Public debate intensified Wednesday during several hours of sometimes heated testimony over a proposed phase-out of vacation rentals before the Maui County Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee.

Members of the committee, chaired by Council Member Tasha Kama, heard from nearly 70 testifiers both in person and online. Testimony on Bill 9 was roughly split between those for and against it, with a slight edge to those in favor. Written testimony has been heavily opposed.

Introduced in May 2024 by Mayor Richard Bissen, the measure would give short-term rental owners operating in grandfathered status in apartment-zoned districts a three-year grace period to transition to long-term residential use. Or, they can seek a change in zoning to hotel use. The bill would affect roughly 6,000 visitor accommodations, mostly in South and West Maui.

Although the Council Chambers was not packed as it had been on June 9, the first day of public testimony, emotions still ran high even before testimony resumed Wednesday morning.

As part of her introductory remarks, Kama called for a moment of silence to recognize the tragic shootings of Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota and their spouses on Sunday. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the attacks “politically motivated.”

“I condemn those cowardly attacks on our country’s democracy,” Kama said.

Then, Kama pointed out that Maui’s divisive public debate over Bill 9 “has prompted very emotional responses on both sides of this issue.” She noted “threatening language on social media.”

“And the committee as a whole has witnessed in public testimony, the vulgarity and aggression that I speak of,” she said. “I will not permit language and actions at this meeting which may contribute to the breakdown of our social decorum.”

Kama said the vacation rental measure represents “a substantial shift in values with potentially dramatic economic and social effects.” It will “not be a decision that will be taken lightly,” she said.

Kama said she would not permit potentially offensive language such as “occupiers, illegal invaders, transplants, extractors, colonists, settlers, terrorists, foreigners and a whole host of others.”

Almost immediately, Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez pushed back. She asked for an opinion from corporation counsel about the chair’s proposed prohibition of such words. Rawlins-Fernandez said testifiers might use them because “that’s how they’re feeling about being pushed out of their homes.”

After a brief recess, the opinion was not to prohibit certain words, but to take instances of unruly behavior on a case-by-case basis.

In public testimony, prominent Honolulu attorney David Louie provided spoke against Bill 9 on behalf of client Airbnb, a worldwide online platform that connects short-term rental owners with guests.

The former Hawaiʻi Attorney General under Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who served from 2010-14, said he has substantial experience with constitutional law issues. He called Bill 9 “problematic,” and said it violates the US and Hawaiʻi constitutions.

Property owners have fundamental constitutional property rights, “and that’s going to be a huge problem for the County,” he said. “The County wants to wipe out lawful, vested short-term rentals that have been going on since 1960, for decades. And you just can’t do that. Unfortunately, there have been three courts in Hawaiʻi that have spoken on this and have ruled against what Maui County wants to do.”

“This is an unconstitutional taking that results in damage and will create gigantic potential liabilities for the County of Maui in tens of millions, perhaps more.”

Also, if condo prices decline, as predicted (and has happened already), “that will be on the County,” he said.

Louie recommended that, “because of these severe consequences to the budget, to the taxes, to the liabilities of the County, I recommend that this bill is premature until the County can figure out how it’s going to handle the compensation issues and deal with all of the economic losses.”

Louie also expressed concerns about the bill before the Maui Planning Commission in July.

Laksmi M. Abraham, Maui County director of Communications and Government Affairs responded on Thursday to Maui Now’s request for comment saying: “Our legal team has thoroughly and conscientiously vetted Bill 9, and we are confident in its legality. While Mr. Louie previously served as Hawai’i’s Attorney General, he now works in private practice as a registered lobbyist for Airbnb. The legal cases he cites are not applicable to the specific circumstances of Bill 9. None of them address the phase-out of a use in the Apartment District-something counties are explicitly authorized to do under state law.”

In other testimony, Noelani Ahia focused her comments on “settler colonialism.”

She said words like “colonizer, foreigner and settlers” are “not violent words.”

“It’s the language that’s used to describe the violence than kanaka maoli have been resisting and surviving for 130 years,” she said. “We can’t adequately describe the situation without language.”

She asked if anyone had read the “Apology Bill?”

“If you read this bill, you know that the United States admitted to illegally overthrowing the Hawaiian kingdom. They took our entire country. So, when people stand up here and talk about ‘taking’… Hello? They took our whole country. Our people are dying on the streets because they took our country, and I am not exaggerating. I have been there. I have witnessed it.”

Condominium owner Sonny Cave, who purchased a Māʻalaea Kai Resort unit with his wife in 2013 and are part-time residents, said the unit is rented legally to guests.

“We are very environmentally conscious and community minded,” he said, noting that water conservation features have been installed. “And we only employ local residents to help us manage the condo,” he said.

Cave said short-term rental bans have failed in other communities, including Lake Tahoe and Sedona, “places that rely on tourism and also face affordable housing challenges.”

“In these jurisdictions, broad STR bans only led to litigation, much deeper community divisions and did little to bring about actual improvement in housing stock,” he said.

In these jurisdictions. Broad SDR bans only led to expensive litigation, much deeper community divisions, and yet did little to nothing to bring about actual improvement in housing stock, he said.

The Māʻalaea condo units “were not designed or intended for primary workforce housing,” Cave said. “Rather, they were originally built for visitors and have a long history of transient use.”

“Costs are very high,” he said. “Our annual ownership cost can be $45,000 without a mortgage.”

Cave pointed out that the March 31 University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization report warned of severe economic impacts, even before there was added global uncertainty when new tariffs kicked in.

He asked the Council to consider a “more surgical and compassionate path forward.”

The Council should consider STR restrictions that reduce negative impacts, like limits on occupancy, water conservation and prioritizing new housing solutions with public-private partnerships and creative fast-track building strategies.

“Please balance the needs of housing with a healthy economy and social cohesion,” he said.

Nara Boone, a member of the Maui Housing Hui, said she grew up in Haʻikū and has seen her community change from mostly local to predominantly caucasian, although “this has nothing to do with race.”

She said it’s about “the absence of the people that were born here and grew up here, and I feel like I’m in some bizarre alternate universe.”

Costs have risen dramatically, and a house that once sold for $350,000 now sells for $1.4 million, Boone said. People need to work multiple jobs to afford to live on Maui, she said.

“Short-term rentals jack up our prices,” she said. “Short-term rentals take homes away from our people.”

Much of the testimony reiterated comments already heard for and against the measure.

Bill proponents argue that reclaiming these units is an important step toward addressing Maui’s long-time housing shortage, which has reached a crisis point after the August 2023 wildfire disaster left thousands homeless and seeking shelter in temporary housing. They see the bill as prioritizing community needs over transient tourism accommodations. They point to the original intent of the zoning and the desperate need for residential inventory.

Vacation rental owners, at least 85% of whom reside outside Maui County, are outspoken in their opposition. While specific arguments vary, common concerns revolve around property rights, economic impacts on their investments, and the broader tourism economy.

With more than 230 people listed to testify Wednesday afternoon, Kama extended the panel’s hearing by an hour to 5:30 p.m. The committee still has another 50 or so people signed up to testify. Kama said she expects to wrap up testimony on June 23. The committee reconvenes its recessed meeting that day beginning at 9 a.m., also in Council Chambers.

*Editor’s note: This story was updated to add comments sought from the County of Maui, which were received on Thursday afternoon.