HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0675.570 2022-2024Hawaii County Council
a
Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use, and Development
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Re: October 2, 2024 PCPLUD Meeting Testimony in Opposition of Bill 121
Aloha Chair Kierkiewicz, Vice Chair Inaba and Committee Members,
Thank you for your public service and consideration of the viewpoints and concerns
shared by the community regarding Bill 121.
Few testified during the September 3, 2024 Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use,
and Development meeting. One reason for this is that your constituents are exhausted.
The bill's continued attempt to define and control every scenario is creating
unnecessary complexity. When your constituents are exhausted they no longer have
the capacity to engage and provide you with the feedback you need to represent them.
Recommendation 1. Pause for the economic impact study
The economic impact study should be informing this legislation. It would have been
shrewd to initiate the regulation of hosted rentals by limiting it to a registration process.
That would have yielded a useful dataset that could have been iterated upon. I'm
grateful the economic impact study is forthcoming and believe it's the responsibility of
this committee to test their assumptions and evaluate the results prior to passing Bill
121. Even well-intentioned legislation can have far-reaching unintended consequences
and I continue to have concerns about how the proposed legislation will impact the
economic well-being of Big Island residents in practice.
Recommendation 2: Maintain the present definition of short term / transient as
thirty consecutive days or less
Owners who rent their homes legally for 31 days or more have a vested right to
continue this existing use. Instead of creating additional NUC administration for an
already complex and cumbersome set of provisions, I support upholding the present
definition of short-term/transient to be a rental period of thirty consecutive days or less.
Recommendation 3. Simplify and streamline
"Passing something this complex and hard to follow will just drive more people to go
underground and rent without telling the county or paying taxes at all."
I've heard this same sentiment from several people now. At the last PCPLUD meeting I
listened to the committee deliberate on details like how many feet away a contiguous
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parcel's hosted residence could be. It made me wonder if there were other legislative
solutions available to accomplish the same ends without placing arbitrary constraints on
our Big Island resident hosts. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to take a step back and
consider how this legislation can be simplified and streamlined.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony.
Mahalo,
Kristin OFriel