A 63-acre parcel of privately owned land in West Maui could become the site of a temporary group housing project with 214 modular units for displaced survivors of the Aug. 8 fires.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has published a draft Environmental Assessment that gives the public until Friday to weigh in on the plan to install temporary homes where sugar cane, coffee and sweet corn once grew. Fallow for years, the land is the site of a planned development called Kaanapali Town.

The group housing project won’t be necessary if FEMA can secure enough direct leases for all eligible households. But the agency is moving forward with the review to get it rolling just in case.

“This is the absolute last resort,” FEMA spokesman Victor Inge said Tuesday. “But when we go into a community where there’s been devastation, all the options are on the table.”

State Sen. Angus McKelvey, who represents West Maui, said he hopes the temporary group housing project does move forward, but with “dignified” modular homes — not “the next generation of trailers.”

There may end up being enough direct lease units available to meet the number of eligible households, McKelvey said, but many are not located in West Maui.

“This is about keeping the community intact. It’s one of the locations that is suitable to do this,” he said. “And like it or not, that area is the new Lahaina. It’s going to take like 10 or 20 years with the way things are going for Lahaina to come back online.”

The draft Environmental Assessment says that with this project, “disaster survivors would retain access to reasonable commuting times to their workplaces, schools, childcare, places of worship, familiar food and shopping services, laundry facilities, playgrounds and pet areas.”

Out of 25 evaluated properties around the island, the Kaanapali location along Kakaalaneo Drive was the top choice of FEMA, which “worked closely with state and county officials.”

It is about 3 miles from Lahaina. There is the ability to tie into utility connections being established for the new West Maui Hospital and Medical Center. And owner Kaanapali Land Management Corp. is willing to lease the property to FEMA.

Of the other evaluated properties, 22 were dismissed as not feasible. Two are still under review: the Leialii Group Site in Lahaina and the Waikapu Country Town Group Site in Wailuku.

Inge said FEMA is focusing on matching the current but fluctuating 1,068 eligible households willing to participate in its direct lease program with secured units from property owners of second homes, vacation rentals and other rental units. About 750 of these eligible households are currently living in hotels, according to mid-January data in the draft EA.

FEMA, with an increase in what it would pay, has been successful in securing more direct lease units than the current number of eligible households. As of Tuesday, with the contracted assistance of three out-of-state property management companies, 1,360 direct lease units were under contract.

But to date, only 128 families have signed leases and are ready to move in. FEMA says it will continue to seek the types of units that it does not have enough of to meet specific needs, such as for people with disabilities, those with pets and large families requiring homes with multiple bedrooms.

In the meantime, Inge said it would be “foolhardy” for FEMA not to make progress on the group temporary housing, just in case it is needed.

Because the chosen property is more than 5 acres, it is not exempted from having to go through the environmental assessment process despite being in a declared federal emergency zone.

The property lies within the approximately 377-acre Lower “North” Honokowai planned development area, which includes a Hawaiian cultural center, transit station, community center, wellness center, a golf clubhouse, park and a mix of single- and multi-family residences.

In February 2005, an Environmental Impact Statement notice was prepared for the Kaanapali 2020 Master Plan, called Kaanapali Town.

The temporary housing project would include: construction of individual pads for modular homes, roads, compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, concrete parking lots, facility lighting, a perimeter fence and water, sanitation and electrical utilities.

“The underground utilities that are installed for group site use would likely remain in place once the group site is decommissioned and would be utilized for the future mixed-use residential community at the subject site,” the draft Environmental Assessment said.

Eligible disaster survivors would be temporarily relocated to the site with an expected occupancy of up to 18 months, or when the Individuals and Households Program ends, which could be longer.

McKelvey sees a win-win for the community. He said it could help with the immediate need to house fire survivors while possibly setting up a longer term affordable housing opportunity for residents.

“As long as FEMA continues to be an active player in the rental market, we’re going to see exorbitant amounts of rents,” he said. “The idea should be to create this kind of housing now to basically take the pressure off the rental market in other areas of the island, too.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.