LIHU‘E — County lawmakers are pushing legislation that would prevent new housing developments from locking out lower-income families through strict covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs), which often exceed the county’s own zoning ordinances.
Kaua‘i County Councilmember Luke Evslin, who introduced Bill No. 2834 alongside Councilmember Bernard Carvalho Jr. in December, has repeatedly promoted it as a tool needed to fix the Kaua‘i housing crisis.
“Community covenants — especially common in new developments — often end up mandating that only one single-family home can be built per lot,” Evslin wrote on Facebook following the bill’s passage out of the council Planning Committee on Wednesday.
Kaua‘i zoning permits a minimum of four units on virtually every residential lot, according to Evslin, in a bid to promote housing availability and affordability through additional dwelling units (ADUs) and additional rental units (ARUs).
But CC&Rs can preclude these options.
“These requirements reduce people’s private-property rights, they lock multi-generational families out of certain neighborhoods,” Evslin continued. “They ensure that young families won’t be able to get rental income from a portion of their house to afford their mortgage, and by stifling potential housing supply — they increase the cost of housing islandwide.”
The councilmember and bill’s language reflect findings in the Kaua‘i General Plan, last updated in 2018, which states new island communities must advance “sustainability, equity and opportunity” rather than cater to high-end markets.
The plan also recommends the prohibition of CC&Rs forbidding ADUs in a series of action items.
Bill No. 2834 does not apply to existing covenants, or to CC&Rs limiting ADUs within Vacation Destination Areas (VDAs).
That’s because ADUs can be used as vacation-rental units, Evslin said during Wednesday’s council meeting.
“Say all the VDAs allowed additional dwelling units. What you would effectively be doing is doubling, potentially, the number of available vacation rentals in those communities,” he explained. “If somebody is building an ADU in a VDA, most likely it’s not going to long-term housing.”
But property owners’ ability to build ARUs and guest houses within VDAs would be protected under the proposed legislation, since they must be used for long-term rentals and cannot be used as vacation-rental units.
Bill No. 2834 will be before the council for second reading soon.
•••
Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
