If not yet, it’s only a matter of time before an STVR comes to you. A few years ago, former-Mayor Harry Kim was highly dogged by complaints about this intrusion into our lives and solicited the council to draft legislation. Enter Bill 108 that became law soon after. With all the positive fanfare and best intentions relying in part on HRS 205 (prohibition on ag land) we breathed a great sigh of relief.
A few years later and a new administration, we find ourselves falling back into the same dilemma with an administration not as sensitive to this. To the best of my observations, complaints are not followed up and they will no longer accept anonymous complaints now pitting neighbor against neighbor. There’s also no mention on repeated requests of any penalties assessed which could contribute substantially to the mayor’s budget, continuous reply of “under investigation” to lodged complaints going on over a year, poor and incorrect responses from department staff to residents and STVR petitioners. Try calling the property owner – good luck with that! It’s better to pay any penalty if assessed since the income far exceeds another small cost of doing business.
Hearsay is that STVRs have been told to book for 31 days then allow the renters to cancel much sooner so it wasn’t a short-term rental. This also serves to avoid the TAT that would have been paid for less than 30 day rents. The list goes on and on while the degradation of our qualify of life continues. This is not about blanket prohibition as much about protecting our local quality of life. What is our administration/council doing?
The City and County of Honolulu has taken this issue in favor of the people over the ghastly intrusion into their community by passing and signing Bill 41 (2021) CD2 on April 26. It is a sweeping benefit to the citizens and protection of their quality of life. One can argue that this affects residential and resort zoning, but here we are ignoring residential quality on all fronts including ag-zoned land. This body has served its residents by posting information to help residents. It is outstanding that there is a STVR web site for City and County of Honolulu complete with reports of numbers of complaints.
Our state Legislature has approved a joint resolution strongly urging each county to increase fines, foreclosures, etc. for illegal STVRs. See H.C.R. No. 73. Are our local elected officials taking heed? A recent court decided that STVRs are not illegal on ag-zoned land. State Land Use has opted to contest this decision. Now, the silver-tongued legal beagles can assemble to continue to twist the intentions of the public good in favor of money and absentee owner desires.
Those Big Island planning consultants who collected fees and represented this intrusion with attempts to gain exemptions are now jumping with glee. They are easily identifiable in the public record whose names are well-known.
Steve Lopez is a resident of Kailua-Kona.