HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0236.161 2024-2026P / Cam[
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From:
janice glennie
Sent:
Sunday, June 1, 2025 10:54 AM
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To:
Council Testimony, Villegas, Rebecca; Holeka Inaba; Kagiwada, Jennifer
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Subject:
Say "NO" to TVR bill 47 to avoid amending Chapter 25
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Aloha council representatives,
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Bill 47 needs to be deferred if not outright killed. Y
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Passing Bill 47 is putting the horse before the cart. That cart has a lot of weighty baggage`.thatneeds to be fully assessed
before it can make its safe journey into creating abetter, more fair vacation rental situation —fair not just to the
National Assocations of realtors, Air BnB, Expedia, and the other heavy -hitter corporations who want the cart to go
smoothly down their big -bucks -for -them track. This council needs to be looking out for the people who live and work on
this island — people who don't make money by renting their homes to tourists, people who need affordable, long term
housing.
This bill would take an unprecedented and potentially devastating path by bypassing the Chapter 25 route, abdicating to
the alarming and head -scratching Chapter 6 fork in the road. It appears to be an idea for those who'd rather take
advantage of nebulous laws and have as little or no county regulation as possible for the many and growing number of
TVRS, STVRs, TARs (or whatever the acronym flavor of the day —something to iron out in chapter 25 amendment
process). This idea is 180 degrees opposed to what council rep Kimball told me last year: that short term rental
legislation would, in the long term, help end the practice of renting homes to tourists instead of to people who need
housing.
If Bill 47 passes, this body will have abdicated its responsibility to the public by bypassing due county process, continuing
to avoid making legal clarifications that could be made by going through Chapter 25. How did the STVR (or undefined
TVR) situation end up on the precipice of being thrown into the Chapter 6 "business" basket? Beside lacking the clear
definitions that would be assessed by amending chapter 25, the Finance department, not the Planning Department,
would be given the task of permitting and overseeing rentals. Who in their right mind would give people who know the
least about zoning and other day-to-day housing -related issues that kuleana?
And, to be clear, this bill won't take rights away from people whose rentals are already permitted under Bill 108. But
that's the banter being pushed down the throats of increasingly nervous people with vacation rentals by realtor and
other special interest groups whose goal is for the county to have no regulation.
This bill should be summarily killed or, at the least, deferred until Chapter 25 is amended to clearly define a rental
situation that many people feel will go even further out of control without that due process and certainty. Otherwise,.our
county will almost laughingly continue down the rocky, unsettling, and damaging road it seems to keep taking since Bill
108 was passed — a devastating, discouraging, and confusing detour from creating affordable local housing, protection
of neighborhoods, and the sovereignty promised to people living outside of resort zones — a "takings" from those who
never signed up to be living in areas surrounded by tourists and vacation activity.
Mahalo for voting a strong "NO" on Bill 47 or, at minimum, deferring it until chapter 25 is amended to accommodate the
unanswered questions unaddressed by any short term vacation rental bills to date.
Best regards,
Janice Palma-glennie Comm. N .
Kailua-kona Ref. To: 6
1 Fief. Dave JUN - 4 2025