The following testimony was submitted by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii for consideration by the Maui County Council on Dec. 19, 2025.
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Dec. 19, 2025, 9 a.m.
Kalana O Maui Building
To: Maui County Council
Alice Lee, Chair
Yuki Lei Sugimura, Vice Chair
From: Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
Jonathan Helton, Policy Analyst
RE: Bill 183 (2025) — RELATING TO BUILDING HEIGHTS FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION IN THE LAHAINA NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK DISTRICT
Aloha Chair Lee, Vice Chair Sugimura and other members of the Council,
The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii supports — and offers an amendment to —Bill 183 (2025), which would amend the West Maui Community Plan to allow public or quasi-public buildings destroyed or damaged by the Aug. 8, 2023 wildfires to be rebuilt to their previous heights and buildings in the Lahaina National Historic Landmark District to be 35 feet tall.
According to the 2022 West Maui Community Plan, the current height limit for buildings within the Lahaina NHLD is 30 feet. But this standard did not anticipate a disaster such as the wildfires.
The Maui County Council and Mayor Richard Bissen did approve Bill 105 (2024) in March 2025 to waive typical zoning rules for nonconforming structures and uses after disasters. But because this 30-foot height limit is in a community plan and not the zoning code, Bill 105 (2024) did not address this rule.
Grassroot supports this legislation because it would empower Lahaina residents and entrepreneurs to rebuild what they had before the wildfires. But it also requests that the Council to allow all buildings — not just nonconforming structures — the right to rebuild to their pre-fire heights.
Buildings that were taller than the 35-feet limit imposed by the bill and would like to rebuild to their pre-fire footprint — such as the Wharf Cinema Center — currently face the prospect of going through a complicated community plan amendment process to be rebuilt as before.
As such, Grassroot requests the bill be amended to read as follows:
This would remove the language limiting the bill to structures used for ”public and quasi-public purposes.”
Grassroot believes this would be the fairest way to treat rebuilding within the Lahaina National Historic Landmark District, but welcomes further dialogue about how to encourage Lahaina’s recovery, if anyone has any other helpful suggestions.
Grassroot’s recent policy brief “Four more ways to speed up Lahaina’s wildfire recovery” lists other regulations that we encourage county lawmakers to consider waiving.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Jonathan Helton
Policy Analyst
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
