MauiLifeStyleBlog

The Maui News, Saturday, October 06, 2007

Editorial

Affordable or no housing?

In withdrawing its application for a 72-unit affordable housing complex, Maui Lani Partners has not denied its obligation to provide some form of affordable housing imposed as a condition of the original zoning for the 1,000-acre project district.

But it is sending a message to Maui County Council members that their demands can be unreasonable. There was no backbiting in the letter from Leiane Paci advising the council that the development group will take another look at how to provide the housing it is obligated to build.

It is clear that the conditions demanded by the council Policy Committee made the project financially unfeasible. Maui Lani already has expended thousands of dollars on developing plans for the proposed rental apartment complex aimed at families in the lower-income brackets of the community. No developer would accept those costs as losses without seriously considering all of its options.

What drives the council committee clearly is a complete disregard for the costs of building any project. Policy Chairman Danny Mateo insists that he still believes the conditions proposed by the committee were fair, but offers no insights on why he thinks the project could be more affordable.

There is a tendency among some members apparently to believe that the county government in support of populist sentiment has a right to restrict profit by business - even prohibit it. It's a strange position for council members to take after every one of them defended a massive increase in their own salaries to suggest that developers really ought to bite the bullet and do with less.

That the council members had no authority to turn down the 26 percent pay increases granted by the county Salary Commission is irrelevant. None of them went to the commission before it made its decision to argue that an increase was unwarranted or unnecessary.

The reality is council members seek the office because they think they will make a difference in the future of the county, but they don't just do it out of the goodness of their hearts. They expect to be paid for their work.

Subdivision developers build houses because they believe there is a market for what they can provide, and they expect to be paid for it. They don't build houses just because they have good hearts and know the community needs places to live.

Copyright © 2007 The Maui News.

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