SubscribeWAILUKU - The Maui Planning Commission dipped its toes into the rough waters of general land use planning for the next 20 years Tuesday, getting a philosophical overview of the Maui Island Plan from Dave Michaelson of the Planning Department’s Long Range Planning Division.
It’s about more than zoning, Michaelson said.
“You make social decisions about who’s going to be able to stay on this island” when you establish land use policies, he said.
The commission has 180 days to review, refine and send its version of the Maui Island Plan to the County Council. The council will then meld the island plans being reviewed by the Molokai and Lanai planning commissions into an ordinance to manage growth for the next two decades - and, if Michaelson gets his way, for generations to come.
It’s a new approach to planning, he said, citing his mentor, Ian McHarg, and other academic experts behind the “New Urbanism.” And some of the ways the county does business will be changed “radically” if all the ideas in the Maui Island Plan are also endorsed by the commission.
Continued on Maui News
