Bissen quick to offer bill to regulate Maui vacation rentals

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / DEC. 15

A new Maui County bill proposed by Maui Mayor Richard Bissen would phase out vacation rentals in West Maui. Above, vacation rental units at the Kapalua Golf Villas in Lahaina.

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Maui Mayor Richard Bissen wasted no time in proposing a county bill that would phase out 2,200 vacation rentals in West Maui apartment districts by July 1, 2025 — and eventually all 7,000 units in apartment districts across Maui.

If Bissen's plan gets approved, there would be no legal vacation rentals in Maui apartment districts starting Jan. 1, 2026.

The proposal first will have to go before the County Planning Commission and then the full County Council, where Council member Kani Rawlins-Fernandez expects her colleagues to pass it.

Bissen announced his proposal a day after the full state House of Representatives voted to send Senate Bill 2919 to Gov. Josh Green, who's expected to sign it into law today.

SB 2919 gives each county the authority to regulate vacation rentals on its islands, including the possibility of banning them.

Rawlins-Fernandez joined Bissen at a news conference Thursday, along with members of Lahaina Strong who called for a ban on Maui short-term vacation rentals

in the aftermath of the Aug. 8 wildfires, which displaced 12,000 residents and exacerbated Maui's shortage of affordable housing.

Following Bissen's announcement, Paele Kiakona — one of

Lahaina Strong's organizers —

announced that the group would cease its housing-related occupation of Kaanapali Beach.

Kiakona, Rawlins-Fernandez and Bissen repeatedly said changes need to be made to Maui's vacation rental industry to provide affordable housing and help prevent residents from leaving for more affordable states.

"Our families are being uprooted and moving away every day,"

Rawlins-Fernandez said, "over the

interests of offshore investors" who sometimes own "second, third or even fourth homes" on Maui.

The rental units were originally designed as workforce housing but transitioned over the decades into lucrative vacation rentals that few working residents can afford, especially as landlords continue to charge higher rents in the fires' aftermath.

"It's important to note that most, if not all, of these TVRs (transient vacation rentals) impacted by this legislation were previously built and designed for workforce housing in West Maui, and our goal is to return them to their intended purpose," Bissen said.

But Sne Patel, director

of sales and advocacy for Maui Resort Rentals, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after Bissen's announcement that the sale and rental prices for short-term vacation rentals are likely to remain out of reach for most working families on Maui.

So banning vacation rentals in apartment districts is unlikely to lead to the goal of creating more affordable housing for residents, Patel said.

"That's not really going to happen because the price points of these condos aren't going to be reachable for the people we're trying to help," Patel said. "Has anyone asked the individuals that were looking for housing if a 500- or 600-square-foot unit for a family of four or six is even going to work for them?"

Rents are running $1,800

a month "right off the bat," and sales prices — especially for units near the ocean — often come with "high maintenance fees,"

Patel said. "Especially the ones built in the '60s and '70s have deteriorating infrastructure ... and limited parking."

Bissen, a former judge, expects legal challenges, and Patel agrees, saying, "One hundred percent, I would anticipate individuals wanting to protect their investment and make sure they're not going to lose out, whether that individual be from the mainland or local."

But SB 2919 will bolster the county's arguments

defending its position on vacation rentals, Bissen said.

"We anticipated a legal battle already," Bissen said. "This puts us in a better legal position."

Owners will be faced with converting their units into long-term use or selling them, hopefully to local residents, Bissen said.

His plan aims to repeal "an injustice" that's been in effect since the 1980s that allowed "offshore investors" to "capitalize" on Maui's vacation rental market, Rawlins-Fernandez said.

The Council Council, at the time, tried to limit short-term vacation rentals to hotel districts in 1989.

But an opinion written by then-Deputy Corporation Counsel Richard Minatoya exempted units built before March 5, 1991, Rawlins-

Fernandez said.

The exempted units are now known as the "Minatoya list," which Bissen's bill "seeks to repeal," Rawlins-

Fernandez said.

State Sen. Jarrett

Keohokalole (D, Kaneohe-

Kailua) introduced SB 2919 to give counties the authority to regulate vacation rentals as they seem fit.

He particularly wanted to clarify a 1957 law enacted before statehood that was successfully used against Honolulu in the case of Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance v. City &County of Honolulu.

On Dec. 21, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson granted the Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance a permanent injunction that exempts existing home rental owners from a provision in a 2022 city law that sought to increase the minimum rental period for residential properties on Oahu to 89 days from 30 days.

SB 2919 drew considerable pushback and criticism as it moved through the Legislature this year on its way to Green's desk today.

Bissen's announcement, Keohokalole told the Star-Advertiser, represents "vindication that this bill is needed. It hasn't even been signed yet, and action is being taken."

"The fact that Maui County is taking such an aggressive position shows that the bill is needed and we did the right thing. We did it for them,"

Keohokalole said. "It's not an easy issue. Our kuleana is done. We'll just have to see how it plays out."