Maui Condo Owners Want To Tax Themselves To Save Their Homes From Rising Seas …Are Community Facilities Districts a win-win? Property owners pay to protect their condos, and the public gets to enjoy improved beaches and infrastructure.
As sea levels rise due to climate change, one spot on Maui is particularly vulnerable: Kahana Bay.
Hundreds of residents of this beachside community on the island’s northwest coast are trying to save their properties from collapsing into the sea, as happened to a home on Oahu’s North Shore in February. Kahana Bay residents formed a steering committee and hired an engineering firm to develop a plan. Now, with a 1,041-page proposal in hand, they are pressing Maui County to authorize their use of a financing tool so they can get the job done.
The funding mechanism is called a Community Facilities District, or CFD. It’s often used in places like California, Arizona and Florida when new housing developments go in, said Curt de Crinis of Columbia Capital Management who is advising Maui County on the financial instrument. But it would be a first for Maui.
