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Kapalua Brouhaha: Hawaiian Locals Fight McMansion Plague

The Kapalua Resort complex on the northwest corner of Maui is one of the poshest vacation outposts on earth. Aside from housing the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua and a cluster of pricey condos and homes, empty lots start at seven figures and head steadily toward eight figures.

The resort's parent company, Maui Land & Pineapple (owned by AOL magnate and Hawaii local boy Steve Case), made a goal to step up profits. MLP owns thousands of acres of primo real estate on Maui and is actively pushing more development. Last year, MLP leveled the architecturally distinctive but small and not terribly profitable Kapalua Bay Hotel to make way for a Marriott mega-timeshare. Part of MLP's plans are to put homes on Lipoa Point, a field overlooking the world famous surf break at Honolulu Bay.

This makes the locals hopping mad. They're trotting out tear-streaked middle schoolers at a recent public hearing on the proposed development, according to this negative, first-person article in Hawaii Business, a local magazine.

Locals are getting more and more fed up with resort developments driving the price of paradise into the stratosphere. Unlike the people pushed out of Aspen, Hawaii locals feel the land is their birthright and that it was taken away a century ago by force. Big trouble in pretty Maui.

Alex Salkever is the editor/founder of Hawaii travel blog Hawaiirama.com.

Related Stories:
· Hawaii Stories [Jaunted]
· The Dark Side of Ritz Kapalua [HotelChatter]

[Photo: Kapalua Listings]