2018-09-06 Hearing Transcript - Council Initiated Bill 108, Draft 4

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rentals taking over certain communities. I really want to emphasize to the Commissioners this point. This is about the protection of a lifestyle for Hawaii. This is about not becoming Maui, Kauai, and Oahu where they will all admit, all of them will admit, living on those counties are no longer possible for the middle-class family. All you have to do is look at the median cost of any home and its $750,000 and above. All you have to do is look at certain of the ideal places of this island and see how vacation rentals have multiplied. And, that is what is being threatened, because the very words that are up there. I don't know if it's the same side of Maui, Kauai, and Oahu finding out that this is a very, very profitable business, and I guess it's just common sense. I had a beautiful place that was destroyed by this past lava, and the beauty of it was not my simple home. It was the beauty of what people find so unusually exciting to see of Hawaii that those of us who are born and raised here, we don't even think much about it sometimes. And, I was stunned when we were doing the survey of how many of those homes were vacation rentals, because I bought it in 1971 when I didn't even know what the term vacation rentals meant because it was nonexistent. And, in that short time, we were almost like 50 percent vacation rentals and going because the people that were buying it or fixing it, finding out how very lucrative it is and I don't fault anyone for making money. I read in the paper where, some of the testifiers stated that they need this money to supplement their income to survive. Obviously, who fights that, you know? That's a problem of almost everyone. I'm appealing to this Commission and the people of the audience, not knowing who you are, this is about the protection of a lifestyle for the people of Hawaii. This is about the importance of what makes this island very special [inaudible] place else of planning and that is our zoning. We have to have zoning, or you will make, not you, but we will make a policy unwritten that says use of land will be determined by who can buy the land and use the land. It is of government that protects the use of land for multiple purposes, including a home. I have nothing against vacation rentals. I am for zoning. I am for the protection of a lifestyle that the people out there depend on us to protect them, no different, as I explained to Mr. Yee, this isn't about vacation rentals. This is about zoning that I live in a residential area, and I know I will not have a, bad example but, I won't have a service station next to me banging in the middle of the night or whatever because the zoning will prohibit that. It is of the laws that protects a lifestyle. This is no different. So, to the audience behind me, it is not the fault of, you know, making additional income or whatever of investment. And, even that today questions a change because of the Department, not Department of Education, but of property tax of the investment property. By the way, I don't even know what that means. Every property is an investment property to me. But, I need this Commission to really fully understand what this is all about. This is the protection of a lifestyle for the people of this land. This is to ensure that certain kind of businesses, infrastructure, etc., etc., will not infringe because their zoning protects them. Just imagine if we don't act on this like we did not act on it for the past few years where it was not a problem to what the problem is today. Can you imagine what it will be ten years from now or even a year from now? EXHIBIT C 21