What We Heard

Vision Workshop: Phase I (Jan. 14 – Feb. 14, 2021)

The vision is a vital part of the South Maui Community Plan. It describes the future we are trying to achieve with the goals, policies and actions within the community plan. In order to craft this vision, planners posted a survey to the We Are South Maui website to gather feedback from the community regarding four questions:

1) What do you want MORE OF in South Maui?

2) What do you want LESS OF in South Maui?

3) What do you want to PRESERVE in South Maui?

4) What are South Maui’s COMMUNITY VALUES?

In addition to the survey, the Planning Department held four online Vision Workshops over Zoom. In the workshops, participants were asked to answer the same questions. This format allowed members of the community to break off into smaller groups for discussion before sharing their answers with the rest of the group.

A total of 100 participants completed the survey on the website and 74 participants attended the workshops. A list of responses for each question can be viewed by clicking on the buttons below.

Story Map Activity (Nov. 18 – Dec. 31, 2020)

Between November 18, 2020 and December 31, 2020 the County posted a Story Map with information about the South Maui Community Plan region to the website. This map included information about the existing Kihei-Makena Community Plan designations, natural resources, cultural heritage, agriculture, parks and open space, hazards, transportation, and infrastructure and public facilities.

After examining the map, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire to help us make the map better. Ten people participated in this portion of the exercise. The following information is a reporting of those comments.

How was your experience using the story map?

If you had trouble, please tell us what was difficult about using the Story Map. (Verbatim responses below)

• The zoom in and out is a little extreme for me to coordinate easily.
• maps changed size periodically
• short term rental property (condos etc) and hotel/resorts should be clearly marked in a color other than green. bright yellow or bright pink maybe. should also show affordable housing projects separately
• Missing the most current planning document adopted by the County…Maui Island Plan. The old community plan is so old and basically superseded by the County’s General Plan and Maui Island Plan
• Unable to zoom in to see specific streets–was frustrating

How useful was the Story Map for learning about South Maui?

What did you learn from this Story Map that you did not already know about South Maui? (Verbatim responses below)

• That you at the County working on this update are light years ahead of your predecessors with critical background information.
• sea rise critical
• no much
• Missing Maui Island Plan and related Directed Growth Plan that was adopt by the County in 2012
  • Note from County: This information will be included in later workshops including Community Design Workshops.
• This could be good for the county to display on the county website all the time as it provides some very comprehensive information about the south maui region.
• Nothing new
• The geological makeup and history.
• DWS water service area
• That the reserve had the largest collection of archialine (sp?) — I hike there all the time, very special place.

What, if anything, concerns you about the information you saw in the Story Map? (Verbatim responses below)

• I hope that the maps are flexible in their updating information and inclusions of additional maps such as water shed and water use.
• Sea level rise, coastal erosion
• need for more apartments
• too much visitor/ “transitional accommodation”;
• As noted above.
• Well done – thanks for making that available.
• Flooding, tsunami, beach erosion are of most concern
• Water levels.
• I think the use of the term moku as a traditional land division is overstated. Ahupua’a is the land division that was the most and longest used. Moku traditionally meant the entire island (polynesian root), but did start to include less-than-island use in the ___’s. No land grants in the 1800’s were based on moku, they were based on ahupua’a. See The Origin of Land Title and The Rights of Native Tenants by Louis Cannelora for more information.

What, if anything, gives you hope about the information you saw in the Story Map? (Verbatim responses below)

• That there is much open space to preserve and protect and that some core wetland and natural drainage and holding areas are still un paved over.
• Having so much information about the area within everyone’s grasp will enable community participation and a better outcome than in the past.
• Planning
• I hope that improvements can be made to improve the lives of the actual RESIDENTS of south maui, rather than only providing nice environments for the high end tourists staying in Wailea.
• I am glad the planning department is actually looking at all of these issues.
• Better knowledge of the community.
• People of South Maui learning something that they did not know and that possibly opening their minds to new options and alternatives.

