The state Office of Planning is raising questions about a proposed development of two shopping centers and an employee housing project in south Maui following complaints by two groups on the Valley Isle.

State Office of Planning Director Jesse Souki said the land in Kihei was reclassified in 1995 from agricultural to urban on a proposal to develop a 123-lot commercial and light industrial subdivision.

"This new use was not accounted for in 1995, and consequently, the conditions imposed in 1995 may not reflect the impacts to issues of statewide concern caused by the new use," Souki said.

Souki said he’s not taking sides but believes a Land Use Commission hearing would help to clarify the dispute.

The proposed Piilani Promenade shopping centers, being developed by Eclipse Development Group LLC, would be built on about 68 acres mauka of Piilani Highway and Kaonoulu Street.

A separate 250-unit apartment employee housing project by Honua‘ula Partners LLC is being planned near the Eclipse Development.

A meeting challenging current grading activity at the Eclipse site is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday before the Maui County Board of Variances and Appeals at the planning department’s conference room.

A separate meeting is expected to take place in late August before the state Land Use Commission to review conditions imposed on the site when it was reclassified from agricultural to urban use in 1995.

Irene Bowie, executive director of the environmental group Maui Tomorrow, said the proposed shopping centers were not discussed during the original project approvals and are inconsistent with the county’s Kihei-Makena Community Plan limiting commercial impacts at the site.

Mark Hyde, president of the group South Maui Citizens for Responsible Growth, said Piilani Highway, which has been re-striped from two to four lanes, lacks the capacity to handle the kind of traffic generated by the proposed developments.

County Deputy Corporation Counsel Jane Lovell said that in Maui County light industrial use allows a developer to build apartments and shopping centers and that Eclipse Development was not in violation of the commission’s conditions.

In a filing with the commission, the Corporation Counsel’s Office cites testimony to the commission in 1995 mentioning the broad range of uses included in light industrial zoning.

Lovell said the commission’s conditions do not impose a date for compliance for traffic improvements and that there is no proof that the developer is failing to comply with the conditions imposed by the Land Use Commission.

Eclipse was unavailable for comment.