Economists in Hawaii warn that residents who survived the wildfire that destroyed much of the Maui community of Lahaina might not be able to afford to live there after it is rebuilt unless officials alter the zoning laws and make other changes.
Lahaina was a very old town with a lot of patchwork residences, back alley holes-in-the-wall, and grandfathered building code violations, all products of being a very remote land with limited access to materials and which didnt adopt the standard international building code until 2012. Lots of rental properties were backyard ohanas and platation-style and mid-century housing that had been subdivided and added onto, often without permits (because permitting is prohibitively expensive and takes months if not years to get approval on…this is a unique place that simply doesnt work like mainlanders think it does).
Not only can a lot of those residences not return because technically they never existed to begin with, but modern building codes would not allow them to be created again. The current market rate to build far exceeds the cost paid in the past.
Lahaina was a very old town with a lot of patchwork residences, back alley holes-in-the-wall, and grandfathered building code violations, all products of being a very remote land with limited access to materials and which didnt adopt the standard international building code until 2012. Lots of rental properties were backyard ohanas and platation-style and mid-century housing that had been subdivided and added onto, often without permits (because permitting is prohibitively expensive and takes months if not years to get approval on…this is a unique place that simply doesnt work like mainlanders think it does).
Not only can a lot of those residences not return because technically they never existed to begin with, but modern building codes would not allow them to be created again. The current market rate to build far exceeds the cost paid in the past.