The tourism industry is bugging Gov. David Ige to take back his request for travelers to stay away from the islands.
Owners of vacation rentals in Oahu’s residential areas are whining about attempts to close the loopholes that have allowed them to rake in money while grievously inconveniencing neighbors.
After a brief period of earnest public discussion about getting a handle on Hawaii’s out-of-control visitor arrival numbers, the ravenous addiction to tourism money has once again taken hold.
The pandemic must be over if we’re back to arguing over bringing more and more tourists to the islands, right?
Daily Covid-19 case counts are ONLY in the 300’s now. JUST 193 Hawaii residents died last month as a result of Covid.
Yup. We’re just about pau.
Yikes.
Thus far during the pandemic, Hawaii has seen the tourism industry crumble to almost nothing, then start back up with the madness of incoming visitors promising to quarantine in their hotel rooms — a promise easily made, easily broken and nearly impossible to enforce.
Over this summer, it was as though floodgates were opened, and Hawaii had more tourists on each island than ever before. Tourists on Oahu were walking down Kalanianaole to Hanauma Bay because there weren’t enough rental cars.
It was madness. For some who make their money on tourists, it was better than their wildest dreams.
Thank goodness the Honolulu Planning Commission is serving as a voice of reason amid the clamoring for tourism. The pandemic offered a ripe opportunity to reclaim the parts of Hawaii that have been sold off to the almighty visitor industry and to restore a more sane and orderly lifestyle to those of us who live here. Despite discussions of right-sizing tourism’s impact earlier this summer, that opportunity looked like it might be squandered the moment visitor numbers dropped in the fall.
The first step in mitigating tourism’s negative impact on Hawaii is getting tourism out of neighborhoods.
The Honolulu Planning Commission is proposing a new set of restrictions to curtail the resort-ification of residential areas.
The bill begins with this paragraph that aptly describes the situation:
“Short-term rentals are disruptive to the character and fabric of our residential neighborhoods; they are inconsistent with the land uses that are intended for our residential zoned areas and increase the price of housing for Oahu’s resident population by removing housing stock from the for-sale and long-term rental markets. The City Council finds that any economic benefits of opening-up our residential areas to tourism are far outweighed by the negative impacts to our neighborhoods and local residents.”
The vacation rental industry took hold of the islands the way mold can take over a building with poor ventilation and lax maintenance. State and local governments weren’t paying attention for a long time, and when residents started making noise that the problem was becoming untenable, too much time was lost to hand-wringing and studies.
Meanwhile, every measure discussed or passed seemed to have big loopholes that allowed vacation rentals in residential areas to keep on keeping on. (Merriam-Webster defines a “loophole” as “an ambiguity or omission in the text through which the intent of a statute, contract, or obligation may be evaded.” A second definition is “means of escape,” which in this case, seems appropriate.)
The draft legislation would require bookings of vacation rental units of at least 180 days. Exceptions would allow for shorter stays in cases of, for example, military personnel, medical staff working temporarily in Hawaii, and full-time students. No new short-term rentals would be allowed in residential areas including businesses that are set up where the owner lives on property and rents out part of their house. Vacation rentals would only be allowed in resort areas like Waikiki, Ko Olina, Makaha and on the North Shore near Turtle Bay.
Those rules would go a long way toward ending the problem of tourism seeping into every part of the island. But it’s the money part that makes the proposal serious.
Fines for violations of the new rules would increase from up to $10,000 per day to $25,000 per day. Further, and even more impactful, vacation rentals would be taxed at a higher hotel and resort rate, be required to pay general excise and transient accommodations taxes, and maintain a minimum of $1 million in commercial general liability insurance.
If the Honolulu Planning Commission members and the administration of Mayor Rick Blangiardi can hold firm to this position and reclaim Oahu neighborhoods for local residents, they will achieve something that the administrations of Kirk Caldwell, Peter Carlisle, Mufi Hannemann and Jeremy Harris could or would not.
It would be a significant moment, a turning back to prioritizing housing needs for locals; and not just housing for local people to rent, but the need for people to have peace and quiet, safety and stability in the place they call home.
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Lee Cataluna: Honolulu May Not Lose Its Chance To Control Tourism After All - Honolulu Civil Beat
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