LIHUE — Planning Director Michael Dahilig on Tuesday gave the Kauai Planning Commission an outline of efforts to enforce transient vacation laws. The Kauai County Council passed four ordinances in the last five years to stop new TVRs in residential
LIHUE — Planning Director Michael Dahilig on Tuesday gave the Kauai Planning Commission an outline of efforts to enforce transient vacation laws.
The Kauai County Council passed four ordinances in the last five years to stop new TVRs in residential neighborhoods and agricultural lands, and grandfather those that could prove they were operating in those areas and paying their taxes prior to March 2008.
“We created a multi-agency team … to try to take an egregious case and use it as a template for testing communications, testing how do we cooperatively enforce (TVRs),” said Dahilig.
Meanwhile, the department is reorganizing — and centralizing — TVR files, tagging everything visually and typing information into an Excel database, he said.
“We have to get back to basics,” Dahilig said.
An agreement with the Office of Prosecuting Attorney allows for the department to “ask affirmatively for some type of criminal enforcement” in specific cases, otherwise it is up to the discretion of the OPA to go after certain cases, according to Dahilig.
A couple more inspectors and data-processing interns add to seven “warm bodies” in the program — more people than the regulatory division that supports the Planning Commission and the department’s long-range division combined, he said.
“We’ve had many situations now, where even just a threat of fines has been able to compel compliance with the (Kauai County) code,” Dahilig said.
Grandfathering permits are based on prior use. Dahilig said the department cannot prohibit grandfathering permits based on violations of structural laws. But one of the latest ordinances passed by the council allows the department to hold a certificate until a structural violation is addressed, he said.
There are currently 16 contested case hearings related to TVRs that have been denied a permit. There are another 26 TVRs that are “ripe” for fines or criminal prosecution for missing administrative requirements for certificate renewal last year, and the department is in the process of “chasing them down,” he said.
Dahilig’s presentation came less than a month after he convinced the Kauai County Council to give him additional time to improve the department’s dealing with TVR permitting and enforcement.
On June 12, the council by a 4-3 vote deferred for 90 days a resolution to establish a special committee to investigate how several TVR permits were handled, despite apparently missing vital pieces in the application process.
In March 2008, the council passed Ordinance 864, prohibiting new TVRs outside visitor destination areas but grandfathering those that were already operating and paying their taxes.
In January 2009, the council passed a second ordinance dealing with TVRs outside VDAs. But both laws left out TVRs operating in agricultural lands, which were included in the mix with Ordinance 904, approved by the council in July 2010.
A fourth ordinance raised the fines for zoning violations and gave the Planning Department the authority to levy fines.
Earlier this year, some council members got wind of potential irregularities in the TVR permitting process, and introduced the resolution that was ultimately deferred to Oct. 9.
Dahilig said he will provide the commission and the council with regular updates on the TVR enforcement.
