N.S. vacation rentals come under attack
KILAUEA — Opponents of the proliferation of vacation rentals and
bed-and-breakfast operations in residential and rural neighborhoods got some
support Wednesday at a public hearing to discuss the General Plan
Update.
Kaua’i Planning Commission Chair Gary Baldwin acknowledged concern
about residential communities turning into visitor destination areas.
“I’m
admitting we have a major problem,” but addressing it must be done in a legal
way, Baldwin told residents at the Kilauea Neighborhood Center.
Rather than
outright bans of commercial uses in residential and rural residential areas,
Baldwin suggested cracking down on paperwork requirements like valid transient
accommodations tax (TAT) documents, state general excise tax (GET) licenses,
and possibly various county permits to make it more difficult for these
vacation rentals and bed-and-breakfast operations to operate away from resort
areas.
The hearing, called by the Kaua’i Planning Commission, was the first
in a series to gather public comment on a draft of the county’s revised General
Plan.
Beau Blair, who said she has seen her Ha’ena residential neighborhood
turn into an area where over 80 percent of the homes are vacation rentals,
claims homeowners in her neighborhood don’t have TAT or GET licenses, and their
presence has literally forced island residents out of her community.
One
Hanalei resident also questioned where residents will live on the North Shore
if numbers of vacation rentals are allowed to increase. The small business
owner would like to see increased residential expansion, maybe combined with
curbing vacation rentals in residential areas.
Today, the price of a home
is inflated by the possibility that it can be used as a commercial venture, she
said.
Planning Director Dee Crowell said the county Comprehensive Zoning
Ordinance (CZO) regulates transient vacation rentals (rentals for 30 days or
less) in multi-family buildings only, and is silent where vacation rentals in
single-family homes are concerned.
North Shore artist Evelyn de Buhr said
vacation rentals in a residential neighborhood destroy the
neighborhood.
“Vacation rentals do not benefit a neighborhood. They break a
neighborhood up.”
Dr. Carl Berg said he is against vacation rentals in
residential areas, as is Dr. Gary Blaich of Kilauea. Berg said vacation rentals
should only be allowed in commercial areas.
Dr. Ray Chuan, who owns and
operates a vacation rental next door to his Aku Road home in Hanalei, said he
feels some types of limits on numbers of vacation rentals allowed in a
neighborhood should be considered.
Chuan said he favors stronger language
in the General Plan regarding homes used for commerce, even if it means putting
a limit on the number of such homes.
Paule Brie said the proliferation of
vacation rentals in residential areas is dividing the community much like the
Hanalei boating controversy did.
There are people, she said, opposed to
the commercialization of neighborhoods and people who make their living either
owning, managing or working in those vacation rentals.
Bill Troutman, a
Kilauea resident active in many school and community groups, feels B&B and
vacation rentals should be allowed only in resort areas like
Princeville.
Beryl Blaich said she feels there should be some standards for
B&Bs and vacation rentals.
Some people in Kilauea feel bad about paying
county real property taxes just to live in their homes, when down the block
their neighbors are enjoying additional income by using their homes as visitor
accommodations, she said.
Baldwin asked her if she favors commercial tax
rates for commercial uses in residential areas (like vacation rentals and
B&B operations). Blaich said if residences are used for commercial gain,
they should pay commercial tax rates.
Further, she favors offering tax
breaks to owners of homes used for long-term residential-only use, even during
periods of downturns in visitor arrival figures.
On other issues, many
speakers told the commission they hoped the commission would keep the
controversial Kilauea North proposal out of the General Plan, at least until
the Kilauea Neighborhood Association approves a conceptual plan for the
200-acre parcel stretching from Kuhio Highway to Kauapea Road and Kilauea Road
toward Princeville.
Troutman said his neighbors asked him to voice their
opposition to the proposal to the commission. Of his neighbors who live
immediately adjacent to the proposed project, 80 percent are Kilauea natives
who are over 70 years of age.
As a member of the Kilauea School SCBM
(School Community Based Management) board, Troutman said the expansion as
originally proposed would require new elementary, middle and high schools for
the town.
Mary Chase and some other speakers favor some development at
Kilauea North, but with less commercial space than is included in the original
master plan forwarded by developer Jim O’Connor.
Chase said she would like
to see some housing on the parcel.
Gary Blaich said 600 families responded
to a door-to-door survey conducted by the Kilauea Neighborhood Association
regarding Kilauea North (between 900 and 1,000 families were given surveys),
and 87 percent of those responding to the survey were against the
proposal.
