Depending on where the lines are drawn, coastal developments could require more — or less — oversight to build on Maui.

The county has started the long process of reevaluating the Special Management Area maps that govern which parts of the island are subject to enhanced protections for environmental, cultural and historic resources.

The boundaries haven’t been updated in 50 years while sea levels have risen, rainfall patterns have changed and the demand on housing and supporting infrastructure has increased. 

“From the environmental protection side, obviously more land that gets more oversight will likely benefit from resource protection, while the other side feels over-regulation prevents development and adds undue cost and time burden,” said Mark Deakos, who sits on the Maui Planning Commission, which will have to approve any changes.

Earlier this month, the Planning Department put out a bid for proposals for consultants to assess the current SMA boundaries and make recommendations on whether they need to be changed to facilitate development while still protecting fragile coastal environments. 

“Does this boundary make sense?” Maui Planning Director Kate Blystone said. “That’s really the question we’re seeking to solve or to answer.”

For The Greater Good 

The Special Management Area rules are intended to regulate development along the shoreline to preserve, protect, and where possible, restore the cultural and natural resources.

Substantial projects within these areas are required to receive a permit that takes into account the impact any grading, building or digging will have on the environment. A developer’s plans are evaluated by the department and submitted to the commission for approval. They are required to show that environmental impacts like erosion or flooding will be mitigated. 

“The SMA rules were put in place for a purpose,” Deakos said. “They were put in place because we value those public resources for the greater community. Everyone benefits, and so we want to make sure that we protect them as best we can.”

When the rules were first established in 1975, the SMA lines were drawn to include anything on the oceanside of a nearby major highway. They haven’t changed since, and there’s no timeline for reviewing the boundaries, according to Blystone.

Last year, the county redrew its shoreline boundaries, a narrow subset of the Special Management Area. That dictates things like shoreline setbacks, so the county makes sure new homes and businesses are far enough away from the coast to better align with revised erosion projections. The broader SMA boundary, which covers larger areas, wasn’t updated. 

Now the county is weighing whether that should happen to “more precisely protect coastal resources,” Ana Lillis, deputy planning director, said in a statement. “This evaluation will help ensure that Maui’s coastal management policies remain current and responsive to changing shoreline conditions,” she said. 

Over time, there have been questions from developers, environmentalists and community members about whether those broader SMA boundaries make sense. Newer scientific models from researchers at Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System and University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant, for example, project how different levels of sea level rise and erosion will impact Maui’s coastline.

“Now we have more information than we did then,” Blystone said. “We could draw this boundary based on a better set of metrics other than just makai of whatever the nearest highway is.”

The assessment will allow the county to “respond to evolving environmental and climate conditions such as sea level rise and flood hazards while ensuring the public is not overly burdened with excessive review or permitting requirements,” according to the call for proposals.

“To me, just as a planner, I would want something that has some good, solid science behind it,” Blystone said. “That’s something that I care about.”

The consultant’s report is also expected to examine the impact of the current SMA boundaries on the cost and time it takes to acquire building permits. Changing the boundary to add more land to a Special Management Area could subject development to a more stringent permitting process with greater oversight and, critics say, longer timelines for county approval. 

Albert Perez, executive director of Maui Tomorrow Foundation, a nonprofit focused on protecting Maui’s natural resources, is concerned that if the territory covered by the SMA rules shrinks, it could put coastal ecosystems at risk. 

“The area that needs protection hasn’t changed,” Perez said. “It certainly hasn’t shrunk and maybe there might be an area that needs protection that’s not being protected right now.”

Blystone said it’s too soon to say how much land will be included in the Special Management Areas at the end of the assessment. It’s possible that at the end of the process, the delineations stay the same. Right now, about one-tenth of Maui is designated a Special Management Area, according to the Planning Department.

Deakos is waiting to see what happens, but he understands the complexity. 

Rules Won’t Be Overhauled

The current SMA rules are relatively new. After years of public comment and debate over drafts, the rules were approved by the Planning Commission in November 2023 and signed into law by Mayor Richard Bissen last July.

The regulations have been controversial. Maui Tomorrow sued the commission, arguing that 15 categorical exemptions were unlawful. The exemptions, which carved out minor development from permitting requirements, were so broad as to make the coastal regulations ineffective, the lawsuit argued. A judge agreed with environmentalists this February, but the county has appealed.

The SMA rules have also been part of the conversation as neighborhoods in Lahaina move through the rebuilding process. To facilitate faster recovery, Bissen waived the SMA rules for more than 600 properties in the burn zone.

The county’s proposal wouldn’t rehash the SMA rules themselves, according to Blystone. Instead, the idea is to reevaluate what land is covered by existing regulations.

Major changes to the SMA boundaries are still a ways off. A report from the consultant hired to do the assessment is due to the county by Dec. 2026, but county officials say it will likely be another year before any changes are finalized. Public engagement will be part of the project. Before the new boundaries can be enacted, the Planning Commission will have to approve the new maps. 

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation. Civil Beat’s coverage of environmental issues on Maui is supported by grants from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and the Hawai‘i Wildfires Recovery Fund and the Doris Duke Foundation.