A key Maui County Council committee plans on two more days of hearings before a possible vote on July 2 after considering testimony for and against a proposal to reclassify 6,100 short-term vacation rentals into long-term housing.
Council member Tasha Kama, chair of the Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee, began the hearings on June 9, resumed them on Wednesday and following a full day of testimony Monday scheduled a third hearing from 5-8 tonight, followed by a half day of hearings beginning at 1 p.m. Wednesday because dozens of people who signed up to speak still have been unable to testify.
Kama also scheduled a full day of committee deliberations on Mayor Richard Bissen’s Bill 9 proposal for July 2, including questions for Bissen and his staff following all of the public testimony.
A potential vote could occur July 2.
All nine members of the Council serve on the committee, so the committee’s vote on Bissen’s Bill 9 will provide a strong indicator of how the full Council will act.
If approved, Bill 9 would take effect in West Maui by July 1, 2028.
The units that would be converted into long-term use represent less than half of Maui’s estimated 13,000 legal short-term vacation rentals, and Bissen previously told the Star- Advertiser that tourists remain welcome on Maui.
Bissen said he wants to free up housing for local residents and bring better balance to the proportion of vacation rentals on Maui, which has more short-term vacation rentals than even Oahu.
On Maui, temporary vacation rentals make up 21% of the housing inventory.
Bill 9 would “revert” all apartment district properties to long-term residential use and remove the exception for transient vacation rental units built or approved before 1989.
Testimony on Monday repeated many of the same arguments, with critics saying that phasing out short-term rentals will cost jobs, lead to protracted litigation, hurt the local economy and will not solve Maui’s housing shortage.
Several opponents continued to say that local residents cannot afford to buy them or cover the monthly rent needed for the costs of the mortgage, insurance, association fees and other expenses that continue to rise following the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires that killed 102 people and destroyed 3,500 homes.
One Bill 9 opponent on Monday testified that the bill appeared to be retaliation for the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, drawing jeers from the audience.
Supporters said that converting vacation rentals into long-term housing would free up housing for families that cannot afford to live on Maui and, especially, for their children and their children.
Many lifelong residents, including Native Hawaiians, tearfully described how the people and family members they grew up with have had to move to the mainland because of the cost of Maui housing.
Several Maui teachers also testified that the families of their students — along with colleagues — also have had to leave because of both the availability and cost of housing.
One teacher who helps recruit teachers for her school said they increasingly have to search the mainland to fill vacancies.
But potential candidates often do not fill openings because they quickly realize that their public school salaries put the cost of living on Maui out of reach, she said.
Source: The Garden Island