LAHAINA, Hawaii — There are still piles of burned rubble on Lahaina’s waterfront, remnants of the historic buildings with shops and restaurants where tourists once strolled. One year after the extreme wildfire that took 102 lives, it’s among the last of the debris to be removed in a long cleanup process.
As the town recovers from one disaster, another is on the horizon. Many buildings along the shoreline were built directly on the water, and as the climate gets hotter, oceans are rising. Studies show those properties could be inundated by the end of the century.
That’s raising a tough question in a community that’s eager to restore what was lost: Should buildings that once stood on the shoreline be allowed to rebuild in the same place?
Maui just adopted new sea level rise rules that restrict development on land with the highest erosion rates. With sea levels expected to rise 3 feet by the end of the century in Maui, a new line specifies where buildings should be set back from the shoreline. On Lahaina's waterfront, many of the destroyed buildings sit in that no-build zone.
In the wake of the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history, many in the community are hoping to speed up a long and stressful rebuilding process. Maui officials say they’re trying to weigh that need with making Lahaina more resilient to future disasters.
“Our job is to protect health, safety and general welfare first and foremost — and we want to provide a path forward for our local families to return home,” says Kate Blystone, planning director for the County of Maui. “So we have to play this intense balancing act.”
A question of rebuilding
Among the shops and galleries popular with tourists, a number were in buildings owned by Kaleo Schneider and her relatives. The historic buildings have been in her family for more than 100 years.
“That’s why Lahaina is so popular,” she says. “It’s got that charm and so it was very heartbreaking.”
Five of the six buildings they own sat directly on the water, overhanging the ocean in some cases. So it was easy for Schneider to spot them burning in news footage the night the fire hit. In the months after, her family met regularly, since many of them rely on income from the properties.
“We all decided what we wanted to do and that was no matter what, we wanted to rebuild,” Schneider says. “And we really want to rebuild in the style and likeness and the quaintness and the charm that it was. We’re not asking to rebuild anything crazy. We just want to have our small footprint back.”
Lahaina’s waterfront was first developed before zoning rules existed, especially codes for areas prone to flooding. Being on the ocean, Schneider says they’re open to rebuilding in a way that takes the risk into account.
“Our family has already discussed: of course we could build higher,” she says. “Of course we could lift the sidewalks. There’s many, many places all over the United States that still have properties and wharfs and piers and everything out over the water. So there’s ways we can all work together on this.”
Maui passes new sea level rise rules
When the wildfire hit Lahaina in August 2023, Maui was already in the process of updating its coastal development rules. For the first time, the new rules will now take sea level rise into account and take effect in late August.
The former shoreline rules used a set formula to calculate how far properties should be from the water. Now, the rules are based on the topography of land, using mapping to show where the ocean could inundate the shoreline with 3.2 feet of sea level rise.
Oceans are rising at an accelerating rate as humans emit more heat-trapping gaes into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels. The massive ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are melting, adding water to the ocean. Ocean temperatures are also getting warmer, causing the water itself to expand. Higher sea levels increase the chances that existing hazards, like storms, will cause destructive flooding.
“It’s the catastrophic events that are stacked upon one another, like if you have a hurricane passing and it’s a new moon with a high-tide swell,” says Maui councilmember Tamara Paltin, who represents Lahaina.
Under the new rules, buildings cannot be constructed in the new inundation zone. In some cases, that dramatically shrinks the amount of land that’s buildable for landowners. Maui officials say they’ll be talking with oceanfront landowners one-on-one about what’s possible. Homeowners can appeal for an exception to the rules, which would be voted on by Maui’s planning commission.
“There are going to be circumstances where you probably shouldn't rebuild because your house is going to be subject to all sorts of hazards as a result of climate change,” Blystone says. “So that’s conversations that we’re going to have to have with community members as they come in with their applications and say 'Yeah, technically you can do it but do you really want to?'”
In some places in Lahaina, the new inundation zone goes more than 300 feet inland, covering entire lots where houses were built. Maui’s rules allow for some minimal buildable area in those instances.
“My hope for the future for Lahaina is that when we do our rebuild, we rebuild Lahaina to last,” Blystone says. “Climate change is getting worse, it’s not getting better.”
Retreating from the shoreline
Coastal communities around the country are grappling with how to handle rising seas. Buildings can be raised so the first floor is elevated, but that can block views of the water and doesn't solve the problem of surrounding roads flooding. In Hawaii, some areas have built seawalls, but in 2020, the state prohibited construction of new seawalls where sandy beaches exist, since they can cause erosion in surrounding areas.
Some communities have started considering managed retreat, where development is moved away from the shoreline. In Lahaina, where some landowners have already decided to sell their land instead of rebuilding, a new program is piloting that.
Maui County granted $10 million to the Lahaina Community Land Trust to buy properties to create open space and retreat from the coastline. The land trust was set up after the fire to purchase destroyed parcels and rebuild them for local residents. With its ocean views, property in Lahaina is highly sought-after. Not rebuilding houses is also part of the land trust’s mission.
“We can step in and make sure certain parcels don’t end up in a speculator's hands, effectively buying our community time to figure out how best to steward that parcel,” says Autumn Ness, executive director of the Lahaina Community Land Trust. “It’s not a time for small steps. We’re going to do big, big things so our kids don’t have to deal with this.”
The funding is a small start, given the multimillion-dollar prices of Lahaina’s oceanfront homes. But after the fire, the community is weighing how to value land for a collective benefit, given that more disasters will come.
“It can still be valuable in a way that is smart, that is good for the community, is good for the future, and is good for our environment,” says Carolyn Auweloa, chief operations offices for the land trust. “It still is valuable, we just have to change the way we define that value.”
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