Apply rebuilding waivers to all Lahaina fire victims

by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D., President/CEO Grassroot Institute, April 21, 2025

State legislators have an opportunity to help Lahaina recover from the 2023 wildfires, and I hope they don’t pass it up.

Before them now, in the closing days of the 2025 legislative session, is SB1296, which, with Lahaina in mind, is a forward-looking proposal that seeks to exempt buildings anywhere in Hawaii destroyed by a disaster from needing a Special Management Area permit to rebuild, so long as the rebuilt structures are similar in dimensions to the ones that were destroyed.

If adopted, SB1296 will affect more than 600 property owners in the Lahaina area. However, it won’t provide total relief for about a hundred of these who are also in what is called the Shoreline Setback area.

The shoreline rules are based on concerns about ocean activity such as sea level rise and erosion. But the Lahaina homes and businesses in the shoreline setback area weren’t destroyed by ocean activity. They were destroyed by wildfires, just like their neighbors a few blocks away.

So if our legislators decide to approve SB1296 — which I think they should — I hope they will amend it to include a waiver from the shoreline setback rules.

This isn’t just a question of fairness, but also one of compassion. Shoreline property owners face uncertainty about when they will have a home again, how long it will take to rebuild, and even what their rebuilt structures might look like. Without an exemption, the process could take years. Even then, they might not be able to rebuild on the same footprint as before.

Maui was already facing a housing crisis before the fires. It is senseless to remove more housing stock by stalling shoreline construction and leave more families homeless.

If we want to see anything like the Lahaina we once had, we have to allow the community and businesses that thrived there to be rebuilt. Some of these businesses and homes were passed down through generations. If we cut off the ones that were in the shoreline, we will fracture that sense of community forever.

This is not about new development. These buildings were built legally before the fires occurred. Allowing them to be rebuilt in the same footprint would speed up the recovery process without changing the character of the town and prevent those property owners from facing further loss and devastation.

The families and businesses that lost everything in the fire didn’t choose to be on the front lines of the disaster. The fires didn’t discriminate based on zoning or proximity to the ocean, and those with shoreline properties don’t deserve to be treated differently from other fire victims.

As our lawmakers gather to consider SB1296, I hope they remember that rebuilding Lahaina means rebuilding all of it.