County Not Producing Maps

Planning Commission without important reference materials     

By Melissa Kelsey

For a body of leaders who make important decisions on Molokai land use, no tool is as important as maps. That is why members of the Molokai Planning Commission (MoPC) expressed exasperation when the Maui County Planning Department failed to produce Molokai zoning and special management area (SMA) maps on deadline last Wednesday. 
Commissioners had given County planning officials a June 10 deadline to produce the maps after consistent previous requests did not produce results. 

“Shame on the Department for not giving us the appropriate tools,” said Chair of the Planning Commission Joseph Kalipi.  

In his announcement that the maps were still not available, Maui County Planning Department Administrator Clayton Yoshida cited the reason for not providing the maps as an issue of “allocation of resources for the long range.” In particular, he was concerned about how producing maps to the MoPC would affect the County if other commissions were to request similar maps.

Maui County Planning Director Jeffrey Hunt declined to go into the details of why the maps were still not available, but called supplying the maps a “complex issue.”

Zoning and SMA maps document how different Molokai land regions can legally be used and which regions require specific types of permits. Having the ability to reference these maps would greatly increase the accuracy and integrity of information commissioners use to make decisions on behalf of the Molokai community, according to Vice Chair of the Planning Commission Steve Chaikin.  

“When you have a commission who has the final authority in a certain area, they should have maps so they know where the boundaries are,” said Chaikin.   

At the MoPC meeting last Wednesday, commissioners relied on maps provided by a member of the general public to conduct agenda items.