A pair of Hawaii County Council members are hosting an informational briefing via Zoom about proposed legislation to establish a registration process for hosted transient vacation rentals, or TVRs, on the Big Island.
That briefing, set up by council members Heather Kimball and Ashley Kierkiewicz, will be between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Participants must register in advance at www.hawaiicountytar.com to receive a unique Zoom login. A draft of the proposed legislation also is available on the site for public review.
The webinar will be recorded and made available for later viewing on the same website.
The legislation under consideration is intended to provide a clearer understanding of the scale and presence of vacation rentals across the island and ensure that all TVRs are operating within legal guidelines.
“One of the things that this proposed bill is looking to do is merely getting anybody that’s operating a vacation rental to register,” said Kierkiewicz. “That’s it. Just register that you’re operating. There are no operational standards. Anything that was in Bill 121 has not been included in this proposed bill. It is merely about registering your status. And I think this is going to be the best way for the county to get an accurate assessment of how many and what kind of vacation rentals are here on Hawaii Island.”
Three measures, Bills 121, 122 and 123, were introduced last term in hopes of finally settling the council’s yearslong struggle to regulate short-term vacation rentals. Bill 121, a controversial piece of legislation, would have defined short-term rentals — units rented by tenants for less than 180 days — as “transient accommodation rentals” and establish a new section of the County Code regulating their use.
In particular, Bill 121 intended to establish three different types of TARs: owner-hosted, operator-hosted and unhosted, each subject to their own requirements — with unhosted TARs facing stricter conditions than the other two. Owner- and operator-hosted units would be allowed in a wider range of zoning districts than unhosted units, and units outside their permitted districts could be more easily grandfathered in if they are owner- or operator-hosted.
The measure was up for a fifth round of amendments when it was scrapped by Kimball, then the council chair and who co-authored the bill with Kierkiewicz.
“It was clear from our past work on Bill 121 that we were trying to accomplish too much with one bill, and we also needed more information for certain aspects of it,” Kimball said. “Creating this registration process, in combination with the study, will help the council make more informed decisions about any future legislation regarding where TVRs are permitted and any changes to operational standards.”
Bill 122, which also was shelved, would’ve removed language referring to “bed and breakfast establishments” from the County Code — such lodgings would fall under the TAR definition from Bill 121.
“I think it was too much for the community to stomach at one point,” Kierkiewicz said. “They wanted data to back up what is happening on Hawaii Island.
“The tricky part is, there hasn’t been a study that’s been done to say these are the kinds of vacation rentals you have on Hawaii Island, this is where they’re operating. These are the folks that are hosted and these are the folks that are unhosted. This is the typical visitor stay duration. This is how much they pay. And to calculate what kind of ripple effects that would have on the economy.”
Bill 123 passed the council and became law on its fifth draft. It changed the name of “ohana dwellings” to “accessory dwelling units” and increased the number of units allowed on a residential property to three, with one allowed to be used as a TVR.
“That’s now something that folks can do by right, build up to two ADUs — and in the case of Hawaii County, up to three,” Kierkiewicz explained. “But you can’t just go out and build, you’ve got to make sure you get the approval from the county to verify that the infrastructure is there to support it. And normally, the infrastructure that we’re looking for is wastewater. Is there a sewer or enough septic capacities in order to add on additional units?”
The new proposed legislation, which has yet to be filed, focuses exclusively on the registration of TVRs, including their operational status. It does not include any changes to operational standards, land use regulation, or regulatory enforcement measures. Unhosted TVRs already are registered with the county and would not be subject to the initial registration process but would be subject to an annual renewal.
This effort is in response to the feedback from the community and council members on previous efforts to address TVRs and builds on the adoption of Resolution 556-24, which tasked the county’s Department of Research and Development to conduct an economic impact analysis of vacation rentals on Hawaii Island.
R&D contracted Hunden Partners, which has conducted similar studies across the state, to carry out the analysis.
During the briefing, Kimball and Kierkiewicz will review the proposed legislation, discuss timelines and outline the scope of the R&D study. Community members are encouraged to share their input for the study through surveys for residents and TVR operators, hosted and unhosted.
Survey links are:
— For the residents survey, visit tinyurl.com/TVRREShi.
— For the TVR operators survey, visit tinyurl.com/TVRSUPhi (hosted and unhosted).
“This should give us a better sense of who is doing what, where,” Kierkiewicz said. “Some of the conversations last term centered around the idea of a visitor destination area, like a vacation node. … This information, I think, would help the Planning Department make a more accurate recommendation about where visitor nodes might be appropriate. And this is important, because we don’t want to see more resort areas on Hawaii Island. But there’s also this recognition that we need more visitor accommodations, and vacation rentals present that opportunity for residents to participate in that industry and economy.
“So, this is all about collecting the data that is necessary to inform the next step in the legislative process.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
