DRIP committee debates rush to finish South Maui community plan as key zoning items remain unresolved

The Disaster Recovery, International Affairs and Planning (DRIP) Committee reconvened Sept. 23 to continue line‑by‑line review of the South Maui Community Plan and spent the opening hour debating whether to push to finish the plan this term.

Chair Tamara Paulton said the committee’s goal was to get “as far as we could by October 8” and later explained she had canceled other commitments to prioritize the review. Several council members pushed back, noting the Planning Commission is still deliberating zoning items—specifically H3 and H4—that could require later amendments if the plan is adopted now. “If it's going to be taken up next term anyway, I don't see the urgency,” one member told the chair.

Planning staff and committee members said there are tradeoffs: frequent, concentrated meetings can preserve continuity and reduce repeated staff briefings; but members and staff have other committee obligations and limited resources. The committee agreed to continue work on non‑controversial items and set several items for explicit revisits when missing departmental resources (Public Works, DEM) can attend. The chair also asked staff to prioritize clarity on which policy changes would require concurrent code amendments versus implementation actions so members could make informed decisions.

What’s next: the committee will reconvene with Public Works and Environmental Management present for the remaining resilience and infrastructure items and will keep written testimony open even as oral testimony closed Sept. 21.