Supreme Court Decision Came Too Late For Maui Residents Fighting Housing Development … The ruling could have statewide implications, as it narrows the limits of what planning and zoning exemptions are permissible for a fast-track affordable housing development.
A group of Lahaina residents is seeking a creative path forward after fighting an affordable housing project for seven years only to win at the Hawaii Supreme Court but have little recourse because the development has already been built.
Billed as the first primarily affordable housing community to be built in West Maui in 40 years, the 203-unit Kahoma Village was constructed on the last undeveloped parcel on Lahaina’s Front Street with families starting to move in last year.
A group of concerned Lahaina residents known as the Protect and Preserve Kahoma Ahupua‘a Association had tried to intervene in 2014 when the Maui Planning Commission approved a developer’s application for a permit to build Kahoma Village.
