PUUNENE, Maui - Gov. Linda Lingle and Central Maui state Sen. Shan Tsutsui have found common ground and agreed to move forward with experimental plans for a privately built new jail in Puunene, said Barry Fukunaga, the governor's chief of staff, on Wednesday.

If all goes as planned, in the next few years, the estimated $235 million, state-of-the-art jail would spring up in Puunene's abandoned sugar cane fields. The jail would replace the aged and overcrowded Maui Community Correctional Center, which sits across Waiale Road from residential subdivisions in Wailuku.

The agreement to move ahead with the project follows a dust-up this fall between Lingle and Tsutsui, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. After a Maui News article in September in which Tsutsui criticized the jail's high price tag, campuslike design and a general lack of details provided to lawmakers by the administration, Lingle abruptly halted the project indefinitely. Tsutsui said he didn't object to the project itself, but he maintained his concerns about the project's design and cost estimates.

Then, Lingle invited Tsutsui to a meeting at her office last week to resolve their differences, the senator said. The meeting included the governor, Tsutsui, Fukunaga and Public Safety Director Clayton Frank. They discussed a new jail plan revised in response to Maui lawmakers' concerns about the earlier plan's "soft design."

After the meeting, Tsutsui said he still has questions and doubts, but he is very interested in learning more and seeing the project get under way.

More meetings are in the works with other Maui state lawmakers as well as Mayor Charmaine Tavares and members of the Maui County Council, Fukunaga said.

"We're glad that this little misunderstanding has been put aside, and we can move forward," Fukunaga said. "They (Lingle and Tsutsui) both agreed this is a project of importance, and the necessity is there. We want to proceed without any more delay, and what is being contemplated now is different than what we originally thought."

The state - if it finds a willing investor in these challenging economic times to construct the jail facility - would rent-to-own the Maui regional public safety complex, according to the governor's proposal. However, securing private financing is a big "if," and there remains a difference of opinion about whether it should be built all at once or in phases.

The 843-inmate, minimum- and medium-security jail would more than double the capacity of the current jail in Wailuku.

Fukunaga said that state-hired architects will be finished in January or February with the final design. Once those plans are done, the state will seek out a private company to build the new jail, he said.

The governor's Neighbor Island Community Advisory Council Chairwoman Madge Schaefer helped put the governor and Tsutsui on the same page by contacting them. Schaefer has been a key figure in redesigning the jail by heading up an unofficial advisory committee with correctional center employees.

The redesigned jail's housing units are larger instead of spread out. They also are essentially self-contained. Inmates will take their meals, medications and rehabilitation and educational classes within each unit, rather than guards walking them from building to building. It's a safer alternative for staff members, too, Schaefer said.

The complex's almost 39 acres also will be encircled with a series of fences and gates, which weren't part of the original plans, she said. That and the isolated location set back from Mokulele Highway should help deter people on the outside from passing illegal drugs inside, which is a problem at the current jail.

"At first, it looked like they were going to camp," Schaefer said. "Now they'll know they're going to jail."

But even after his meeting with the governor, Tsutsui said he didn't think the planners had done enough to cut costs. He thought the design is "overbuilt." For instance, Tsutsui suggested prison officials construct half as many buildings and just bunk up the inmates rather than give each inmate his or her own cell.

Tsutsui also said that part of the frustration from lawmakers has been the spiraling cost estimates. When the Department of Public Safety first proposed the project seven years ago, legislators were told it would cost $70 million to build, with about half the money coming from the federal government, he said.

The hope is to address the critical need for more cells in Maui County while not impacting the state's capital improvement projects budget, Fukunaga said.

The Legislature typically approves about $500 million in capital improvement projects using general obligation bonds. If the turnkey arrangement doesn't work, Tsutsui said, he was skeptical that his fellow lawmakers would approve a Maui project that would potentially eat up half of the capital improvement budget for the entire state.

The state Senate and House refused to appropriate a $50 million request by Lingle in 2008 to begin construction.

Lingle's capital improvement plan also says that she may seek federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars for the Maui regional public safety complex. (The governor's plan can be found online at hawaii.gov/gov/cip/maui/madept.pdf.)

"You know, it's a really good design now that it can be expanded by modules," Schaefer said. "And why not use the design to get the stimulus money?"

The Legislature convenes in mid-January and would need to fund the project either through the operating budget - if it goes the lease route - or from general obligation bonds - if lawmakers decide to pay for it outright, Fukunaga and Tsutsui said.

Once the project design is complete, it will go through the bidding process, and that's also when officials will get a better handle on the actual price tag, Fukunaga said.

Tsutsui said that he thought constructing the new correctional center in phases through state bonding seemed like the most realistic approach, starting with $50 million for infrastructure, such as water lines and electricity.

"They seem to think they can do it all at once," Tsutsui said. "(Lingle) thinks they can get the ball rolling before the end of her term. If we're committed to doing this, we don't have to rush on building it. Right now they seem to just want to barrel ahead."

The new jail will house pretrial detainees, inmates serving one year or less and felons with less than two years left on their sentences. The new complex is also designed to include Maui parole offices, the inmate intake service center and a sheriff's office.

Fukunaga agreed that the state could build the offices later as money becomes available to keep the initial cost down.

State Comptroller Russ Saito has said he would like to see construction begin in mid-2010 and be completed by the end of 2012.

An environmental assessment also is nearly complete, Fukunaga said. And so far officials have not encountered any problems, such as archaeological sites or pollution, that could slow the project from moving forward.

Fukunaga said that the governor is very concerned about putting the project together without greatly impacting the capital improvement projects budget.

The lease-to-own idea was actually that of late Central Maui state Rep. Bob Nakasone, who was a strong supporter of the project, Fukunaga said.

But he said he was unsure if other states or municipalities have been successful with the approach. However, developers on Maui have built two elementary schools in recent years, he pointed out.

"Previously, we had inquiry from a private firm, but I'm not certain if it's still there," Fukunaga said. "Certainly, economic conditions have changed, but we won't know the interest in the marketplace until we actually put the proposal out there."

If that doesn't work, prison officials will try to get bonding money from the Legislature, he said.