“Show Me the Water” was thoroughly researched – doesn’t need changes

The Council’s Water Resources Committee (with Michelle Anderson as chair)  issued a report in 2007 summarizing the in depth consultation that resulted in the County’s Water Availability policy being adopted in December of 2007.
Even a brief read of it illustrates the hard work, broad range of input and broad support this law had.
In summary, the WR committee met at least 14 times between July 2005 and the end of 2007 to shape this policy and sought out in depth input from state and county agencies and departments resulting in many revisions.
In contrast, the mayor appointed a small advisory committee with a one-sided perspective that  met 4 times in 30 days, consulted only with the present water director, included no input from Hawaiian Homes, OHA, native Hawaiian practitioners, housing non-profits, state DOH or any other agency involved with water management, and concluded from that limited input that:
“Task Force acknowledged that the SMTW (show me the water) enacted in 2007 did nothing to incentivize workforce housing. While the Task Force considered many amendments, including repealing the law from the Maui County Code, it decided to take a more conservative approach at this time that would likely receive broad based support and promote the development of housing projects.”

Here is the 2007 report summarizing all the research that the Council did to craft a good ordinance.