Urgent Action Needed:

 Save South Maui Businesses & Reopen South Kihei Road South Maui is hurting.

From Kamaole Shopping Center, Kihei Kai Nani past Fred’s Mexican Cafe and Moose McGillycuddy’s all the way down to Kīhei Akahi, local businesses, employees, and working families are struggling to survive because of the continued closure of South Kihei Road near Kamaole II.

This is not just a traffic inconvenience.

This is an economic and community crisis.

South Kihei Road is the lifeline of South Maui. Every day it remains closed, local businesses lose customers, employees lose hours, families lose income, and our community suffers.

Many South Maui businesses barely survived COVID-19. Then came the Maui fires, inflation, rising food costs, labor shortages, increasing rent, and one hardship after another. Small businesses have been hanging on by a thread.

Now this closure is pushing many even closer to the edge.

Visitors believe businesses are closed or inaccessible. Locals avoid the area because of traffic and confusion. Parking lots sit empty during times that should be busy, while other businesses are losing valuable customer parking because beachgoers and visitors are using private business lots for free beach parking due to limited access and congestion in the area. Restaurants are cutting shifts. Employees are being sent home early because there simply is not enough business.

These are not giant corporations with endless resources.

These are local restaurants, small shops, musicians, delivery drivers, servers, bartenders, cooks, cleaners, and working families trying to survive in one of the most expensive places in the country to live.

Behind every struggling business are real people:
Parents trying to pay rent.
Employees trying to buy groceries.
Families trying to stay on Maui.

We understand that permanent repairs require engineering, permitting, and funding. We understand these things take time. But months of little visible progress while South Maui businesses quietly suffer is unacceptable.

We are urgently asking Maui County, Mayor Richard Bissen, the Maui County Council, and the Department of Public Works to:

• Pursue immediate temporary solutions, including reopening at least one lane if safely possible
• Improve signage and public communication so residents and visitors know South Maui businesses are OPEN. Provide a spotlight for the businesses impacted via social media, radio and television.
• Help address parking and access issues impacting local businesses during the closure
• Provide transparent updates and realistic timelines to the community

• Treat South Kihei Road as the critical emergency, economic, and public access issue that it is

If action is not taken soon, more local businesses may be forced to close permanently.

Maui has already lost too much.

Please stand with South Maui’s workers, families, small businesses, and community before more livelihoods disappear.

Sign this petition. Share it. Help us save the heart of South Maui.

Mahalo.