PD Background Report (PL-USE-2023-000009)

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the county during the recent Ohana and building permit reviews. Trash service is provided privately, and is adequate to meet the needs of the proposed B and B. 4a- This use permit is consistent with the county General Plan Dated February 2005. The property is located near the largest tourist attraction on the island, Hawaii Volcanos National Park, in an area designated low density urban (Idu) by the The General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide. According to the general plan: The visitor industry in the Puna district is primarily comprised of bed and breakfast visitor units....The principal visitor attraction in the region is the Kalapana Extension of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Although resorts have been proposed previously in the Kaimu-Kalapana, Kapoho, Pohoiki, and Opihikao areas, none of these have materialized. .... Courses of Action (a) The development of visitor accommodations and any resort development in the district shall complement the character of the area. (b) Consider the development of small family or 'bed and breakfast'type visitor accommodations and small-scale retreat resort development. This use permit is consistent with both courses of action for the Puna district- a) the proposed use is consistent with the character of area, because all the improvements have building permits meeting the requirements of Idu and and almost all the accommodations for Volcanos National Park are in the Volcano area. b) this will be a small bed and breakfast type visitor accommodation. According to County code section 25-4-7 concerning bed and breakfast establishments, bed and breakfast establishments may be permitted in IRS districts subject to a use permit. A special use permit is not required in IRS districts. In general, owner occupied, owner operated transient accommodations operating within the definition of county code 25-4-7 are currently allowed in this location as hosed transient accommodations. The granting of this use permit would not grant any expansion of use beyond that currently allowed under the hosted transient accommodation rules. We have chosen to pursue this use permit as our best option for compliance given new rules are being proposed. The permitting of hosted and unhosted transient accommodations is currently a topic of great interest in the state of Hawaii and Hawaii county. A draft bill to update section 25- 1-5 proposes to regulate previously unregulated hosted transient accommodations. The General plan specifically states that for Puna, the county should consider the development of bed and breakfast type visitor accommodations to enhance economic development. Generally, the goal is to bring non-owner occupied, non-owner operated accommodations into a non-conforming use category, with no additional permits being granted, to discourage "air bnb empires" from taking housing out of the local stock and converting it to transient accommodations. On the other hand, to provide economic opportunities to residents, owner occupied, owner operated transient accommodations would be allowed.