Lucienne explains Planning Maps
photo: Michael Duberstein

Question:
Do you think the council is on the right track in addressing the affordable housing issues in Maui County? Do you feel the 201G process helps to facilitate affordable housing?

Answer:
The County has some good ideas, but I would like to see our eventual ordinance include five important objectives :

1. Affordable housing pricing defined as that which realistically fits local salaries
   
2. Mechanism to give critical workforce members ( teachers, health care workers, police, fire, County staff) a priority when affordable units are built to encourage job retention for vital services (if County doesn’t have this ability, the selection process should be routed through an organization that can set such criteria)
   
3. Consider long-term costs in the affordability of any project (energy costs, commute distance from likely workplace, utitlity fee structures, maintenance costs)
   
4. Don’t burden developers with enforcement of long-term conditions to ensure perpetual affordability, buy-back clauses etc- this is better left to a non-profit like the newly formed HALE land trust
   
5. Commercial developments should also contribute to affordable housing supply through donation of land or funds, such as is done on the island of Hawaii.

201G process is well intended, but has a big flaw because it depends upon a state review board which may be very unfamiliar with the practical side of the proposed projects it considers on neighbor islands. The theory is good- the County should consider offering a similar fast-track process for projects that meet a 50 to 80% affordable price level locally and ask the state to cooperate in waiving its full review process if the project has appropriate infrastructure and satisfies local housing requirements.

Question:
Maui County has budgeted $300M in capital improvement funding for the last four years. How has this level of funding improved public infrastructure and addressed the needs of our communities?

Answer:
Some of the CIP funding has gone to very necessary projects such as developing infrastructure capacity for water and waste water projects, improvements to existing or proposed community facilities, replacement of bridges along County controlled roadways. traffic calming devices , etc.

However, many community needs remain unmet ( ie adequate parking in Wailuku town, run down park facilities county wide, functioning Po’okela well, lack of transportation alternatives in west Maui) . I am one of the citizens who attend budget hearings and am astounded at the cost of even the simplest appearing county funded public works projects.

Question:
Do you think there should be time limits in the land use decision making process? If so, how would you implement your changes?

Answer:
There already are some time limits built into the land use decision making process, such as the timetable built into Bill 84. As far as the SMA, Conditional Use Permit, Rezoning Application, Community Plan Amendment and other reviews are concerned, I feel that the current process would benefit from having a more realistic assessment criteria of what projects serve the broadest community need and provide for the sustainable future Maui citizens asked for in the Focus Maui Nui process. The projects that meet these criteria, should be allowed to move forward more quickly.

Implementation: Incentive-based approval processes exist in many municipalities. The Council could amend the Subdivision code or other relevant statutes to provide for incentive based approval criteria. The national LEED guidelines could be a good starting point, with needed revisions augmenting the LEED model to reflect local conditions.

Question:
What is your position on the ”stacking”of uses within a zoning district? Do you think the only uses that should be permitted within a district are those that are specifically permitted?

Answer:
I believe that planning that actually serves the community often needs to have flexibility within zoning categories. However, there are sometimes sound health or safety reasons for only permitting specific uses within a particular zoning district.

Question:
How would you address the Planning Department audit and what actions would you recommend to address this shortfall in service?

Answer:
As the audit concluded, shortfalls in our Planning Department are the result of a broad range of factors. Staff recruitment difficulties in a booming construction economy contribute to a working atmosphere where too few experienced people are trying to deal with too many projects. Leadership and morale issues can further reduce efficiency. Lack of physical space has also played a part.

However, as a longtime resident of Maui, I remember the “quiet days” of the 1970’s, when long delays, lost papers and indifferent service were all present at the Planning Department, even with a much lighter workload.

Solutions: I served as honorary “Mayor” of a small town in California in the 1970’s. The mayor of the neighboring city and I often discussed community topics. His planning department was known for its efficiency. They had a professional staff with good training, low turnover and relatively rewarding pay scale. The planning director was not appointed at the whim of the Mayor, but was a civil service type position where the city manager conducted a search for the best and brightest. As a growing city, there were opportunities for staff advancement. They also had regular review of planning processes to try to streamline the experience for both staff and clients.

Maui County needs to do all it can to implement many of the audit’s suggestions including better staff training, more efficient storage procedures, prioritizing simpler projects for speedy review and making the whole planning process more user friendly for the public. As a concerned citizen, I find it very difficult to get timely information from the Planning Department. As a homeowner, I find the planning approval process confusing and inefficient.

Question:
Do you support public and private sector development of water? Would you give full credit to a private sector developer of source?

