Lahaina Strong calls for passage of Bill 9 in wake of Temporary Investigative Group report

Lahaina Strong, a community group that arose in the wake of the Lahaina wildfire disaster, is calling for the Maui County Council to take expeditious action on Bill 9, which would phase out short-term vacation rentals in apartment-zoned districts.

“We are still awaiting confirmation of dates for the two full Council hearings required before Bill 9 can advance to final passage,” the group said in a news release. “Lahaina Strong, alongside our coalition partners and community members, remains deeply committed to engaging in every step of this process and urges the Council to schedule the hearings with no further delay.”

First reading of Bill 9 is scheduled for Nov. 12.

Lahaina Strong commended the Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee for releasing the findings of its Temporary Investigative Group on Oct. 14. Among its recommendations was a proposal to create two new hotel zoning districts to allow some existing short-term vacation rentals to continue operating in what’s currently zoned for residential apartment use. The TIG’s final report can be viewed here.

Bill 9 was passed out of committee on July 24 by a 6-3 vote. The committee’s next meeting on the TIG recommendations is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday in Council Chambers. (To see the agenda, click here.)

The TIG was chaired by Council Member Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins, who serves as vice chair of the Housing and Land Use Committee. Council Member Tamara Paltin served as TIG vice chair and Council Members Tom Cook and Shane Sinenci were TIG voting members.

“The TIG’s work represents an important step forward in understanding the impacts and implementation details of Bill 9, which seeks to phase out short-term vacation rentals in apartment-zoned districts and return these homes to the long-term housing pool,” Lahaina Strong said.

Lahaina Strong’s Pā’ele Kiakona said: “We mahalo the TIG for their time and effort in putting together this report and helping to examine the impacts of Bill 9. Their work adds valuable context to the discussion but let us not forget the urgency of Maui’s housing crisis.”

“With so many local families still displaced, priced out, or waiting for a home, we simply can’t afford to lose more housing to short-term use,” he said. “With the TIG’s work behind us, we can finally turn our full attention to pushing Bill 9 forward and making sure this long-awaited change becomes reality for Maui’s families.”

Kiakona said that phasing out short-term vacation rentals in apartment-zoned residential areas is “one of the most effective steps the County can take to stabilize housing, free up water for new developments and give Maui families a real chance to stay and thrive here at home. We appreciate the TIG’s work and now is the time for bold action. Our community cannot wait any longer.”

Lahaina Strong reminded the Maui County Council that “Maui is in a dire housing crisis, made exponentially worse by the Lahaina fires, which displaced thousands of residents and amplified years of housing scarcity. Every single unit that was built and intended for long-term residential living should be returned to its original purpose.”

The group called on the Council to “focus on moving Bill 9 forward,” and it asked its supporters, including the Housing Back Hui Coalition and community members to “continue to show up, testify and advocate until Bill 9 crosses the finish line clean.”

“Now more than ever, Maui’s housing must serve Maui’s people,” Lahaina Strong said. “Our generational families, our local workforce, and our future generations deserve the chance to live and thrive where they are from. To fall short of that vision would be to continue a cycle of displacement that our community has been fighting to end.”

Bill 9 — drafted and backed by Mayor Richard Bissen’s administration and staunchly opposed by transient vacation rental operators — would render approximately 7,000 short-term vacation rentals as unpermitted uses in apartment-zoned districts over three to five years.

Such units have been permitted to operate under a “grandfather” status if they existed before residential apartment zoning went into effect. With Maui coping with an unprecedented, post-wildfire disaster housing shortage, the aim is to convert privately owned units now used as visitor accommodations into direly needed long-term residential housing.

Short-term rental operators say their industry contributes local employment and generates local tax income and broad economic benefits. They also maintain that the effect of Bill 9 would amount to an unconstitutional taking of property prohibited by the Fifth Amendment‘s takings clause.