What do you think was missing that could have been shown in this Story Map? (Verbatim responses below)

• More Watershed, drainage, retention and water ways indicated. Both mauna and makai of Pi’ilani Hwy.
• Urban growth boundaries, plans for future recreational areas (if any), mauka bypass road. One specific thing that has long been a sore point in Kihei is patchy sidewalks. Could it show where sidewalks are missing in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic like South Kihei Road? How about projects that are a ways along in their permitting or already in construction? That is really important when considering future needs.
• Kihei Charter School in MRTP
• short term rental property (condos etc) and hotel/resorts should be clearly marked in a color other than green. bright yellow or bright pink maybe. should also show affordable housing projects separately
• General Plan policies and Maui Island Plan with Directed Growth Plan
• It would be useful to see a map display current land uses (not zoning) to illustrate commercial use nodes and how accessible these commercial nodes are to surrounding residential areas, since land uses are so disparate on Maui (rarely are there mixed use environments). Another good one would be to show a map illustrating walkable environments, perhaps by delineating those streets that have complete streets.. Walkability is one of the biggest issues for south maui, IMO. Finally, a third map would we useful to see all locations with jacked up toyota trucks parked in the front yards of homes all over south maui, though that would be a messy map, I imagine.
• Better zooming and map integrity would have been appreciated…not able to look closer at specific areas.
• Perhaps more reference to the a native history in the community. Old photos or a site map showing village sites and monuments, etc
• Since the exercise is all about establishing plan guidance for the next 10-20 years, some understanding of how S. Maui has grown would be helpful. Perhaps a map that shows the extent of the build environment in 1970 – 2020 every 10 years would help folks understand that there were growth spurts that vary by decade.
• The location of the NFIP Severe Repetitive and Repetitive Loss properties. Including the total amount of losses (property and infrastructural) damages these properties have experienced.

Note from the County: Mahalo for all of your great suggestions. Wherever possible, we added information requested to the story map which is now posted on our Resources page here. Some requests we are not able to post to the story map due to lack of available information. Some other requests will take time so we ask for your patience as we continue to improve this map.

What questions do you have for planners about the information in the Story Map?

Question: Which of these maps are legally defined, such as holding some sort [of] recorded documentations [and which] are for general rules and boundaries for use as guidelines?

The Existing Community Plan Map depicting the 1998 community plan land use designations (Single Family, Multi-family, Hotel, etc.) is regulatory and was adopted when the 1998 Kihei-Makena Community Plan was adopted. In some cases, areas were updated or designations revised with subsequent amendments to the community plan. The Natural Resources map depicts some areas regulated by the state and federal agencies including conservation lands, critical habitat and reserves. The Flooding map shows FEMA Flood Zones which do have an impact on the way that projects can be developed. All of these maps can and may be considered when reviewing projects.

Question: [N]o more ‘visitor’ related development. why not focus on quality of life improvements for long term and local residents? the all mighty dollar

The community will have a chance to make their voices heard on this issue throughout the process and the Planning Department will attempt to reflect their concerns with goals, policies and actions in the Community Plan update.

Question: Next time, please make the maps more useful.

We will continue to improve the maps available in the story map. Thank you for your suggestions and feel free to reach us at wearesouthmaui@mauicounty.gov with any additional suggestions.

Question: Why is there no reference to the most current 2030 General Plan and Maui Island Plan?

The Maui County General Plan is made up of three groups of plans: The Countywide Policy Plan (2010), the Maui Island Plan (2012), and the community plans. These plans all work together to guide development and preservation in Maui County. The Countywide Policy Plan and the Maui Island Plan are available on the South Maui Community Plan update website. In response to this question, we have added the Maui Island Plan growth boundaries to the story map on the Existing Community Plan Map. 

Planners and the community will work together to evaluate the growth boundaries that were adopted with the Maui Island Plan, and consider how and if growth should occur within those areas that are not already developed. We are at the start of this process and will consult the MIP throughout the process to make sure we are consistent with the plan or, where the plan no longer meets the community’s needs, make recommendations to amend the Maui Island Plan.

Please share any other comments you have regarding the Story Map.

• Well done. I’ll work on my zooming skills.
• Well done, Planners!
• Thanks.
• Good job!
• Great tool!
• The collection of information and geo-spatial data in one location is fantastic! Mahalo!

Kickoff Open House (Oct. 12 – Nov. 16, 2020)

To kick off the South Maui Community Plan update process, the Maui County Planning Department hosted a virtual open house. The open house provided information about the community plan and the process to update it. It also included a questionnaire to help planners get a better understanding of the issues South Maui is facing today.