Answer:
Public-private sector development of water on Maui has not had a smooth course. The quantity or quality of water developed is not always clearly known in advance. When limits become apparent, partners often struggle and try to make the resource fit their needs rather than accepting its limits. I believe that water is a public resource and should be better managed. The private sector has a role to play in that management, but I feel that it is shortsighted to think that completely private systems will offer reasonably priced, high quality domestic water for our future.

As for credit for developers of new water sources, this would depend upon the individual situation and whether the arrangement was beneficial to the public at large or just one limited community of citizens.

Question:
What is your opinion on moratoriums?

Answer:
Moratoriums can serve a community when they are used as temporary measures to address health and safety issues ( such as the City of San Diego did a few years ago.) I do not feel complete moratoriums are realistic, but regional moratoriums to address infrastructure shortfalls, are often very effective. Maui has faced a number of regional moratoriums over the past several decades due to lack of infrastructure. There is no shame in admitting that a community needs time to catch up basic service levels to insure continuing quality of life for local residents.

Question:
What do you think the council’s role in the cruise ship industry should be?

Answer:
Cruise ships are basically huge floating hotels with their own set of impacts (they use up scarce dock space, and pump out thousands of additional visitors who come ashore and use local roads, sewers, parks, etc) but few of the same benefits; (no TAT, or excise tax on room rates, less patronage of local restaurants and shops, etc).

I believe the Council has the authority to work with the state to set standards for cruise ships which would limit Cruse ship numbers and length of stay in docking areas, regulate environmental practices such as sewage discharge and air quality impacts as well as set some sort of passenger “landing fee” that can help balance out the lack of TAT revenues.and help fund enforcement efforts and needed infrastructure. Cruise ship passengers do seem to patronize a number of activity companies and they are beginning to use more local produce, however much more can be done to help cruise ships bring more benefits than impacts to our community.

Question:
How do you view growth?

Answer:
I disagree with those who say “growth is inevitable”. I believe that we live in a dynamic natural system that grows and shrinks as various conditions interact with it. I feel that it is important for Maui to look at a 100-year horizon and plan for what our citizens call “a sustainable future. “ This is a future where Maui is a community, not a commodity. Where change does not equate with loss. Where our natural and historic places are seen as treasures to be protected, rather than landscapes to be shaped into something else. Where we work together - dedicating our resources to improve life for all the people who live here and create a society of growing opportunities and self-sufficiency. I believe that as we grow, our rights and privileges to shape these four islands of Maui Nui must be balanced with our responsibility to actually care for them and pass them on, undiminished, to future generations.

Question:
Do you support the superferry coming into Maui County?

Answer:
I think the citizens of Maui and the other islands deserve to have truthful information about the superferry to weigh the costs and benefits of its future here. I was one of the original citizen’s asking the hard questions of the state, and those questions remain unanswered. As a Council member, I would support public and private sector efforts to convince Young Bros to continue LCL freight operations on pier two and make the superferry do a proper study and wait its turn for harbor improvements before it begins operations.

Question:
What is your position on harbor improvements?

Answer:
We have needed an updated Kahului harbor improvement plan for a long time. Our harbor is a unique and multifaceted place, essential to our health and safety as an island community. I attended the briefing of the state senate transportation committee on statewide harbor needs in Honolulu last year. The committee heard from a wide variety of users about the dangers the current overcrowding of Kahului Harbor presents to commercial users. With modern computer modeling techniques it would be exciting to let a variety of harbor users consider several models that could offer increased docking area and other needed amenities.

If existing facilities are planned to be relocated (such as cement storage areas), it would be wise to plan this transition well in advance to offer every user a fair chance to avoid costly interruptions in business. Financing harbor improvements will also need long-term planning and state and federal funds should be sought early to allow for multiple appropriations over the span of the project.

Question:
Do you think Maui County is in need of another hospital? If so, what will you do to assist with the need?

Answer:
I think that Maui County needs better selection of medical services in West Maui, Hana, South Maui , Molokai and Lanai. Building more hospitals is not the only need. We can not simply hope that additional medical personnel will come to Maui. We must plan for our future needs and be proactive.

Maui County’s leadership needs to partner with charitable organizations to establish scholarship programs which encourage more residents to take medical training as doctors, nurses, dentists, imaging technicians, etc with the provision that the graduates will return to our communities to serve. These are secure careers for our youth.

We need our community planning process to establish workforce housing as part of mixed use communities near future and existing medical facilities and offer this housing as incentives for medical personnel to become long-tern employees. With a rapidly aging local population, and an influx of former and new residents who are retirees, we need to plan for our own nursing school. Depending upon funding, County policy makers can partner with the state to expand the existing nursing training school at MCC to include room for hundreds of students and an attached long term care facility or offer zoning entitlements to attract another private or NGO entity to set up such a facility elsewhere on Maui.

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