Hawaii County Council Bill 108-Update

I have written several blog posts and shared several articles on Facebook regarding the Hawaii County Council’s efforts headed by North Kona’s representative, Karen Eoff to control vacation rentals outside of real estate zoned V (Resort-hotel districts), CG (General Commercial Districts) and CDH (Downtown Hilo commercial district) . Ms. Eoff continues to send updates as to the Council’s meeting agenda when it may involve Bill 108 that she has initiated and did so in late June.

Bill 108 attempts to clarify that vacation rental activity should be only allowed in the “Resort Nodes” primarily and not in residential or agricultural zoned properties. That being said, the bill in its current form does in fact allow the current owners of homes built prior to 1974 on Agricultural land to vacation rent and also those on any “R” zoned property to continue to either vacation rent or allow future owners to vacation rent by obtaining a special use permit.

It also imposes a fee when any property is vacation rented to fund the County of Hawaii efforts to insure enforcement of the Bill’s various provisions and to receive and categorize complaints so that upon renewal, offending property owners are denied a new, yearly, vacation rental permit. The fee is based upon the amount of Transient Accommodations Taxes that were paid in previous years. I believe they will need all the fees they can asses to manage this issue.

I have corresponded with Ms. Eoff and offered testimony that in my opinion the County should have enforced their current zoning code instead of now having to manage vacation rentals island wide in most communities. I told her the County will need an army of personnel for this purpose in the future as plenty of owners will now shift from long term rentals to short term vacation rentals as vacation rents are higher than long term rents per night. It will also diminish affordable long term rental properties therefore making it even harder on local families that rent.

I also asked what is the recourse for the 10’s of thousands of owners who purchased properties in areas like Waikoloa Village and residential areas of Kona and Hilo regarding the illegal vacation rental properties in their neighborhoods? These owners will now have to play “defense” and be on the lookout for notifications of “non conforming, special use” and be willing and able to respond to these notifications including possibly seeking legal means which further burden the existing owners that do not vacation rent or want this activity near their homes.

I illustrated that isolating a “special use” like vacation rental into the allowed Resort zones is a positive and smart way to establish future owner’s expectations of noise and privacy for those like myself that do live in a resort. It’s no surprise to me living in a resort that my neighbors are changing daily but now the County, through the proposed process makes all communities on Hawaii island, subject to the same transient occupancy as Resort owners. For those that do not know or have not experienced “transient occupancy activity,” I can only say it’s not the same as knowing who your neighbors are going to be night to night as in a traditional community.

Vacation rentals require constant visits from the cleaning and management staff which adds to traffic and noise. Most renters behavior is tolerable but when it’s not, it’s hard to stop before the offender flies home to the “mainland”. Bill 108 tries to address these concerns but it also makes the County the “management” company by default as it attempts to administer the “special use” via their newly created management and enforcement division or the use of Hawaii County Police Department for noise complaints.

I never received an answer to my questions or concerns from Ms. Eoff but at least I took the time to illustrate what I believe will be a huge management problem in the future for the County.

Click Here for a July 25, 2018 West Hawaii Today article regarding Bill 108

Click here to see the Bill 108 Draft in its current form including amendments

Click Here to see the current County of Hawaii Zoning code for reference to current rules and regs

Written by Rick Oliver on July 28, 2018
Posted in: Real Estate | Tags: Bill 108, zoning