2024-05-01 Bill 121-123 John McMahon

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From: Jim McMahon To: WPCtestimony Subject: Public Testimony-Windward Planning Commission-Bills 121-123 Date: Wednesday,May 1,2024 1:04:49 PM Dear Chairperson and the Windward Planning Commision, please accept the following written testimony in regards to proposed HCC bills 121-123. Testimony I support these bills in general. But I believe they do not go far enough to limit the impact of TAs on our residential and agricultural communities for the following reasons: 1. They continue to allow the expansion of TAs, both hosted and unhosted, in residential and agricultural zoned areas. Most visitor accommodations should be confined to areas and zoning best suited for their needs. This would confine most TAs to commercial, hotel, and resort areas where there are the highest concentrations of restaurants, shopping, entertainment, public safety resources, etc. Limited public transportation options means these visitors will be car- dependent and thus increasing the burden on our public and shared private roads. As a personal example, I live in an Ag. zoned property that is bisected by a private road easement serving several parcels hosting TAs in addition to other unpermitted uses. This single lane long driveway isn't built to handle the increased traffic from these operations. The burden to us is increased road maintenance cost, noise, trespassing, theft, more invasive plants and insects, safety issues from this unregulated traffic and our farming operations, and simply the bother of having to deal with lost visitors. 2. Only allow these uses in fully permitted buildings. Unfortunately, even in the land of Aloha, simply having TA operators sign an affidavit with very limited consequences for perjury is really not much of an incentive to do the right thing. Operators should be required to prove they meet the building and health department rules before receiving a permit. I believe this is already the requirement on the neighboring islands and most other jurisdictions with a functioning TA permit system. Many existing TA operators are heavily exploiting the lack of build code enforcement. Additionally, parts of the TA industry and property owners are already finding loopholes in existing legislation similar to what is proposed in these bills. 3. If we allow for more TA activity outside of their originally intended zones then it increases the pressure to allow for other non-confirming uses as well. If someone decides they want to derive additional income from their property, why should they be restricted from only offering TAs? Certainly other forms of