Maui officials aim to accelerate processing of permits to help Lahaina rebuild

Local officials in Hawaii plan to open an office that will speed up Maui County’s notoriously slow processing of building permits to help the town of Lahaina to recover from last year’s deadly wildfire. County officials told a community meeting in Lahaina that a County Expedited Permitting Center will open in April. The county has selected a vendor to it help review permit applications. Hawaii’s four counties are well-known for lengthy permit processing times. University of Hawaii researchers have found that in the last five years, the state’s median wait time for a construction permit to build a multifamily project was 400 days.