The Maui News had two separate articles on affordable housing and new developments in yesterday’s paper. The first article was on a county vote on required percentages for affordable housing in new developments. The county council housing committee just voted that all new developments should have a minimum 40% affordable housing requirement. The percentage has been subject to significant debate overall and with specific projects. There have been calls for requirements as high as 80%. Chairmen Danny Mateo cited the 40% as a good compromise.
The feature story in yesterday’s paper was a look at current proposed and approved housing projects and their affordable housing components. The interesting part of the article was the different perspectives on the data. The article interviewed current Mayor and mayoral candidate Arakawa, housing chair Danny Mateo, mayoral candidate Charmaine Tavares, former mayor and mayoral candidate Kimo Apana and Maui Nui Task Force Coordinator Giovanni Rosati. Arakawa was concerned that there are too many projects in the pipe line. The rest of the individuals interviewed disagreed. Most were of the impression that the list was not representative of what projects would actually be built. There are a number of approved projects that do not appear to be moving forward and there are similar doubts about a number of the projects in the pipeline. For additional details including a list of proposed projects, check out the Maui News article online. Affordable housing and New development are critical issues that will impact Maui and its quality of life. We will continue to provide coverage of these issues on the Maui Real Estate Blog.
