A newly amended Hawaii County Council bill would limit the square footage of future ohana housing units.
Throughout the year, the council has discussed a series of bills that would significantly revamp the sections of the County Code dealing with vacation rentals.
The most complex — and controversial — of those bills is Bill 121, which would establish several different tiers of vacation rentals, with their own conditions and standards of use, prohibit ohana units from being used as vacation rentals, and many other things.
Bills 122 and 123, by contrast, have largely been supplementary to Bill 121. But a discussion at the council’s Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use and Development on Tuesday made several changes to Bill 123 to further restrict how rental units are established.
As originally written, Bill 123 mostly just removed the sections of the County Code allowing ohana units — redefined in the measure as “accessory dwelling units” — from being used as vacation rental units and streamlining other language related to the issue.
But Hamakua Councilwoman Heather Kimball has softened the bill since then with several new drafts — now the bill allows for one ohana unit on a property to be used as a short-term vacation rental — including several amendments she introduced Tuesday, which the committee ultimately passed.
The first of the amendments establish size limits on any ohana unit, prohibiting them from exceeding 1,250 square feet of living space, not counting features such as lanais or garages. The prior draft of the measure only restricted ohana units to the zoning district’s height limit.
Another amendment limits the density of ohana units to no more than three per dwelling site, except on parcels where more than one primary dwelling is allowed, in which case one ohana unit is permitted per primary dwelling.
Kimball said the amendments — much like the entire process for refining the vacation rental bills — are an effort to hone in on a version of the code that allows homeowners to still maintain secondary dwellings as a source of income while also properly regulating them.
Written testimony submitted by Kurtistown resident Stephanie Bath noted that some controls over ohana units are necessary for certain underdeveloped areas.
“Think about if 5% of landowners build an ohana dwelling … unit on their parcel (in Puna),” she wrote. “Imagine each unit having a couple of people in it. Each of these folks drove a car to work, etc. There will be an increase in gridlock on Highways 11 and 130 and through (Hawaiian Paradise Park), Orchidland and Hawaiian Acres.”
Joe Kent, executive vice president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, wrote that the bill removes a frustrating hitch in the approval process wherein property owners need two permits to build an ohana unit — the standard building permit and a specific ohana unit permit — even if the area’s zoning already allows ohana units.
Kohala Councilwoman Cindy Evans said the size limit amendment “might be too big” to pass without further consultation, butthe committee still voted in favor of the amended bill and forwarded it to the full council with a favorable recommendation.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.