The Maui County Planning Commission has thrown its support behind a proposal from Maui Mayor Richard Bissen to phase out legal use of roughly 7,000 short-term vacation rentals mostly on the Valley Isle.
Commissioners voted 5-0 Tuesday evening to recommend that the Maui County Council approve the draft bill proposed by Bissen that, if enacted, would ban short-term rental use of about 2,200 properties in West Maui as of July 1, 2025, followed by the rest on Jan. 1, 2026.
The bill applies only to residential properties in apartment-zoned districts, which in past decades allowed developers to build condominiums, hotels and other units for short-term rental use.
Bissen’s bill aims to force many owners of such properties, many of which are within resorts, to make the units available to residents after around 3,500 homes in Lahaina were destroyed by an Aug. 8 wildfire that killed 102 people.
The commission received an outpouring of contentious public testimony favoring and opposing the measure at a June 25 meeting that had to be continued to July 9 and then again to Tuesday because there were so many testifiers.
About 160 people testified in person or via videoconference on June 25, and more than 2,000 pages of written testimony were received.
Supporters of the bill say the proposed phase-out is desperately needed to address a chronically short supply of housing for residents, and that many of the 7,000 properties once were part of the workforce housing supply but are now owned by out-of-state investors.
“Especially after the August fires we have very scarce amounts of housing available, and currently looking at the prices of what is available it is close to impossible for an average local person to afford,” Tatiana Ebro, who was born and raised on Maui, said in written testimony. “We are begging for your help in making our Hawai‘i more affordable and accessible to the people who make Hawai‘i what it is, the locals.”
Rodrigo Tabladillo, a Lahaina resident and homeowner for 51 years, also urged the commission to support the bill.
“I’ve seen our island change to where it has more nonresident investors owning properties versus local residents,” he said in written testimony. “It is time to phase out short term rentals and covert it for our local people. We need to put our community first.”
Opponents of the bill claim in part that the proposed phase-out is an unfair taking of property rights that will lead to tourism industry job and revenue losses. Some opponents also contend that many of the units targeted for a short-term rental ban can’t economically be used for workforce housing because expenses for the properties are too high.
“Everyone loses if this were to happen,” Valori Egan, a Maui resident, said in written testimony.
Egan, who bought two vacation rental units at the Kuleana resort in West Maui 13 years ago and has leased them to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 18 months for use by fire survivors, suggested that Maui County “go after unlicensed illegal short term rentals and leave the law abiding business people alone.”
John DiCaro, who owns a one-bedroom condo at the 47-year-old Papakea Resort in Ka‘anapali, said testimony that Bissen’s draft bill is not a good solution to increase the supply of affordable housing, in part given that the cost for maintenance, taxes and other things on DiCaro’s unit not including a mortgage payment total $3,521 per month.
“The in-person testimony on both sides of this issue was and is heartbreaking,” he said in written testimony, suggesting that there must be a better way to solve Maui’s affordable-housing supply problem. “Legislation should not hurt nor harm its citizens. … Effective governing brings people together for a common cause, it does not tear apart the community.”
Commission Chair Kimberly Thayer, before the vote, described the decision as a huge one that stands to affect many people positively or negatively.
Thayer also acknowledged the volume of testimony that was filled with emotion and passion, and said the commission was considering what is best for the community.
“Zoning is not meant to be static,” she said. “It is meant to change over time to reflect the needs of the community. And it’s been well documented by many people that our zoning ordinance is very, very old and very out of date and in need of change to reflect the current trends in our community, the desires of our people, the path we want to chart into the future, what we want the future of our island to look like. … The way that these zoning districts are currently structured — the way our land is used — is not serving us right now.”
The County Council must hold public hearings on Bissen’s proposed bill before deciding whether it should become an ordinance.
Backing for such an ordinance was provided by state lawmakers this year through Senate Bill 2919, which states that transient accommodations may be phased out in any zoning district by county zoning regulations. SB 2919 was signed into law by Gov. Josh Green on May 3.
In 1989, the Maui County Council tried to restrict short-term vacation rentals to land zoned for hotel use, but an opinion written by then-Deputy Corporation Counsel Richard Minatoya exempted units built before March 5, 1991. Bissen’s bill seeks to repeal the exemption for grandfathered units on what is known as the “Minatoya List.” All units on the list are on Maui except for 246 on Molokai.
Bissen, a former judge, expects that there will be litigation filed against the county by short-term rental property owners if his plan takes effect. But he said the ongoing housing crisis cannot be accepted.
“The system is broken and long overdue for change,” he said during the June 25 Planning Commission meeting.
