Settlement reached for Maui resort

Associated Press

WAILUKU, Hawaii — A settlement allows a Maui resort to proceed with an expansion while allaying concerns about possible Native Hawaiian burials at the site.

The settlement provisions include reducing Grand Wailea’s new rooms from 310 to 300 and reducing a proposed wing from six stories to four. There will also be extensive archaeological testing at the wing’s site.

Maui County Planner Anna Cua disclosed the settlement at a planning commission meeting Tuesday, but settlement documents were not ready for members to discuss, so the issue will come up at the April 10 meeting, the Maui News reported.

Grand Wailea had proposed a $250-million, 310-room expansion, but owners of neighboring villas and the former chairwoman of the Maui-Lanai Burial Council intervened. Their requests to intervene were denied in 2009, but a court later reversed that ruling.

With a settlement in place, there will be no contested case proceeding, Cua said, and hotel owners can renew an application for permits.

B. Martin Luna, attorney for hotel owners Pyramid Project Management, said he’s pleased about the settlement “and we can start moving on the project.”

The hotel owners “recognized that it was better to know what they are dealing with (concerning burials) before committing to construction,” said Naone Hall, the burial council’s former chairwoman who appealed the intervention denial to the Circuit Court.

The settlement establishes a protocol to identify burials before construction, she said. If Native Hawaiian burials and remains are found and deemed necessary to keep in place, nothing will be built on top.

Isaac Hall, the attorney representing owners of neighboring Hoolei at Grand Wailea said the main concern was the height of the wing.

“To get the Molokini Wing reduced in height so that views are not obstructed was very, very important,” he said.