LAHAINA >> Maui Mayor Richard Bissen on Wednesday announced the staggered reopening of tourism in West Maui, starting Oct. 8 with the northernmost resort area of Kapalua.

Bissen said the more deliberate approach, developed with members of his Lahaina Advisory Team, will allow housing needs to be addressed for the nearly 8,000 residents displaced by the deadly Aug. 8 wildfire and now living in temporary quarters at hotels, short-term rental units and other accommodations across the island.

For many of them it will also provide a return to work, he said, and a chance to get their children settled into the three remaining public schools in Lahaina once classes resume the week of Oct. 16. The campuses have been closed since the wind-whipped blaze killed at least 97 people and destroyed more than 2,200 structures in the historic town, nearly 90% of them homes.

Bissen’s announcement came at the same time scores of Lahaina residents, one after the other, urged Maui County Council members during a standing room-only committee meeting in Kaanapali to put the brakes on tourism and seek a different path forward as the community rebuilds.

An estimated 700 people were present when the Council’s Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee convened at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa to gather testimony on Council Resolution 23-194, which calls for developing a comprehensive recovery and resiliency plan in response to Aug. 8 wildfires in Lahaina and Upcountry.

The nearly 150 people who signed up to speak to the panel in person offered impassioned, angry, emotional and anguished testimony — often in the Hawaiian language — over the course of the meeting, which stretched into the evening hours.

In the face of estimated economic losses of $13 million a day from the sudden drop in tourism to West Maui and skyrocketing unemployment, Gov. Josh Green on Sept. 8 announced that West Maui would welcome visitors starting Oct. 8, without providing a framework.

According to the plan announced Wednesday by Bissen, the first phase of reopening covers the area from the Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua to Kahana Villa. Following an assessment of the initial phase, the area from Mahinahina to Maui Kaanapali Villas would be the next to reopen to visitors, followed by the stretch of Kaanapali where the majority of displaced residents are staying, from the Royal Lahaina Resort to the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa.

Na Kula Kaiapuni o Lahaina Hawaiian language immersion student Maleko Burke, 13, spoke for many at Wednesday’s Council committee meeting, the first to be held in West Maui since the fire, when commenting, “I want Lahaina to be for us and not for the tourists.”

In his testimony, Naiwi Teruya said many residents are still in the first stages of dealing with the emotional and mental trauma from the fire.

“We are not ready for tourists to come back right now. Josh Green, that’s a bad call,” Teruya said. “To spit those tourists in front of us before the keiki go back to school is really, really demoralizing. That’s why we’re angry.”

During the afternoon session, Uilani Walker-Baricuartro gave an emotional account of her family’s struggle to survive in the wake of the disaster and the difficulty she’s faced in getting assistance, all while wondering what the future holds.

“Can you take care of us first, before you guys open up to the visitors?” she implored. “Can we be the priority before the tourists?”

Testifiers throughout the day echoed similar sentiments and also called for a ban on short-term rentals to ensure housing is available for locals. Other themes included the need for better emergency planning and establishment of neighborhood evacuation routes; better management of the privately owned former plantation lands that provided fuel for the Aug. 8 wildfire; a demand for underground utility lines; scrutiny of private control of water resources; and expanded use of reclaimed wastewater to maintain greenways as firebreaks around neighborhoods and irrigate traditional agricultural crops.

Residents also called for a prohibition on land sales in the disaster area to “outsiders” and the need to offer support to families with generational ties to the region. Some urged county officials to find ways to expedite planning and permitting to shorten the rebuilding process.

Courtney Lazo, 33, whose home on Wainee Street burned, said she wants planners to keep in mind the threat of sea-level rise as Lahaina town is rebuilt. She was one of many testifiers to push for restoration of Mokuula, a 1-acre inland island not far from the shoreline, and its surrounding pond, Loko o Mokuhinia. The island was home to high-ranking alii in the 16th century and later served as the residence of King Kamehameha III when Lahaina was the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Doing so would transform the town into “a vibrant historic district that pays homage to Lahaina as more than just a plantation village or a whaling hub” and celebrates the various cultures that have shaped the community, Lazo said.

In tearful testimony, Ka‘imihokulani Kaleleiki, 18, a lifeguard with Na Kula Kaiapuni o Lahaina, said the town had grown so different from the stories her father told of his childhood.

“Our people are self-sustaining, we are resilient and we do not need these industries that are in place today,” she said. “And I know that might be controversial … but the way we have handled this whole situation just proves that. It’s time to put our people first.

“All of our lives I’ve seen us being treated as second-class citizens in our own home. And we are told that we need these outsiders in order to survive, and it is not true, it is not true,” Kaleleiki said. “If we had the wai, if we had the ulu and the niu and the kalo, we wouldn’t be where we are today. So it’s time to put that back in place. It’s 2023. We have the infrastructure and we have the technology to avoid this. It is time.”

Lahaina kupuna Puanani Felicilda, 83, spoke of simpler times when her father worked for the plantation and their family relied on fishing for sustenance. “The whole family model was fishing … the ocean was always open to all of us,” she said, adding she was saddened to see the shoreline along Front Street occupied by “multimillion-dollar homes,” and now the loss of life and property from the Aug. 8 fire.

“So who is responsible for that fire? Who is responsible? This has been going on for many years … People lost homes but this is worse; we lost a whole Lahaina — the place we grew up, people we went to school with. There has to be something done,” Felicilda said. “Our water system, there’s nothing in the rivers. We used to swim in the rivers; there’s nothing today. … There’s things that have to be done for us. We all want to be in Lahaina. There’s too much tourism. We have to think of our people. Our people is most important.”

Many of those in attendance participated in a sign-waving rally along Honoapiilani Highway at the entrance to the Kaanapali resort before the start of the meeting, dressed in red and yellow “Lahaina Strong” T-shirts.

Mahealani Medeiros, 37, accompanied by son Mana, 17, and daughter Kealohiau, 10, said they were living in the new Kaiaulu o Kupuohi affordable rental apartments that opened just late last year and is now in ruins. The family is staying in a friend’s unit at Honua Kai Resort. The fire also claimed two houses on her grandparents’ property on Front Street.

“To see change, to listen to Lahaina — to us — for what we need for our kids,” Medeiros told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser when asked what she would like to tell local lawmakers. “I kept my kids home from school so we can see firsthand — because we don’t go to much of these things — what Lahaina is about and who’s in control of us and what they’re doing, if they’re doing anything.”

Semisi and Ana Filikitonga, both 29, pushed sons Ziggy, 1, and Ofamo‘oni, 3, in a stroller on their way to join the sign-wavers. The Lahainaluna High School graduates’ home on Huea Street was destroyed and they are staying in a timeshare unit at Kahana Villa until at least Oct. 17.

Ana Filikitonga said the family came out to support the community. “Lahaina is small, so everybody knows each other. It’s a big ohana,” she said.

Her message was “to keep Lahaina the way Lahaina is. My husband and I both grew up here and we would love for our boys to grow up in the same area.”