HomeMy WebLinkAboutRidley, Alexa
Tsuneda, Kaci
From:Kenneth Ridley <keaweikiplace@gmail.com>
Sent:Sunday, August 30, 2026 9:29 PM
To:Council Testimony
Cc:Hustace, James
Subject:Bill 147
Aloha Council Members,
My name is Alexa Ridley, and I live here in North Kohala. I’m a constituent of Council Member James
Hustace.
I wanted to write in because I’m worried about Bill 147 as it’s currently written. I’m totally fine with the
idea of hosted rentals registering with the County, paying their taxes, and being good neighbors — no
argument there. But the part of this bill that shuts down existing hosted rentals? That’s a real problem,
and I don’t think folks realize how many people it would actually hurt.
Here’s my personal stake in this: the only reason I was able to buy my property here was because I could
rent out the back house. That income is what made the numbers work on the mortgage. Without it,
buying here just wouldn’t have been possible for me. So this isn’t some theoretical policy debate for me
— it’s directly tied to how I was able to put down roots in this community.
Think about how few places there are around here for visitors to actually stay. Family reunions, the
Kohala Reunions, King Kamehameha Day, the Kohala High School 100-year anniversary — when people
come into town for stuff like this, they need somewhere close by to sleep. Right now that’s a ten-minute
drive. Take away hosted rentals and it becomes an hour away, at a hotel a lot of people can’t even afford.
THIS BILL HURTS GOOD NEIGHBORS WHO’VE BEEN DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT
Bill 147 would stop existing hosted rentals with more than five bedrooms from operating — and it doesn’t
grandfather in the people who built these properties under the old rules, paid their taxes the whole time,
and have been genuinely good neighbors. That seems backwards to me.
These properties were built back when there wasn’t any bedroom limit on hosted rentals, so owners
planned around that. And now, right after Hurricane Lala tore through parts of our island, the Council
isn’t meeting about hurricane relief — it’s meeting about a bill that would put more of these rentals out of
business over a number that feels pretty arbitrary.
THE COUNTY’S OWN STUDY MAKES THE CASE
The County spent close to $100,000 on an Economic Impact Study from Hunden Partners back in 2025,
and it’s worth actually looking at what it says. Page 33 states hosted vacation rentals “are vital to the
livelihood of thousands of families on Hawaii Island. Many Kama ʻ āina rely on \[this\] market for
employment or assistance in affording their homes.” Page 10 puts the total economic impact at nearly
$1 billion a year, and estimates regulations like this one could cost the island more than 12,000 full-time
jobs and 30,000-plus part-time jobs. We offer an affordable rate for Kamaaina and half of our guests are
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locals traveling from other islands for work and other parts of OUR island (hilo, kona) for work. Because
Hawi is so small, we do not have any other lodging options like hotels for people to stay while working,
we need to offer short term rentals.
And for what, exactly? This bill won’t fix the housing crisis. People need jobs first, before housing even
matters. A lot of us — me included — depend on rental income just to make living here possible in the
first place. And the study says it straight: only 4% of vacation rental owners said they’d actually convert
to long-term rentals if this passed. So it’s not going to meaningfully add to the housing supply anyway.
There’s also a confusing part of the bill about where a host needs to live relative to the rental. Right now,
a host can live on the property without being in the same building as guests — which, according to the
study, is how 93% of vacation rentals on island already operate, including mine with the back house
setup. Bill 147 just says the host has to live on the “same building site,” without defining what that even
means. It should just say Tax Map Key instead, so it’s clear that living anywhere on the same TMK counts.
THERE’S AN EASY FIX HERE
Just grandfather in everyone currently running a hosted vacation rental where the host lives on the TMK,
no matter the bedroom count. That way people like me can keep the income that made homeownership
possible in the first place, while the County can still tighten the rules for anything built going forward.
That’s basically what happened when un-hosted short-term rentals got regulated the first time, and
hosted rentals deserve the same fair treatment — especially since most of us actually live here.
Mahalo,
Alexa Ridley
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