HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0675.620 2022-2024 P/ PCPuID
bill 12►
OAMM.05
AHLA III eIII
AMERICAN HOTEL&LODGING ASSOCIATION H AWA I'I HOTEL
ALLIANCE
Gerard C.Gibson
President
Hawai'i Hotel Alliance , a
October 31, 2024at C
f a
Ashley Kierkiewicz, Chair
Policy Committee.on Planning, Land Use and Development ei (--7
Hawaii County Council
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Hawaii County Building �'
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, HI 96720 ``9
Comments on Bill 121 Draft 4
Dear Chair Kierkiewicz and Members of the Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use and
Development,
We appreciate the Council's efforts to reign in Illegal Transient Accommodation Rentals and to
provide a set of regulations that will ensure and compel compliance with our County's laws.
As written, this bill helps with the enforcement of illegal TAR's by:
• Implementing Mandatory Registration of Hosting Platforms, requiring data from platforms
for enforcement, and the intent to require mandatory delisting of noncompliant listings on
any hosting platform, and;
• Requiring posting on all advertisements of a TAR's certificate or registration, and;
• Making the advertisement of a TAR without a valid registration an infraction of the code,
and;
• Setting standards of care that ensure TAR's are responsive to community impact, and;
• Establishing fines sufficient to compel compliance with the law.
Of concern are the nature and number of TAR's that this bill will allow and the inability to
enforce the commonsense regulations that this bill hopes to put in place.
Comm. 0 U fis
Ref. To:
Ref. Dote NOV — 8 2024
Ashley Kierkiewicz, Chair
Page 2
Unhosted units are a pandora's box to unlimited TAR's. TAR's are the number one issue of
concern as outlined in Hawaii County's Destination Management Action Plan. In addition to
taking away housing supply from local families, TAR's destroy the residential nature of our
communities, effectively turning our homes into illegal hotels.
As we have learned over the past decade, county efforts to work in good faith with hosting
platforms have had a negative effect on regulating illegal TAR's. In almost every case across
Hawaii and the country where counties have attempted to enter into MOU's or collaborate with
hosting platforms the real losers were the very residential communities the counties' officials
were trying to protect. Hawaii County has experienced this firsthand. Our efforts to work
collaboratively with platforms in 2019 with the passage of then Bill 108 resulted in more
confusion in regulating TAR's, the registration of more than 6,000 TAR's (most of which were
previously illegal), and as a result of the inability to enforce the laws platforms helped to put on
the County's books, we now have more illegal TAR's operating throughout Hawaii County than
ever before. Simply put, hosting platforms cannot be allowed to shape our County's policy on
this critical issue of housing security for our residents and allowing unhosted TAR's in any form
is an Achilles' heel in perpetuity to any meaningful enforcement by our County.
Of equal importance is the need for a comprehensive plan to ensure enforcement is viable. As
it stands, very little enforcement is possible under the existing code. As written, some of the
provisions of this bill provide for the tools and fines requisite for enforcement. However,
enforcement will require holding platforms accountable to the provision set forth in this bill which
is only possible with funding full time positions within the County for the explicit and exclusive
purpose of enforcing these rules. We urge the County to ensure that enforcement remains a
priority.
Thank you so much for all,your effort and hard work on this very important issue.
Mahalo and Aloha,
73--e-(H
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Jerry Gibson Kekoa McClellan
President Representative
Hawaii Hotel Alliance American Hotel and Lodging Association