Mayor Kim trying to ban vacation rentals.

[KeaauRich]

There are not enough hotel rooms on the East/Hilo side of the island to accommodate all the folks currently staying in East/Hilo side vacation rentals. And, conversely, the fact that there are usually vacant hotel rooms in Hilo says that vacation rental renters do not want to stay in Hilo hotels for any number of reasons.

[kalakoa]

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news...ve-housing

Bed and breakfast establishments are covered by the county code, said Deputy Planning Director Daryn Arai. He said they're allowed in residential or agricultural areas through a permit approved by the Planning Commission.

See? "All you gotta do is" get the right permits from Planning -- the fact that they're so difficult and expensive as to be effectively unobtainable is irrelevant.

(It's a bed "and breakfast"? Well that requires a commercial kitchen...)

[Seeb]

“ commercial kitchen “ means no catchment

[kalakoa]

no catchment

Exactly: this way, County can make public statements like "just a matter of getting permits" while knowing full well that it's not realistically possible to actually get the permits.

It's just like the ag tourism rules which require access via public road -- they're not saying "you can't", but the reality is that most people can't.