just wanted to say when you were bringing up some stuff, I started to almost cry like I’m about to cry now.
Talk about Mill Camp and all the stats and it’s like, it’s tough because where’s the 87% of renters who were in Mill Camp in my neighborhood? Where are they going? Where’s the 13% of homeowners?
You’ve mentioned it, they’re going to be able to — are they going to be able to pass all these things? Where are they going to go?
And then as a business owner, I was almost with the Matsumotos to secure the contract to buy that place to continue fostering all our youth programs and cleaning up and doing everything we did. And then now, it sounds like to me that where is Lahaina going to be? Sounds like those deep pockets, sounds like we’re getting pushed out.
I mean, incentive for me when I lived in a four-bedroom place was to go to Minatoya list, where there’s a one-car parking place, rule regulated. I had animals, we had more cars. And then I hear the single-family homes are going up in price. They are.
In August, they just skyrocketed up. So yeah, and then we see commercials about Vegas. Realtors, Hawaii, Vegas. So is that my incentive to move?
You know, I lost all my material, I didn’t lose my heart. And I just wanted to say because man, you guys just bring up some stuff that is really difficult to go through, but you guys sound like, and it feels like, you have the heart of Maui. So thank you, guys. I just wanted to thank you guys and say [unintelligible]. And mahalo everybody for being here.
Akina: Thank you Lolo. Thank you so much.
[applause]
What a very fitting and poignant comment to end on today. And all of your comments, all of your participation, reminds me that this issue is far from over. We’re at the beginning of something that will define the true resilience and recovery of the people of Maui and all of Hawaii, and I want to thank you for being part of it.
We don’t in any way position ourselves as the experts. We have a narrow field that we operate in in terms of policy work, and we want to do our part. But we realize that it is the parts of so many at so many levels, and all of you as stakeholders who live here that will ultimately make the difference. And as we like to say at the Grassroot Institute, “e hana kākou,” let us work together.
Thank you for being here. If you’d like to stay in touch and want a copy of today’s presentation, as well as, Jonathan, if I can task you and Joe with this, as well as a summary of responses that you promised in the answers, we’d like to send that to you. Simply request it on this white card that’s at your table, and we’ll send it to you.
You can also sign up for our weekly publications, and we’ll stay in touch with you. Thank you so very much. On behalf of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, aloha.