The Kilauea Neighborhood Association has embarked on a quest to
come up with a long-range plan for the area.
“It’s a humbling process, I
must say. It’s not an easy task, but we’re trying,” Gary Blaich said.
There
was also testimony for and against the Princeville Mauka plan, which proposes
housing, elementary and middle school sites, visitor, historical, Hawaiian
culture, botanical and eco-tourism centers, and other uses, mauka of Kuhio
Highway.
Troutman, speaking as Kaua’i regional director of the Hawai’i
State Parent, Teacher and Student Association, questioned what kind of
community support schools at Princeville would get in a resort and golf
community, then also asked where students would go to school if a 700-home
subdivision were built at Princeville Mauka.
Kilauea or Hanalei would be a
better sites for new elementary and middle schools, Troutman said.
Berg is
opposed to the Princeville Mauka plan, which is currently included on General
Plan Final Draft maps. He said Princeville’s makai lands already zoned for
development will be enough for that area, and that roads couldn’t handle the
additional development.
Further, Berg said he is opposed to
light-industrial use of areas mauka of the highway at Princeville, which he
said would amount to strip zoning along the highway.
There is already a
light-industrial zone near Kilauea, and that’s enough for the entire North
Shore, he added.
Berg also feels all helicopters, even those currently
operating out of Princeville Airport, should be relocated to Lihu’e
Airport.
Rich Johnson, a life-long Kaua’i resident with Hawai’i
Helicopters, favors the Princeville Mauka plan, saying resort and other related
uses should be kept in areas where they are zoned (Princeville in this
case).
Mike Loo, director of real estate and development for Princeville
Corporation, said Princeville is not just a resort, and plans are in the works
at Princeville Mauka to have an industrial area akin to a business park, with
high-tech types of businesses as well.
Larry Dill, a Princeville resident
and Princeville Corp. employee, favors the Princeville Mauka idea, saying among
other things that it will keep lots of green, open spaces mauka of the
highway.
But Beryl Blaich said she wished Princeville Mauka was off the
General Plan maps, agreeing with Berg that the makai lands offer enough growth
potential for the corporation.
She said Princeville Corp. is a land-sales
company, not a land-development business.
Elena Javinar Harrington, a
Kilauea Estates resident and 15-year employee of Princeville Corp., submitted a
petition signed by over 100 fellow Princeville Corp. employees, supporting the
company’s master plan that includes the Princeville Mauka uses.
She and the
other employees who signed the petition urged the commission to include the
Princeville Mauka plan in the General Plan, as it fulfills the county’s
long-term commitment to growth at Princeville.
Mike Sheehan said he is
growing weary of short-time residents not approving of what large landowners
wish to do with their lands.
It is only because Wilcox family members had
to sell off Hanalei lands to pay federal inheritance taxes that many people in
Hanalei now have homes, he said.
Beryl Blaich said she supports most
aspects of the General Plan final draft, but also pointed out that the plan
shows gaps and deficiencies in long-range planning.
“What this plan is, is
a staggering work agenda” of what needs to be done, she said. It articulates
aspirations and spells out the agenda to get to those aspirations, she
added.
The new housing section strengthens the plan, and the
single-greatest collaborative goal, keeping the rural character of the island,
comes through loud and clear, she said.
She said she likes the idea of
centralizing all planning regulations into one chapter, the citizen
participation section, and a watershed management and ahupua’a section, but
said money is needed to implement certain sections of the plan.
Under
questioning from Baldwin, Blaich said she would be in favor or higher taxes or
user fees in order to fund implementation of some sections of the
plan.
Sometimes folks look at planning as a luxury, and it isn’t, Blaich
said.
The plan should be adopted as soon as possible so that work on
implementation can begin, she said.
Brie, who swims in Kalihiwai Bay,
sometimes with the dolphins, feels the island’s key industry isn’t tourism, but
is the land and the waters. The shoreline needs to remain pristine, she
said.
David Sparks said he hopes the General Plan stops spot zoning, the
issuance of temporary use permits, and other county approvals which interrupt
an otherwise flowing island landscape.
He understands people have property
rights, but when exercising of those rights negatively impacts a community,
government must just say “no,” he said.
North Shore artist and activist
Michael Daly said the General Plan Update process shouldn’t proceed much
further without discussion about reinstatement of a lawful Hawaiian
government.
Anything done here should be done with respect for elders and
ancestors, Daly said.
