WAILUKU - In a dramatic departure from past practice, the Maui Planning Department wants a developer to agree to limit water usage in a project, The Maui News reported today.

That, at least, was the ideal of planner Paul Fasi. As it played out over the past few months, it looks as if he persuaded A&B Wailea LLC to agree to a three-year monitoring program, after redesigning the landscaping at its Wailea MF-10 project to reduce projected irrigation use.

The application was deferred Tuesday, pending a conference between planning officials and those from the Department of Water Supply on Feb. 6. But once details are worked out, the Planning Department intends to apply the new approach at least to projects in Central and South Maui, and possibly West Maui.

On Tuesday, Maui Planning Commission members seemed keen on the idea. Planning Director Jeff Hunt credited Fasi, who "took the lead and deserves the credit."

The issue has been around since destination resorts came to Maui's leeward coasts. These natural deserts - Wailea gets about 15 inches of rain a year - require large amounts of water to look tropical.

A&B Wailea initially estimated that irrigation for MF-10 would require about 34,000 gallons per day, and more than 80,000 gallons per day of overall water use for the entire project, which includes 36 condominiums in four buildings, 10 house lots and 64,000 square feet of commercial space. The 14-acre lot is on Wailea Iki Drive makai of Wailea Town Center.

Water Department policy has been that a customer could take as much water as would flow through the pipe. Most people use only a tiny fraction of the capacity of even the smallest, 5/8-inch meter.

Water departments have statistical summaries of how much customers actually use in different areas, depending on the amount of rainfall they receive. A house in dry Kihei uses about three times as much water as one in wet Wailuku.

Fasi has been working to turn those guidelines into a standard and to impose a condition that would limit a new project to use no more than the statistical average for that district.

A&B reworked its plan, using drip irrigation and other water-minimizing strategies, and now it estimates its irrigation use at MF-10 would be 22,000 gallons per day, or about 35 percent less than originally planned.

That sat poorly with commission member Ward Mardfin, since the Water Department is already asking 10 percent voluntary cutbacks in South Maui. The 22,000 gallons per day would supply 36 households, or multiplied by 10 to account for the cutback, would eliminate the water shortage for 360 South Maui households, he said.

"I'm not happy with 22," said Mardfin. He went on to note that Fasi's report had described 22,000 gallons per day as "prohibitive" and took that to mean that the commission was being advised to reject the project, which already has phase one project district approval. Tuesday, it was up for phase two (of three phases) and a special management area permit.

Fasi said the word prohibitive was his and "to be fair, the applicant has met with the Department of Water Supply and revised its usage."

He still contends, as he did at a meeting in November, that allowing projects unlimited water is "unconscionable."

Under the county's "Show Me the Water" ordinance, developers must demonstrate they have a permanent water source. For MF-10, A&B is proposing, first, a surface water treatment plant near the Maui Community Correctional Center in Wailuku.

There is some uncertainty about this because the ultimate water source - the ditch system in Na Wai Eha - is the subject of a contested case proceeding at the state Commission on Water Resource Management.

The commission is expected to allocate withdrawals from the system, perhaps within about 60 days, and it could allocate A&B nothing. That is unlikely, considering the groundbreaking decision last year in East Maui, in which the commission ordered A&B's East Maui Irrigation to leave more water in several streams. But the commission did not strip A&B of all the water.

However, Clyde Murashige of A&B Wailea said the company is exploring other permanent water sources and believes it will have a source when the time comes to show it. It would not necessarily be the proposed water treatment plant in Wailuku.

Although Fasi would have preferred a condition on the permit that limited the amount of water MF-10 could consume, the latest proposal is a voluntary obligation being undertaken by A&B Wailea to monitor use for three years - long enough to get new landscaping established and to determine how much irrigation water is needed to keep the plants in good condition.

Landscape architect Rick Quinn said the plants would need 80 inches of rainfall, evenly distributed through the year.

Commission Chairman Jonathan Starr leaped on that, saying that's the amount of water plants get in rainy Hana, not leeward Maui.

"It's about time," he said, that the commission take the lead in restraining such uses.

Hunt said it is a complicated question, since destination resorts were conceived to be economic drivers for the island and to create jobs, and there is some question whether they could attract tourists without the kind of landscaping that graces Wailea now. (Some of Wailea's landscaping, including all its golf courses, is irrigated with brackish water from nearby wells, not potable water from the county.)

Commission member William Iaconetti wondered what the penalty could be if the development ended up using more than 22,000 gallons per day. It couldn't be removal of the meter, he said.

Maybe not, said Fasi, but the commission could call back the special management area permit for "appropriate review."

In any event, the Planning Department did not have any specific numbers for limits to offer. That will be one purpose of the planners' consultation with the Water Department next month.

Fasi said he would prefer the monitoring to be for more than three years, even permanent. "The intent is to hold applicants and users accountable for their unmitigated water usage," he said.

In other business, the Leiali'i Homestead Association withdrew a request for intervention in the county Department of Parks and Recreation's application for a special management area permit to add four tennis courts at Lahaina Civic Center.

In return, Parks Director Tamara Horcajo promised to work with the association and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to devise a recreational park for children within Villages of Leiali'i.

DHHL, which developed 104 houses there and plans another 250, was exempted from paying a park assessment in money or land, so no park was included in the first phase of the project.

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.