Buying Land in Maui County: Maui, Molokai, and Lanai

One zoning code, three separately adopted Community Plans

Maui County's zoning runs on a single countywide code (Title 19 of the Maui County Code), but each of its three main islands has its own separately adopted Community Plan setting the long-term land-use vision the zoning implements, plus its own digital zoning map: Maui island's plans, the Molokai Island Community Plan (adopted 2018), and the Lana'i Plan (adopted 2016, amended 2025). A zoning question here genuinely depends on which island the parcel sits on -- the underlying agricultural, rural, and residential district rules are shared, but which Community Plan and map apply is not.

Maui island's Agricultural District: a straightforward 2-acre framework

On Maui proper, the county's Agricultural District sets a 2-acre minimum lot size (with a 200-foot minimum lot width) and allows up to two farm dwellings per lot -- a main farm dwelling plus a second dwelling capped at 1,000 square feet of developable area. Farm dwellings themselves are limited to 10% of total lot developable area, though that cap doesn't apply to structures that support the agricultural operation itself (barns, greenhouses, farm-labor housing, storage). Relative to the sliding-scale or hazard-driven frameworks on Kauai and the Big Island, this is a comparatively conventional, predictable set of rules -- which is part of why Maui's own agricultural land market functions closer to what a mainland buyer would expect.

Molokai: the real constraint is water, not zoning

Molokai's zoning follows the same countywide code as Maui, but the more important due-diligence question here is water availability, not the zoning map. Molokai is one of only two places in the state (with Waimea, Kauai) where the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 gives the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) a specific statutory water right, and the 1990 State Water Code separately established that Hawaiian homesteaders and taro farmers on their ancestral lands hold top priority in the water-rights hierarchy. In 2021, after a nearly 30-year process, the state Commission on Water Resource Management approved a permit allocating a half-million gallons a day to DHHL for Molokai homestead uses -- a real, recent, and consequential decision for anyone else on the island trying to secure water for a new use.

Practically, that means a buyer considering Molokai land should confirm water availability and any competing priority claim directly with CWRM and the county water department before assuming a private well or a county hookup will be routine -- water, not zoning, is the gating issue for building on much of the island.

Lanai: not really an open land market at all

Lanai deserves a direct, honest note: in 2012, Larry Ellison purchased roughly 98% of the island -- about 87,000 of its 90,000 acres -- from Castle & Cooke, and the island's land is now managed by his company, Pulama Lanai. The remaining 2% is split among the state, Maui County, and a small number of private landowners. This is not a normal county land market where zoning determines what a buyer can do with an open parcel; it's a market where nearly the entire island's land is under one private owner's control, and the small remaining privately-held share tends to be existing, already-developed in-town lots rather than open acreage. If Lanai is genuinely the target, expect the search to look completely different from a conventional land search on Maui, Molokai, or any other county in this state.

Where to go for permits and maps

Maui County's Planning Department (Wailuku) handles zoning and Community Plan questions; building permits go through the Department of Public Works' Development Services Administration in Kahului; and both funnel through the county's online MAPPS portal for applications and records search. All three islands share this same office structure -- there is no separate Molokai or Lanai planning department, though the Planning Department maintains a Molokai-specific Planning Commission for local land-use matters.