A&B project could bring 2K homes to Central Maui

WAILUKU – A&B Properties has released for public review a draft environmental impact statement for Wai’ale, a master-planned community on about 545 acres in Central Maui.

While the project raises the prospect of the construction of more than 2,000 homes in one of Maui’s fastest-growing regions, the development also faces some steep challenges, particularly in gaining access to drinking water and sewage treatment.

A&B Vice President Grant Chun said the project’s tentative design was “informed by the standards and goals of the Maui Island Plan,” which is pending review by the Maui County Council.

The planning and entitlement process is expected to take “many years,” Chun said Monday. Project planners are at the start of working with state officials on the project’s environmental review before seeking a district boundary amendment, he said.

The property is on either side of East Waiko Road, with Kuihelani Highway to the east and Honoapiilani Highway and Waikapu to the west. It is bordered on the north by Maui Lani’s Legends and Traditions subdivisions and the Waikapu Stream to the south.

Plans call for building 2,550 single- and multifamily homes, with land set aside for commercial and retail space, offices, civic and other public facilities, including an 18-acre middle school, a community center, regional and neighborhood parks, and a possible wastewater treatment plant. Now, the land is fallow sugar cane fields, a plant nursery, portions of a cattle feed lot, sand stockpiles and vacant land,

Agriculture in West Maui: A reality check – Lahaina News

KAANAPALI — For those of us who remember what West Maui used to look like, it’s a cold reality check. Gone are the sugar cane fields that seemed to stretch for miles coloring the landscape with their vibrant hues of green. With the recent phasing out of pineapple in West Maui, it too was another blow to our island’s agricultural roots.

The truth is what was once the “traditional” farm is no longer a viable option for many plantations due to an unstable economy, rising operating costs and global competition. But another solution is offering hope to West Maui’s agriculture woes in the form of Ka‘anapali Coffee Farms — a “new family farm” concept that not only offers a viable option, but a promising one at that.

Thanks to a dynamic collaboration between Kaanapali Land Management Corp. and MauiGrown Coffee Inc., this true agricultural community now melds the best of both worlds — spectacular home sites with a working coffee plantation.