WAILUKU, Maui — Maui residents are talking about what the old town of Wailuku should look like in the future.
WAILUKU, Maui — Maui residents are talking about what the old town of Wailuku should look like in the future.
Participants in revitalization workshops held this year recalled the days when the old section of Wailuku was the hub of activity on Maui, with hotels, grocery stores and other places for shopping. Today the town has about 15,000 residents, but many stores are in neighboring Kahului.
The top request of workshop participants, said County Planner Erin Wade, was for a grocery store in the heart of town. People also want more outdoor gathering spaces. And they love the Wailuku First Friday event featuring entertainment and craft and food booths once a month, she said.
Wailuku resident and parent Rachel Heckscher — one of about 500 people who participated in workshops for the “reWailuku” project — hopes the town will be safe and walkable with sidewalks.
She would like to see it with a blend of small businesses including a cafe, a bar, a small market where she can buy milk for a reasonable price, as well as a farmers market, public arts, a bookstore, lots of trees and a small playground.
Wade said many participants are interested in the overall concept of revitalizing Wailuku, although some don’t want the town to change at all.
“It’s not really about transformation. Wailuku is really an authentic place today,” said Wade, the project coordinator. “It’s more about creating a vision, how to re-enliven and renew Wailuku town, not to remake it but re-energize it.”
Wailuku has been an important center in Hawaii for centuries, but it grew rapidly in the late 1800s alongside the sugar plantations that sprouted in the fields of central Maui. Wailuku in its heyday boasted vaudeville and movie theaters, hotels, a poi factory, markets and offices. But activity slowed in the 1960s as sugar plantations shrank and business drifted elsewhere on the island.
Wade believes the revitalization effort will be successful even though previous organizations and county administrations that have tried to do the same have had spotty results.
One difference this time is leaders have done extensive grassroots work for this effort. Ninety percent of the project’s material is from the community, she said.
The reWailuku project is a joint effort by the community, the county Planning Department, the Wailuku Community Association and the Maui Redevelopment Agency.
Wade said the group will come up with a financial plan and expects to hold community meetings in about a month.