Nearly three years after the 2023 Lahaina wildfires, rebuilding remains extremely slow, with only 220 homes completed and no destroyed businesses yet rebuilt. State and county permitting, zoning, and historic-preservation rules are cited as major obstacles.
- Only 220 houses have been rebuilt in Lahaina, with many vacant lots still remaining nearly three years after the fires.
- Not a single business destroyed in the fires has been rebuilt, and only two commercial permits have been issued.
- Decades-old land-use, zoning, permitting, and historic-preservation laws are slowing reconstruction to a crawl.
- The Washington Post characterizes the pace of rebuilding as ‘glacial,’ drawing national attention to the red tape problem.
- More construction is underway, but the permitting and regulatory burden continues to delay meaningful progress.
Source: Hawaii Free Press
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