LIHU‘E — County Planning Department officials are looking for the public’s help as they update the county Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance over the next year, Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste announced yesterday. The CZO, Chapter 8 in the Kaua‘i County Code,
LIHU‘E — County Planning Department officials are looking for the public’s help as they update the county Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance over the next year, Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste announced yesterday.
The CZO, Chapter 8 in the Kaua‘i County Code, contains all the regulations on land use and property development on the island. It is one of the most utilized chapters of the code.
Baptiste said vacation rentals and bed-and-breakfast operations will be “the starting point,” a focus of the plan.
“I can’t tell you what will come out” of the process, said Baptiste at his weekly media chat. “Other areas, I’m sure, will open. (We hope to) come up with something comprehensive.”
“The project has just begun, and should be completed by summer of 2005,” said Planning Director Ian Costa. “The project is expected to culminate with a recommended CZO ordinance for County Council adoption that puts a new ‘face’ on Chapter 8 of the Kaua‘i County Code.”
The public will be invited to provide input at public meetings in front of the Planning Commission and the County Council, said Costa. Meetings should be scheduled in about a month, he added.
The first step, Costa said, was utilizing $90,000 in funds to hire a Honolulu planning firm, Helber, Haster, and Fee, to help the planning staff with the review.
Their focus (and 20 percent of the funding) will start at gathering data on the amount of vacation-rental units, how long they have been in service, and how many are registered for hotel-room-tax purposes, said Costa.
Planning-firm officials (using the rest of the money) will then begin by looking at changes recommended by a consultant hired in the mid-1990s, as well as in the 2000 Kaua‘i General Plan that have yet to be adopted, Baptiste said.
They will then make recommendations before the County Council and the Planning Commission, and solicit public comments.
Asked why it has taken so long for changes, first suggested almost 10 years ago, to be implemented, Baptiste said, “People have been bringing this to our attention. It’s not just something that happens overnight.”
Costa added that, in 2000, the County Council spent six months discussing changing the code regarding vacation rentals. No bills were ever passed.
“It’s a testament to how difficult (the process) is,” said Costa.
“The problem is how to approach this legally and ethically,” said the mayor, by avoiding “unintended consequences” such as hurting those long-time residents who have turned to vacation rentals to pay their taxes.
The community is polarized, Baptiste said, between those who believe what they do with their own property should not be regulated strongly by government, and those who believe that vacation rentals are destroying communities.
“All (CZO) issues come down to growth issues. It’s about keeping rural lifestyles and characteristics with a growing population,” Baptiste said.
“If you build your house and not live in it, is that not your right?” Baptiste asked. “The vacation rental (owners) are people who live here six months out of the year. It’ll be interesting what comes out of it,” the mayor added. “It’s probably taken so long to come to the forefront. There are no quick solutions.”
The whole issue, it seems, really boils down to a few words in the CZO. The CZO currently states that transient vacation rentals are allowed only in Visitor Destination Areas, such as Po‘ipu, Lihu‘e, Wailua-Kapa‘a and Princeville.
But, according to Costa, in 2000, a deputy county attorney decided in testimony before the County Council decided that the restrictions of vacation rentals did not apply to single-family residential homes.
In a copy of the CZO on the Kauai Board of Realtors Web site, “transient vacation rentals” are defined as “rentals in a multi-unit building.”
But changing those words to include single-family residential houses would “regulate owners on how they can rent their homes,” said Baptiste, and he wasn’t sure if that was constitutional.
“It’s a very complex issue that touches on many different” areas, he added.
Tom Finnegan, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
