vacation rental regulations passed!

[Obie]

Unless a vacation rental is in place,properly permitted and in operation by April 2019, they will no longer be permitted in AG zoning.

[My 2 cents]

Yes, and properly permitted doesn't just mean VR permit, it means building permitted and finaled. That right there might be the insurmountable obstacle.

[kimo wires]

"Short-term vacation rentals may be established only within a dwelling that has been issued final approvals by the Building Division for building, electrical and plumbing permits."
Quote from article. It doesn't forbid future establishment of VR's.
It only states that the property must have a building final which include plumbing and electrical.
Doesn't expressly say that it will not be permitted in Residential and Ag zoning.
I don't see how they can just blanket ban the establishment of VR's.
Someone is going to challenge this.
The rules are not finalized yet.

[My 2 cents]

Back in the '70s and '80s Hilo had a thriving economy. Nothing on paper to substantiate it because its foundation was pot production and sales. Those days are gone but there were some lessons that should have been learned.

The foundation itself was illegal so it couldn't be taxed or regulated, but most of the product was sold to the mainland, which brought mainland money into our economy. The growers were making good money and they spent it locally in the island businesses. New cars and trucks, building materials for new houses, labor to build those new houses and landscaping, restaurants, clothes, you name it. All of the businesses were doing well and there were plenty of jobs available. The county also profited on the increased property values on homes and businesses.

Vacation rentals could have a similar impact on our economy if they would just leave it alone. Tourists bring tons of money from outside and leave it here to circulate in our economy. They don't care if the space they are renting is permitted or not, they will go shopping and dine at Pesto's regardless. The proprietors of the VRs will spend much of their earnings locally as well. It's all very similar, but the county seems to be hell bent on killing the golden goose and snuffing out this economy at the foundation level.

I don't even have a VR and it pisses me off to see it happening.

[My 2 cents]

"The bill prohibits unhosted short-term rentals in residential and agricultural zones while allowing them in hotel and resort zones as well as commercial districts. Existing rentals in disallowed areas would be grandfathered in after obtaining a nonconforming use certificate."

Since you are only allowed to have 1 house on your property, the only way to have a "hosted" rental is to rent out a bedroom in your home. And from what I've read in past articles they want to to do away with that too.

Yes, the rules are not finalized yet, but they have expressed the direction that they want to go.

[kimo wires]

I have been building my place for years , doing all the work myself, and I can't afford to hire a crew. My plan all along was to have a VR so I could afford to stay and retire here. If that is no longer going to be possible I may have no choice but to sell and leave. My place isn't finished and finaled so I might not be able to make the deadline.

[Seeb]

Like all county stupidity it comes down to best cheater wins. Unless you got someone you’ve pissed off stalking you, just make it too much work for the county to find you and do what you want

[Mangosteen]

Laws, rules and regulations are one thing.

True strict enforcement (especially on the Big Island) can be quite another. Does the County have the resources available to spend on enforcement? Does the County really want to divert its limited funds towards vacation rental regulation and away from other perhaps more pressing matters?

I imagine the County will be watching the vacation rental situation rather closely after the regulations come into effect, but what about a year afterwards. How about 5 years later?

How about people who have friends, former classmates and/or relatives who know the right individuals in County government? Will their vacation rental units face scrutiny?

[Aki]

Kimo Wires, if you live there that may be fine if you rent out a part only (or all of it if you are on a vacation somewhere else).

[hotinhawaii]

`I have been following this bill closely from the start. No new stand alone VRs are allowed under this bill (unless you have one in a resort zone like Councilperson Karen Eoff who authored the bill.) In fact, only ones that have already been paying taxes will be allowed to continue after getting a non-conforming use certificate. These certificates will not transfer with the sale of a property. This means that over time as properties are sold, vacation rentals will disappear. Two proponents of the bill have expressed a desire to also regulate/shut down hosted vacation rentals as well. The council in their infinite wisdom expressly rejected the option of studying the financial impact of this bill on the County. In fact, this will devastate the economy over time while benefiting the hotel industry in the long run. For example, on the Hilo side there are about 1000 hotel rooms available. In 2016, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, there were an average of 6000 visitors staying overnight on Hilo side. Unless there were an average of 6 people in a room per night, most of those visitors stayed in vacation rentals. Without those vacation rentals, there won’t be as many visitors and their dollars. At $200 per day per visitor, that is about $800,000 per day that won’t be trickling down into our economy-on Hilo side alone. But the Council didn’t want to hear it. In fact, in almost a year of hearing and testimonies they took into account almost nothing that was said to them. The bill passed with only slight changes from the original version.