Fall 2026

Aloha neighbors! Welcome to the quarterly update from your HOA Board. Our goal is to keep you informed, connected, and up to date on our neighborhood. As always, thank you for making our community a great place to live.

Most items below are kept short. Fuller information is posted on our website at mauiranchestates.org, and you can always reach the Board via email to info@mauiranchestates.org.

Dues

Notice of a dues increase. Effective January 1, 2027, monthly dues will rise from $45 to $60 per lot. The Board approved this increase at its August 5, 2026 meeting.

We have kept dues extremely low, at $45 per month, without an increase in more than eight years, and we intend to stay well below what comparable communities charge. But costs have climbed across the board, and Maui Ranch Estates continues to face storm cleanup, emergency tree removal, and road maintenance that the current rate does not cover.

Dues are a single uniform amount for every lot. If you are behind, please contact the Board and we will work out a payment plan.

Storm cleanup: a tree down across the road, with a utility line pulled down alongside it.

Roads

We are obtaining quotes to repair the rough asphalt around Maui Ranch Estates. We have identified fifteen problem areas, totaling roughly 38,000 square feet, and the quotes we are seeking cover an asphalt overlay on those areas. This is a targeted repair of the worst spots, not a rebuild of the road base. Milling and repaving the whole community would cost millions we do not have, and would require a Special Assessment. We are trying hard to avoid that.

We will give advance notice before paving starts. Once asphalt is rolled smooth and cools, the road reopens, so closures are short. On the Waipalani and Kapuai loop you will be able to drive around the other way. The dead ends, Koolau, North and South Lanikai, and Kalipo Place, are harder: regular passage will not be possible for a period, so please plan ahead. If there is an emergency we will make arrangements to get someone through.

One of the fifteen surveyed areas, measured and marked on the pavement.

Where the road corridor actually runs. The Association owns a 40 foot road corridor. The pavement is not centered within it and wanders, so the distance from the pavement edge to the corridor boundary is not the same everywhere and cannot be judged by stepping it off. To see the boundary for your lot, use the Maui County Parcel Viewer button on the front page of mauiranchestates.org. It is a reference, not a survey; if you are unsure, ask the Board rather than guess.

Green Corridor Policy and Tenant Notification Rule

The Board adopted two documents at its September meeting. The full text of each was enclosed with the mailed newsletter.

The Green Corridor Policy covers how work in the 40 foot road corridor is tasked, and in what order, so that it is consistent for every property. The one part worth knowing if you plant anything near the road: we aim to keep six feet back from the edge of the pavement clear on each side. That is what the contractor's tractor mower needs to get in and work. Below six feet the machine cannot reach and the strip has to be cut by hand, which costs the Association considerably more. Please keep plantings out of that six feet.

The Tenant Notification Rule asks owners who lease their lots to give the Association a contact for the occupant, or to name themselves or a property manager, so there is a contact on file for grass maintenance, sprays, or works on the road. If you rent your lot, please send us your renters' names and a way to reach them, so they get these updates too.

Both are posted on the Documents page at mauiranchestates.org, along with the August 5 Board and April 11 Annual Meeting minutes that were also enclosed.

Emergency Action Plan

• For downed trees in the MRE road corridor that are not touching power lines, contact Jerry Isdale, 180 Kapuai, at 805-338-1996. Note the area code is 805, not 808. Call or text; he will assess the situation and arrange clearing.
• For downed trees involving power lines, call HECO at 1-855-304-8181.
• For water supply issues, call DWS at 1-808-270-7633.

A note on responsibility: debris that falls outside the road corridor is the homeowner's responsibility. Because the corridor boundary is not where most people assume, see the note under Roads above before deciding whether something is ours or yours.

Coquí Frogs

The coquí is a small frog from Puerto Rico with a loud two note call, co-KEE, that it repeats through the night. A dense infestation is not background sound. It is a wall of noise that carries through closed windows and takes away the quiet most of us moved up here for. Haiku holds the island's largest population.

In mid July 2026 the Maui Invasive Species Committee announced its crews would no longer treat residential property in the most heavily infested parts of Haiku. The work here now falls to the people who live here.

Where they are now. The heaviest infestation in Maui Ranch Estates is on North Lanikai, moving up the eastern gulch toward South Lanikai and over toward Kapuai. They have crossed Kapuai and are working west toward Waipalani. The point of acting now is to stop them before they go further west.

Todd Johnson feeling tankful.

Aaron Lisco, at 60 Kapuai, has volunteered to lead a neighborhood effort calling itself the Coquí Busters. Owners, renters, and neighbors outside the HOA are all welcome. Frogs do not respect property lines and move back in from an untreated lot next door, so pushing them back takes neighbors working the same areas at roughly the same time. Consider buying your own sprayer rather than waiting on shared equipment, and come to one of the group's meetings for advice on hand catching or spraying.

If you are worried about letting people onto your land, Hawaii has a statute for exactly this. Chapter 520A of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, Landowner's Liability for Access to Control Invasive Species, limits an owner's duty of care and liability when they allow access for invasive species work. The limits are not absolute, so read it if it matters to you, but the law is written to encourage owners to say yes.

If you hear a coquí on your property and cannot deal with it yourself, get in touch and the Coquí Busters will put you on the schedule. Or if you want to help us spray - Email coquibusters.mre@gmail.com, or use the phone contact in mauiranchestates.org/coqui.html

That page covers how the treatment is done, what protective equipment to wear, and the group's commitment that nobody enters your property without your permission.

Your Board

Jack Dixon, 100 Kapuai  ·  President
Todd Johnson, 100 N Lanikai  ·  Vice President
Jerry Isdale, 180 Kapuai  ·  Secretary
Belinda Ling, 99 Kapuai
Lloyd Fischel, 20 N Lanikai
Darla Palmer, 61 Kapuai

Please write to the Board at info@mauiranchestates.org rather than to members individually. That way your message reaches everyone who needs to see it and gets logged.

We are short handed. Our By-Laws (Article II, Section 1) call for a Board of not less than nine members. We currently have six, and the Treasurer position is open. If you have any interest in helping out, please get in touch for a brief application to fill out. You would be genuinely welcome, and the work is not as heavy as you might think.

Thank you all for being our neighbors.

Aloha!

MRE Board – Jerry Isdale, Secretary