HomeMy WebLinkAboutLephisto, Nicholas
Tsuneda, Kaci
From:Nicholas Lepisto <nlepisto@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, November 3, 2026 12:48 PM
To:Council Testimony
Subject:Testimony on Bill 147, Draft 3 (Council meeting November 6, 2026)
Aloha Chair and Members of the Hawai ʻ i County Council,
My name is Nicholas Lepisto, and I am a vacation rental owner in Kailua-Kona. I testified on Draft 2 on
October 20, and I am submitting this short follow-up on Bill 147, Draft 3, for the November 6 meeting.
Mahalo for adding the warning letter in Draft 3. Requiring the director to give the owner notice and a date
to correct a problem before any fine is assessed is exactly the kind of good-faith step I asked for, and it
will help owners who are trying to follow the rules.
I respectfully ask the Council to consider two remaining points.
1. Align the registration deadline with the enforcement delay. Section 23 lets the planning director, if
deemed necessary, delay enforcement against TVRs not yet permitted under the zoning code until as late
as December 31, 2027, to allow affected persons adequate time to come into compliance. Under
Ordinance 25-50, as amended by Ordinance 26-63, registration has been required since September 1,
2026, and the director may delay enforcement of it only until December 31, 2026, a year before the Bill
147 date, so in practice owners must register by the end of this year. Many owners are being asked to
register before it is settled what Bill 147 will require of them. I ask the Council to extend the registration
deadline on the same logic, so owners can make one set of decisions under one set of rules.
2. Give registered accessory units a path. Draft 3 still allows an un-hosted TVR in the RS district outside
the resort areas and the adjacent shoreline areas designated Open only with a nonconforming use
certificate or with a use permit limited to sites that, at some time between April 1, 2019 and the effective
date, were in use as rentals available exclusively for rental periods of more than thirty and fewer than 180
days. I ask the Council to add a use-permit path, with conditions the Planning Department sets, for
accessory dwelling units registered under the County's TVR registration law.
Mahalo for your time and for your work on this bill.
Nicholas Lepisto
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