TAU permits cut in half for next 5 years

LIHU‘E — Five developers applied for an exemption of Ordinance 912, which regulates the growth of Transient Accommodation Units on Kaua‘i. But only one has been approved by the county’s Planning Department, the county’s  long-range planner, Marie Williams, said.

“The exemption window is only open for a few more months and then it’s closed forever,” Williams told the Kaua‘i Planning Commission at a meeting Jan. 24. “Then no more projects can apply for an exemption.”

Ordinance 912 came into effect Nov. 21 for Transit Accommodation Units (TAUs), or short-term rental properties, and gave a one-year window for developers to apply for an exemption, Williams said, adding that a county website page was created to facilitate the application process.

Williams said the  Planning Department will begin accepting TAU applications on a “first come, first served” basis on Feb. 29.

There are an estimated 4,600 TAUs believed to have been pre-approved and potentially eligible for exemption.

“We have received five exemption applications and one has been approved. That’s the Kukui‘ula project,” Williams said.

The Kaua‘i County Council  on Oct. 14 passed Bill 2410, which became Ordinance 912. The ordinance allows a 1.5 percent annual growth rate, based on the number of existing TAUs in 2008, when roughly two-thirds of Kaua‘i voters decided in favor of regulating TAU growth.

The ordinance allows the department to give TAU certificates over five-year allocation cycles. The total number of TAU certificates available over a five-year period equals 5.1 percent of the TAU inventory.

But the ordinance also allows the department to decrease by 50 percent the number of certificates available if the TAU inventory exceeds a target number at the end of a five-year cycle. The department can also increase the certificates if the actual number TAUs is lower than the target number.

Once a TAU certificate is issued, there’s a certain period to act upon the permit, which can expire, Williams said, adding that expired certificates go back into a pool to be re-issued.

There were 9,203 TAUs on Kaua‘i in 2008 when voters approved the charter amendment. If the 1.5 percent annual growth had been followed since then, there should have been 9,623 TAUs in 2011. But when the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority released the 2011 Visitor Plant Inventory in January, the number of currently existing TAUs on Kaua‘i was set at 9,872.

Over the next five years, using the 5.1 percent threshold over a five-year growth period, the department would allow 504 new TAUs. But because the actual number of existing TAUs in 2011 is higher than the target number, the department will issue only 252 certificates over the next five-year cycle, Williams said.

On Feb. 28, the department will ask the commission to formally adopt the number of existing TAUs set at 9,872, and on the next day the department will start accepting TAU applications, Williams said.

• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.