The Public Review Draft Honolua to Honokohau Management Plan recommends healing and restoring the Kulaoka‘e‘a and Lipoa Point planning area’s natural and cultural resources. PHOTO COURTESY OF DLNR.

WEST MAUI — The state Department of Land & Natural Resources has prepared a draft management plan for state lands between Honolua Bay and Honokohau Bay in West Maui.

The Public Review Draft Honolua to Honokohau Management Plan (HHMP) is available for review via https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dsp/plans-reports/.

John Summers of Planning Consultants Hawaii LLC led an informational meeting on Zoom last week Tuesday, Nov. 30, to present key recommendations from the plan.

The state acquired this area in 2014 following a tremendous effort by the Save Honolua Coalition and community to manage development of the agricultural lands surrounding Honolua Bay.

Summers noted that the purpose of the Draft HHMP is to provide a comprehensive strategy for the stewardship of state land makai of Honoapiilani Highway between the two bays.

Marine waters in Honolua Bay are within the 45-acre Honolua-Mokule’ia Marine Life Conservation District, and just beyond that, the marine waters offshore to Molokai are within the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

The 244-acre-plus plan area extends from just east of the Honolua Bay access trail to the eastern side of Honokohau Stream.

“There are tremendous resources within the project area that really make this a special, special place,” Summers said.

“Again, we have nearly four miles of undeveloped coastline with panoramic makai views of the Pailolo Channel and Molokai and Lanai, and mauka views — wonderful mauka views — of Mauna Kahalawai,” he continued.

“The area is rich in historic and archeological sites representative of both pre- and post-contact Hawaii. Though dwindling, the coastal fringe area between Lipoa Point and Honokohau has more native plant species than any similar length of coastline on Maui.

“Internationally recognized surfing and snorkeling resources are abundant within the area.”

During scoping meetings for the plan, residents named development, runoff, overuse, sedimentation, preservation and the impacts of tourism among their top concerns.

Similarly, the Draft HHMP lists climate change, high human use, storm runoff and coastal water quality, protecting and restoring natural resources, upland development and resource constraints and fragmented management as the parcel’s major challenges.

Proposed actions to help fund the plan and meet its objectives include:

• Hire a full-time HHMP area manager, and develop and implement a financial plan to support the plan’s implementation.

• Establish a fee for non-resident visitors to access Honolua Bay from land via the Honolua Bay Access Trail, and use revenues generated from the fee for HHMP implementation.

• Minimize improvements, construction and development, and discourage upland land uses that may threaten the HHMP area’s cultural, natural or aesthetic resources.

• Develop a comprehensive signage plan to ensure that signs are installed in a coordinated way and are designed to be respectful of the area’s sense-of-place.

• Develop a trail maintenance program to keep trails safe and to discourage hikers from wandering off trails and into hazardous as well as culturally sensitive areas.

• Provide a helipad for emergency evacuations in the vicinity of the upper third of the Lipoa Point Access Driveway.

• Establish a daily cap on the number of non-resident visitors accessing Honolua Bay from land via the Honolua Bay Access Trail.

• Provide on-site management to discourage property theft, trespassing, squatting and other undesirable activities.

• Continue to support programs for regular trash removal and disposal of bulky items.

• Restore and perpetuate the generational knowledge of the Native Hawaiian community starting with outreach to and education of Hawaii’s local keiki.

• Prepare an archaeological monitoring plan for Honolua Bay and have it reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Division prior to any subsurface work in the Honolua Bay area.

• Minimize sources of land-based pollution into the Honolua-Mokule’ia Marine Life Conservation District and other coastal waters.

• Restore and protect native plant and wildlife communities along the coastal fringe from Pohakupule to Punalau, at Punalau Point, and at Kamane.

Plans call for hiring staff and conducting improvements in 4 five-year phases at an estimated cost of $18,368,925.

There will be additional opportunities for the community to provide input on the Draft HHMP in 2022 as part of the Environmental Assessment preparation process in 2022 and 2023.

The state hopes to finalize the plan and submit it for Board of Land & Natural Resources approval in 2023.