The Maui Planning Commission voted 5–1 on August 11, 2026 to accept the final environmental impact statement for Mākena Mauka. That is the plan for 652 homes on 1,044 acres above Mākena State Park, which Maui Now reported carries a price tag of about $4 billion. Accepting the environmental review is an early step in the permitting process. Before any market-rate home exists, the project still needs zoning, land use and shoreline approvals from the state and the county. Its homes are scheduled across three 10-year construction phases beginning in 2028. If you're weighing a home in Mākena this fall, that sequence matters more than the headline number.
What the August vote actually did
Maui Now's report on the hearing describes a project that is much smaller than it started. In 2024 the developer, AREG AC Mākena Propco, proposed 900 homes. After community feedback the plan dropped to 652: 543 market-rate homes and 109 on-site workforce units. That is a 27% cut, according to Mark Roy, lead planner for the project at consultant Munekiyo Hiraga.
Commission Vice Chair Andrea Kealoha made the motion to accept. Maui Now reported she said the final EIS "crossed the T's and dotted the I's." Commissioner Mark Deakos cast the only no vote. The county's acceptance letter, dated August 13, 2026, records the vote.
The state's August 8, 2026 Environmental Notice lists the approvals the project still needs. These are the land use and permitting approvals on that list:
- A State Land Use Commission district boundary amendment
- A community plan amendment
- A change of zoning
- A county special use permit
- A shoreline setback approval
- A Special Management Area use permit
The same notice also lists amendments to a Public Utilities Commission certificate and its associated rules and regulations. Project attorney Cal Chipchase told the commission that parts of the project will go to the Land Use Commission and the Maui County Council, and then back to the Planning Commission for the SMA permit. As of October 12, I found no reporting of a scheduled Land Use Commission or County Council hearing on Mākena Mauka.
The community plan above it is stalled
Item two on that list runs into a larger problem. The South Maui Community Plan, which used to be called the Kihei-Makena Community Plan, was last updated in 1998. Its rewrite is now before a County Council committee. Civil Beat reported on October 2, 2026 that council member Tamara Paltin, who chairs that committee, said the final plan is unlikely to be approved by the current council.
"If we make controversial votes right now, I would anticipate that depending on how the election goes, it just becomes undone later on," Paltin told Civil Beat. She said she plans to hold off on controversial amendments while the subcommittee finishes other sections. Once the committee finishes its line-by-line review, its changes go back to the Planning Commission before the full council can vote.
Civil Beat named Mākena Mauka among the projects at stake, alongside the already-approved Honuaʻula project. The draft plan doesn't decide Mākena Mauka on its own. It does set the policy framework the project's community plan amendment has to fit into, and that framework is still moving.
Why 543 homes is both a lot and a little
The REALTORS® Association of Maui's September 2026 report tracks Wailea and Mākena together. Here is the year to date through September:
| Wailea/Mākena, Jan–Sep 2026 | Sales | Change vs. Jan–Sep 2025 | Median price | Median change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family homes | 20 | +81.8% | $2,900,000 | −24.7% |
| Condos | 66 | +15.8% | $2,085,000 | −16.6% |
| Land | 3 | −70.0% | $4,000,000 | −19.2% |
Twenty single-family sales in nine months is a thin market, and the monthly figures show how thin. In September 2026 the Wailea/Mākena single-family median was $5,300,000, and it came from a single sale. In August 2026, two sales produced a $5,600,000 median. With counts that low, one closing can move the median by millions, so a monthly median here describes particular homes more than the market.
Compared with 20 sales, 543 market-rate homes sounds like a flood. Spread across the stated 30-year buildout, the straight-line average is about 18 homes a year. The project documents in the research don't say how the market-rate homes split across the three phases, so that figure is arithmetic, not a schedule. It still puts the scale in perspective. Eighteen homes a year is a little below the 20 single-family resales Wailea and Mākena recorded in just the first nine months of 2026. When those homes come to market, they will compete with resales, but over decades.
No market-rate price guidance appears in the final EIS coverage I reviewed. Any claim about what these homes will cost, or how they will affect nearby values, is a guess.
Who the homes are planned for
Two details from the hearing tell you more about how Mākena Mauka will fit the existing market than the unit count does.
First, project documents expect about 90% of the residential units to be used as part-time homes, based on the developer's similar projects. Vacation rentals will not be allowed anywhere in the project area. That puts the market-rate homes in the same buyer pool as most existing Mākena single-family resales: second-home owners. Investors looking for rental income would not find it there.
Second, the water comes from two different systems. Maui Now reported that the market-rate homes would draw drinking water from three existing private brackish wells, with part of that water treated by reverse osmosis desalination. The 109 workforce units would be on the Maui County Department of Water Supply's Central Maui system. Recycled water would irrigate the landscaping. Chipchase said Hawaiian Electric would power the desalination and the leftover brine would be used for irrigation.
The order of construction matters too. Roy said the workforce housing would be built as part of the initial construction phase. That places the workforce units in the first 10-year window instead of the later decades of the buildout.
What reaches existing Mākena owners first
Supply builds slowly. Other effects show up sooner, and several are already visible from Mākena Alanui.
The golf courses. The project includes the existing Mākena North Golf Course and the 18-hole Mākena South Golf Course, which Maui Now described as closed and due for renovation. The revised plan reduces the south course's irrigated area by 15.3 acres, a 20.2% decrease. I found no reopening date.
Beach parking. Much of the project's public benefit traces back to a 2009 law that rezoned Mākena Resort land, and to a 2017 settlement with Hoʻoponopono o Mākena, Sierra Club Maui and Maui Tomorrow. One 2009 condition requires 60 public beach parking stalls. Ten are already in at the north end of Maluaka Beach. Another 33 are planned on the developer's Mākena land, and 17 at the H-2 Residential Project owned by H2R LLC. The research turned up no delivery dates for the remaining 50.
Down the road, Mākena State Park has its own parking plan. Maui Now reported in June that the park's facilities package would raise parking from 238 to 276 stalls, with no reservations or shuttles added. The Planning Commission approved that permit on July 14, 2026.
Piʻilani Highway. Retired professor Dick Mayer pointed out at the hearing that the South Maui Community Plan calls for widening Piʻilani Highway from two lanes to four before or alongside major construction. Chipchase said Mākena Mauka's contribution to that widening "has not been diminished or increased or changed in any way." The coverage gives no dollar figure or payment schedule.
The projects around it. Mākena Mauka is one of several large plans in the corridor. The others include Honuaʻula, 1,150 homes south of Maui Meadows, and Ledcor Maui's nearly 1,000-unit South Maui Properties development in Wailea. Traffic engineer Mike Packard of SSFM International told the commission that bus route extensions and beach shuttles have been proposed.
Quick answers
Is Mākena Mauka approved? Its final environmental impact statement was accepted on August 11, 2026. Land Use Commission, County Council and SMA approvals are still ahead, along with the community plan amendment and rezoning.
When could construction start? The developer's stated schedule begins the first of three 10-year phases in 2028. That depends on the remaining approvals.
Will the homes be available as vacation rentals? No. Maui Now reported that vacation rentals will not be allowed anywhere in the project area.
If you're looking at a Mākena or Wailea property and want to know how close it sits to Maluaka's new parking, the south course, or the Mākena Mauka site, I'm glad to walk the area with you or pull up the maps from a distance. Reach out to Steve Landin and we'll go through the specific property together.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
