Good question. Thanks to Seabury Hall’s newly formed Philosophy Club,
it was the topic of a formal debate on Wednesday evening, Nov. 11,
between Charlie Jencks, Maui Chamber of Commerce Chair and realtor
Lance Holter, President of Sierra Club’s Maui Chapter.
“We’re a school with a purpose, reaching out to and being an active
participant in the community,” Seabury’s headmaster Joseph Schmidt
explained. Their Philosophy Club scored a hit with this well-attended
event held in the Dining Hall; it was the second of its planned monthly
public debates, which they call “First Wednesdays.”
Carter Latendresse, a teacher at Seabury Hall’s Middle School, served
as moderator. Reverend Moki Hino rang a chime to indicate how much time
the presenters had to answer each question. Five questions were from
the Philosophy Club students, others from the audience and from the
participants themselves.
There was a wide range of topics, from “How does your work affect the
long-term health of Maui’s environment, specifically its air, water and
land?” to “Can the permit process be streamlined?” to “What are your
views on Akaku?” Jencks dismissed this particular question, saying “The
whole discussion about Akaku’s influence is overstated.”
A few main issues quickly emerged, with each participant using this
opportunity to emphasize important points. For Holter, it was the vital
importance of affordable housing, the Legacy Lands Act, the Northshore
Heritage Park, the necessity of opening the public’s Kala Road for
residents to use, and the importance of creating and maintaining a
healthy society for all residents.
Jencks was frustrated with county government, complaining about the
length of the permit process, the Water Board, about specific comments
made by the mayor, and about parks not being built by the local
government.
He also promoted his Wailea 670 project, which Holter said has “Morphed
from a community for working people with a public golf course into a
luxury development that will use two million gallons of water per day,
to be built on land which contains endangered and threatened native
plants.” Jencks responded that instead of the 2,600 units originally
proposed, they only plan to build 1,400. At one point, he held up a
thick binder, saying “This book is filled with letters to and from
public agencies, state and local, community groups, on this project in
south Maui since January of this year. That’s commitment?that’s giving
back to the community.
“I go out, I listen to a lot of people,” he said “By and large, there’s
very little people that participate. They come and they complain, but
they don’t return to the ’ohana by getting on a board, by serving on a
committee.”
For example, referring to the County’s Department of Water Supply, he
said, “They can’t issue a permit because they don’t have the water to
give you a permit. They can’t review and approve plans because they’re
not sure who they work for; is it the Council or the Mayor? And we’re
not quite sure what standards they’re using that day.”
On the subject of the permit process, however, both agreed that it needs to be improved.
“We live on an island; we have limited resources. We must prioritize
our land use to benefit residents,” said Holter. “The permit process
should be streamlined for affordable housing; it even says so in the
General Plan.”
“You shouldn’t be treated any differently whether you’re building
affordable housing or high-end houses; you get your permit now,” said
Jencks. “You spend money for the people to work and to buy the
materials. You get to close, the bankers make money, the homeowner gets
a lower interest rate, gets in the house quicker, moves in, buys
furniture, it all happens, that’s how it works, folks. The longer it
takes, the more it costs.”
Jencks repeatedly emphasized the importance of building luxury homes.
“Our budget in Maui County is approximately $400 million a year, ok?
Property tax is almost 45 percent of that revenue. So it’s important we
have a good property tax stream,” he said. He compared a house in
Kahului with four fulltime residents to a house in Wailea with two part
time residents.
He said the Wailea house pays five times the amount of property tax as
the Kahului house and has less demand for county services. “It doesn’t
take a computer to figure out that’s a gain for the county in terms of
revenue and less cost on roads, sewer, water, schools and parks,” he
said.
Holter’s response was that a luxury home uses resources and is a tremendous waste of energy.
“And to me, it’s abhorrent because if you consider what 10 homes for
the teacher, the fireman, the policeman, the nurse, the librarian, the
engineer, the County Planner all the nuts and bolts of our society
would generate in tax revenue, it’s the same amount that the
development community talks about, but would help create a healthy
society,” he said.
“For 30 years we’ve been promised that if we invest our capital in
resorts and luxury development, that this would benefit our residents,”
said Holter. “We’ve created an economy whereby our local residents need
two or three jobs to survive.”
Holter said the current way of doing things was a failure. “We need to
reinvent how we’re going to live as a society on this island.”
Jencks agreed to some degree.
“We created a cultural separation and maybe to some degree a class
separation,” he said. But there was a need for the county to generate
revenue for infrastructure, as the society changed from agriculture to
tourism.
“I don’t believe government is good at building homes,” Jencks said. “I
prefer and believe in market forces. Government has to get out of the
way and let the private sector build product. There is no new product
coming on board.”
Holter disagreed.
“Market forces have not worked on Maui. We’re a sensitive small economy
the market is not going to provide affordable homes. Everybody wants
to live on Maui,” he said. “We need to intervene, just like you would
with an addict.” He mentioned the fact that there are 10,656 houses
currently planned for in the Kihei/Makena area alone, and approximately
42,000 planned for all of Maui County. And these are just those that
are already planned. By next year, there could be many more.
Much, much more was said, many other issues discussed. Be sure to
attend the next debate. It’s free of charge and is scheduled for
Wednesday, Dec. 7, at Seabury Hall. Call 572-7235 for details.
Religion and Philosophy teacher John Dependahl chairs the promising
Philosophy Club, which currently consists of just 10 students Lindsey
Schneider, Darren Neagoy, Quincy Dein, Lauren Perry, Ioven Fables,
Bailey Roberts, Jadrienne Johnson, Nicole Shearer, Ryan Furtado and
Karen Hargrove. During the break, baked goods the students had made
were available for sale, with all the proceeds going to a homeless
shelter in Wailuku.