Maui County officials say building permits to rebuild Lahaina are being issued steadily.
The County's Office of Recovery Administrator, John Smith, said about 420 permits have been issued. 4Leaf Inc. has been contracted by Maui County to help expedite the disaster recovery permitting process.
As of Wednesday, more than 30 homes have been issued their certificate of occupancy, marking completion.
“Here's where we are in the permitting process — making significant strides because of these folks and how fast they're processing things,” Smith told residents at Wednesday’s Lahaina community meeting. “I was just talking to 4Leaf, and that number 30 is actually 31 because he just gave someone a certificate of occupancy today. So that's really, really cool.”
Amid applause from those gathered, he said two to three homes a week are reaching the completion process.
“So that's phenomenal,” he added.
An additional 300-plus permit requests are being processed at the moment — about half of those are residential and the other half are for non-residential structures. In Lahaina, 270 homes are currently under construction.
