Vacation rental issue moves to planning department

The perplexing question of how to cope with the jump in bed-and-breakfast establishments and transient vacation units now shifts to the city Department of Planning and Permitting and then the Honolulu Planning Commission.

After hearing more than an hour of testimony, City Council members voted to approve four resolutions directing Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration to come up with bills for them to consider. The Council, by law, cannot initiate changes to the Land Use Ordinance.

The four resolutions call for increasing regulation and enforcement on operators and internet advertising sites, creating a system that would allow for a limited number of legal B&Bs and TVUs, or a combination of both.

The administration has told the Council that Caldwell is convening a task force to help DPP come up with a proposal. Once a bill, or bills, are drafted by the department, it would need to be reviewed by the Planning Commission before being considered by the Council, which would need to approve them each three times.

Dozens of supporters and opponents of vacation rentals gave sometimes emotional testimony on the proposals, which run the gamut of trying to increase regulations and tighten enforcement of illegal vacation rentals to setting up a way for new B&Bs and TVUs to be permitted. Representatives from Airbnb, the internet vacation rental site, urged people involved in the industry to oppose stricter regulations while Unite Here Local 5, the hotel workers union, rallied its members to object to the idea of more legal vacation rentals.

Several vacation rental operators say they pay taxes on their businesses, and that they rely on the additional income to make ends meet.

Waialua resident Ken Capes said he and his wife are “very proud public school teachers” who will rent part of their home for short-term vacationers. “We have never been heavy spenders; we could never afford it, even if we wanted to,” Capes said.

“Between mortgage, raising a family, basic bills and groceries, we were in the hole $200 every paycheck,” Capes said. “Home sharing via Airbnb” gave his family financial hope, he said.

“One hundred percent of our guests have been wonderful” and pose no harm or inconvenience to his neighbors, he said. Some even helped pass out candy on Halloween night, he said.

North Shore resident Marie Rathburn said that among those who stay at her vacation rental are people returning to Hawaii to visit family and are looking for somewhere affordable to stay.

“All I ask for is, please, some consideration for local families that have been here, that want to have regulations and fair housing,” Rathburn said. “We are law-abiding people. We have enough parking. We promote aloha and caring and sharing with everyone.”

Kailua resident Mark Steiner told Council members that he rents out a room in his house through Airbnb to visitors that “I know will spend money in the community.”

Steiner said he offers a different kind of experience for visitors. “There are not hotels in Kailua — none, no motels in Kailua, and there are other parts of the island with the same situation,” Steiner said. Visitors “don’t want to stay in Waikiki; they might as well be at Cape Cod, for part of the year, anyway.”

One of the proposals would allow people to report on their neighbors, something Steiner believes won’t be a positive for Hawaii. “Having neighbors report on neighbors is a vigilante mentality I think would be very detrimental to the culture here.”

Steiner said he supports “fair but strong regulation” of what’s allowed in residential homes “to be able to keep these places nice.”

But Cesilee Linares said her 6-year-old son has had to live in six different houses as she struggles to keep up with rising rents. Linares said she and her partner make a decent income, “but I can’t imagine owning a home for my son to be raised in.”

Meanwhile, Linares’ brother and his family are moving to the mainland “because they can’t afford to live in Hawaii,” she said. “It’s too expensive to live here in Hawaii. We’re selling all of our land to these developers and not taking care of the people here first.”

Hotel worker Theresa Trimmer said she was surprised to find vacation rentals are popping up in her neighborhood. “I don’t live anywhere near a beach, I don’t live near a resort area or anything like that.”

Trimmer said she’s worried that the vacation rentals will trigger a rise in her own rent. “Am I going to be able to keep living where I’m living? I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”

Lifelong Waialua resident Mike Biechler said it’s clear that there are a number of illegal vacation rentals operating, and the numbers are growing in his neighborhood.

He urged Council members to take a long-term view of the issue. “The only way to get this situation under control is to work on enforcement first, then address permitting” and other issues, Biechler said.

A bed-and-breakfast unit by definition is rented for less than 30 days by an owner living in the same dwelling.

Transient vacation rentals, TVUs, are other units rented for less than 30 days. The owner does not live in the same dwelling, but TVUs are allowed without permits in resort districts such as Waikiki.

The city stopped issuing permits for both in 1989-90.

The four resolutions adopted Wednesday follow.

>> Resolution 17-52 would impose additional regulations on vacation rentals and establish rules for online marketplace sites that advertise vacation rentals such as Airbnb. Neighbors would be allowed to compel the city to enforce violations, or even to take legal action against violators. It also calls for “hosting platforms” such as Airbnb to submit to the city reports on the addresses and owners of operators advertising on their sites, and bars operators from advertising their rentals by any other method. Airbnb attorneys say the city can’t do that.

>> Resolution 17-163 creates a process for allowing an unspecified but “limited number” of new B&B and TVU permits to be issued.

>> Resolution 17-164 allows the city to slap a lien against a property when an owner violates TVU or B&B law, requires advertisements of vacation rentals to include the addresses and certificate numbers, and allows for advertisements to be used as evidence against an operator. It also bars a TVU or B&B permit from being transferred via sale of a property.

>> Resolution 17-301 establishes a process allowing for a limited number of bed-and-breakfast permits spread evenly across the island. No more than 0.5 percent of all Oahu residential properties can be vacation rentals, and each of the nine Council districts would be allowed no more than one-third of the citywide total.