Council's vacation rental bill shelved

The Maui News
Friday, February 16, 2007
By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - A long-debated bill to regulate vacation rentals was killed Thursday by the County Council Planning Committee, after committee members agreed the proposal on the table just didn't have enough community support.

The proposed bill sought to establish standards and policies for vacation rentals and bed-and-breakfasts, and to clarify and streamline permitting procedures. But it received an unenthusiastic response from the county Planning Department and the Maui, Molokai and Lanai planning commissions. Planning Committee members voted 5-0 Thursday to file the bill.

Chairwoman Gladys Baisa said that, with a new mayor, new planning director, and new County Council, the county should head back to the drawing board.

"I think a lot more work has to be done by sitting down again and taking a fresh look at this issue," she said.

She pledged to work toward drafting a new proposal in the future. Meanwhile, new Planning Director Jeff Hunt said his department is exploring possible changes in its policy toward vacation rentals. He said he was considering asking zoning inspectors to be more proactive in identifying illegal rentals and ordering violators to cease operations until they are approved for permits.

That would be a change from the previous administration, which instructed inspectors not to independently investigate illegal rentals, and allowed rental operators to stay open once they applied for the proper permits. Former Mayor Alan Arakawa had argued that it was unfair to take enforcement action while a county policy on vacation rentals was still being debated.

In addition, the Planning Department in the past has held off on processing applications for vacation rental permits while a policy is pending. But Hunt said he would consider going ahead and processing them.

"We're headed down that road, let's say," he said.

Current county law allows only bed and breakfast operations as vacation rentals outside the hotel district. Bed and breakfast permits require the owner to live in the home in which the rental units are provided and are allowed only in the residential zones. But the county has allowed vacation rentals to operate in other zoning districts with county conditional permits and state land use special permits.

The proposed vacation rental bill was intended to limit the number of vacation rental units allowed in a neighborhood while permitting stand-alone vacation rental units outside the hotel zones.

In taking a fresh start on the vacation rental policy, Hunt said, it would make enforcement easier if the county had "clear and distinct zones" where the rentals are allowed and where they're not. Allowing operators to get conditional use permits to open rentals anywhere can leave neighbors wondering if the rental next door is legal, he said.

Hunt also advocated "streamlining" the permit process, for example allowing permits for smaller bed-and-breakfasts to be approved administratively, avoiding time-consuming hearings.

Lack of manpower is a major challenge to enforcement, and Hunt noted that his department has only five zoning inspectors, two of them part-time, to investigate all possible zoning issues and complaints on Maui, Molokai and Lanai.

A 2005 study found there were 295 bed-and-breakfasts and 800 vacation rental units operating in the county, he said. While he did not have figures for how many were on hotel-zoned lands, he noted that 150 are located in Kaanapali, Kapalua, Makena and Wailea. An additional 24 units have conditional permits to operate outside the hotel zone.

"You can simply do the math," he said. "There's a large number operating without permits."

To date, 66 operators have applied for permits for 166 rental units, he added.

Council members agreed with Baisa that the best thing to do with the vacation rental bill was to shelve it. They shared the concern of the planning commissions and the Hana Advisory Committee that the bill didn't take into account the unique preferences of the county's various districts.

"I would agree that a broad brush approach doesn't seem to fit our multi-island county," Council Chairman Riki Hokama said.

He expressed deep concerns about the past lack of enforcement of illegal rentals, saying that, even though it has not passed a new policy, the county shouldn't "forfeit" its authority to enforce existing zoning laws and community plans.

"This is like a cancer spreading through our society - the attitude of ignoring the laws of our islands," he said.

Shelving the bill was the right thing to do, according to Hana resident John Blumer-Buell, who had previously advocated for more regulation and enforcement of vacation rentals. Blumer-Buell said members of the Hana community had been disappointed that the bill didn't reflect their views on vacation rentals, such as restricting rental units outside of the town core. He hoped the next draft would accommodate the preferences of districts such as Hana, Molokai and Lanai.

"It's a good first step in paying attention to the different unique communities," he said.

David Dantes of the Maui Vacation Rental Association said he also agreed the policy needed more study. He said he hoped future work on the bill would be less polarized between supporters and opponents of vacation rentals.

"I'm hoping in future discussions everyone can look at the issues and problems from one side," he said. "We all want to be happy. We all want to live together, and we need to find ways of doing that."