Ask the Mayor: Why Aren’t Trailer Homes Allowed on Maui?

Mayor Alan Arakawa answers some of the questions submitted to his staff.

Submit your own questions about County of Maui programs, services, operations or policies to Mayor Alan Arakawa at AskTheMayor@mauicounty.gov, (808) 270-7855 or mail them to 200 S. High St., 9th Floor, Wailuku, HI 96793.

Questions submitted will be considered for inclusion in the “Ask the Mayor” column.

Aloha Mayor,

Q: Why is a trailer house not allowed on Maui, as from what I hear, this would help us. Being a single mom I would like to have a house I can call my own instead of renting forever.

A: According to the Maui County Planning Department, trailer houses are allowed along with tiny homes. They are treated the same as any other type of home, even though trailer houses are theoretically mobile and tiny homes are generally small.

When people say we need to allow trailer houses or tiny houses, what they probably mean is that we need to allow these in addition to, or in a greater density than, what is already allowed. Most residential, rural and agricultural lots are allowed to have two houses (or one house and one ‘ohana).

Those houses can be trailers or tiny homes. But there can still be only two.

The zoning code would have to be changed to allow more than two homes per lot for alternative types of housing, such as trailer homes or tiny homes.