WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — Maui councilmembers will decide whether a 150-year-old home formerly owned by a sugar plantation manager can be used as a vacation rental. ADVERTISING WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — Maui councilmembers will decide whether a 150-year-old home formerly
WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — Maui councilmembers will decide whether a 150-year-old home formerly owned by a sugar plantation manager can be used as a vacation rental.
Planning commissioners voted 5-2 to recommend that the council approve permits for the property owned by Wailea Golf LLC subsidiary 355 Haiku Road LLC, the Maui News reported (http://bit.ly/1sLJPsR).
A 10-bedroom house sits on the nearly 14-acre former Baldwin Estate, along with a cottage, botanical garden and swimming pool. The company plans to add restrooms, a kitchen and pool house.
Wailea Blue Golf Course general manager Barry Helle said the site’s many modifications over the years kept it off the historic registry.
“But there’s still a lot of history there,” Helle said.
One resident expressed noise concerns.
“If you rent for many dollars, a whole house and a pool and everything, would you stop partying at 10 o’clock?” Adrienne Gaedeke said. “I really enjoy the rural quietness. That’s part of why I moved to Haiku.”
A commissioner was worried about bringing more activity to an area where the former Haiku Mill operates as an events venue.
“We already just approved a property adjacent to your property,” member Richard Higashi said. “There’s going to be a major conflict between having these activities occur simultaneously.”
Planning commissioner Keaka Robinson pointed to possible jobs.
“I see it as a benefit,” he said. “It also restricts them more because now there’s two companies that have to be quiet. And if either one of them messes up, the complaint would be good and it’s a one-year term.”
Permit conditions limit guests, ban pyrotechnics and make curfews possible. The company also would have to share rental plans with neighbors living within 1,000 feet of the property.
