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Maui County released a draft of the Lahaina Long-Term Recovery Plan on Monday after hearing from more than 3,800 community members during several public meetings, surveys and interviews from September 2023 to July 2024.

The plan “is designed to provide a roadmap for long-term recovery of Lahaina,” . About 900 people participated in five neighborhood workshops, 190 were interviewed and more than 2,700 responded to three online surveys.

Among other things, they proposed rebuilding Lahaina with underground utilities, more evacuation routes and a design to prevent wildfires from spreading.

Three open-ended questions asked of community members during workshops helped to organize a list of priorities in the draft plan: What makes their neighborhood special, what do they want rebuilt the same as it was pre-fire and what do they want changed.

The workshops produced dozens of concepts the community considered important during the town’s rebuilding process. Fire prevention and better infrastructure were the highest priorities. Affordable housing, along with cultural and historical preservation, were also high on the list.

County officials said in last week that one community desire stood out more than anything else during the plan’s drafting process: When Lahaina is rebuilt, it should feel like home, a place for residents first and visitors second.

County Council member Tamara Paltin, whose West Maui district includes Lahaina, was in a meeting most of Monday and unavailable for comment.

Her opponent in the general election, Lorien Acquintas, said he lost a home and two businesses in the Aug. 8, 2023, fire.

Asked about the recovery plan, Acquintas said he is in favor of widening certain roads to provide escape routes, but not in places where the government would appropriate portions of already small properties dating back to plantation days.

“There are options for safety routes that we already have in place,” Acquintas said. “We just never put those plans together.”

The draft recovery plan includes short-term projects of one to two years, mid-term projects of three to five years and long-term projects of six or more years.

The short-term projects include rebuilding the town, updating the National Landmark District, rebuilding affordable rental housing programs, implementing a county program to acquire real estate, expanding health care, enhancing emergency communication, improving energy resilience and creating a permanent memorial for the 102 people who died in the fire.

The mid-term projects include improving the Maui Emergency Management Agency, developing a business park to jump-start the economy, rebuilding the West Maui Senior Center, improving street connectivity for more evacuation routes, improving firefighting capacity, extending Kuhua Street to enhance connectivity, increasing capacity to handle flooding, creating a watershed recovery plan, reducing and mitigating wildfire risks, developing food-security plans and replacing King Kamehameha III School and the Lahaina Public Library.

The long-term projects include finishing the Lahaina Bypass, developing a 25-mile multiuse trail, building a physical space for nonprofits and government to assist fire survivors, expanding wastewater recycling, increasing access to groundwater sources, creating a cultural corridor, reforesting Lahaina, developing an environmentally conscious green workforce and preserving historic and cultural spaces.

The county will hold two open houses for the community to provide feedback on the draft at Lahainaluna School from 4-7 p.m. Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

The plan will remain available online for public comment. The county will compile additional feedback through November and incorporate it into the final version of the plan, which will be published in late December.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.