The county should prohibit new single-family and multi-family vacation rentals outside of county-designated visitor destination areas, while allowing continuation of legal units. Kaua‘i County Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura offered those ideas as the main thrust behind a bill to regulate the
The county should prohibit new single-family and multi-family vacation rentals outside of county-designated visitor destination areas, while allowing continuation of legal units.
Kaua‘i County Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura offered those ideas as the main thrust behind a bill to regulate the burgeoning vacation rental business on Kaua‘i.
She made her points during yesterday’s meeting of the council’s Planning Committee, which she chairs, at the Historic County Building.
Yukimura also said her bill proposes that owners of single-family and multi-family vacation rentals secure non-conforming certificates or permits from the county to continue operating.
Yukimura said she has proposed the bill because the council and residents feel the proliferation of single-family vacation rentals beyond the visitor destination areas has hurt neighborhoods, increased risk of crime and driven up housing prices. Designated areas include Princeville, Kapa‘a and Waipouli, Lihu‘e and Po‘ipu, and West Kaua‘i.
“Besides contributing to the lack of affordable housing in the community, this is changing the social character of neighborhoods where neighbors used to know each other,” the bill states.
Council Chairman Kaipo Asing took issue with language in the bill that called for “grandfathering” legal vacation rentals outside of VDA zones.
He said the county could have avoided today’s problems if it had followed the intent of a state law passed in 1982, which allowed counties to establish VDA zones and confine vacation rentals within them.
That didn’t happen, he said, because the county didn’t explicitly prohibit vacation rentals in neighborhoods.
Asing said former Deputy County Attorney Blaine Kobayashi had determined that vacation rentals could establish themselves in neighborhoods because there existed no specific legal language to prohibit such activity.
“I disagree with that interpretation,” Asing said. “Every vacation rental outside of the VDA is illegal.”
In amendments to the bill, Yukimura proposed that time-share units, time-share uses and vacation rentals that existed outside of the VDA on or before Sept. 22, 1982, be allowed to operate after the legislation becomes law.
However, she said no additional vacation rentals should be created beyond the VDA zone.
But the bill seems to offer an “out” for those who are determined to operate single-family vacation rentals.
It states that “the community could decide to allow additional single-family transient vacation rentals outside the VDA, based on certain terms and conditions” once the issue is under control.
Yukimura also proposed that all single-family and multi-family vacation rentals in VDA zones should apply and secure a permit or “non-conforming” use certificate from a county planning director no later than 12 months after the bill becomes law.
Resident Barbara Elmore said she opposed legislation that would allow vacation rentals, legal or not, outside of the VDA zone.
“People who drafted the comprehensive zoning ordinance knew what they were doing (by not allowing vacation rentals in residential, open and agricultural areas),” she said. “And when you grandfather these people, you have given them a monopoly and a lockhold.”
Resident Ken Taylor, speaking after the meeting, said the council should eliminate language that would allow grandfathering of existing vacation rentals.
Yukimura said the drafters of the comprehensive zoning ordinance probably never intended to have vacation rentals in residential and agricultural areas, “but intention alone is not enough.”
The ordinance provides regulations and standards for land development and the construction of buildings and other structures on the island.
Yukimura also said she would like farmers to be able to operate vacation rentals on certain types of agricultural lands.
At the same time, she wants the farmers to derive most of their household income from commercial agricultural pursuits, rather than from revenues of a vacation rental.
While a previous state law probated vacation rentals on agricultural land, a state law passed in 2006 allows “auxiliary uses of eco-tourism accommodations on agricultural lands as long as the county passed an ordinance,” Councilman Jay Furfaro said.
And if Yukimura expects the farmers operating vacation rentals to produce more than 50 percent of their household income from agricultural projects, the county will have to assess that farmer a fee to keep track of how the revenues are derived, Furfaro said.
While the bill calls for enforcement against illegal single-family and multi-family vacation rentals, the county has to go after violators, resident Glenn Mickens said after the meeting.
“No matter which law or ordinance they pass, they aren’t worth the paper they are put on without enforcement.” Mickens said.
The legislation alluded to the damaging impact that vacation rentals have had on neighborhoods, noting that census data shows seasonal rentals accounted for 45 percent of the new housing units on Kaua‘i between 1990 and 2000.
In a slide show presentation, Asing said many vacation rentals can be found in shoreline areas around Hanalei Bay and on agricultural subdivisions in Kilauea.
He added the possibility of more vacation rental units establishing themselves in those areas looms large.
Asing said 124 vacation rental operate in Hanalei alone, representing nearly 50 percent of the parcels in the area with buildings.
