#vacation rental phase-out

Maui County Council members voted 8-1 Wednesday to move forward with a proposal to create new hotel zoning districts for thousands of vacation rentals, a measure designed to soften the economic blow of the county’s controversial short-term rental phase-out. The approval of Resolution 25-230 refers a proposed bill to the Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi planning […]

In a move to address lingering concerns about a proposed law to phase out transient vacation rentals, the Maui County Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee voted 8-0 on Wednesday to form a Temporary Investigative Group. The TIG, a “permitted interaction group” under Hawaiʻi’s Sunshine Law, would investigate policies and procedures for vacation rentals in […]

Maui County Council members accepted oral and written testimony Tuesday on revised real property tax rates that reduced rates in some categories while retaining proposed rates in others. The Council recessed its meeting until June 3. Final action on tax rates and second-and-final reading on the fiscal 2026 budget are scheduled for that date in […]

Mayor Richard Bissen and his Communications Office have provided point-by-point responses to Monday’s release of the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization’s analysis of the mayor’s proposed phase-out of thousands of vacation rentals in apartment-zoned districts. The phase-out proposal has gone through Maui County planning commissions. Now, it’s pending before the Maui County Council, which […]

While Maui County’s proposed vacation rental phase-out in apartment-zoned districts could potentially unlock more than 6,000 transient vacation rental units for residential housing, the “bold attempt to rebalance Maui’s housing market” also risks widespread economic disruption, including 1,900 job layoffs and a $900 million loss in visitor spending, according to the University of Hawaiʻi Economic […]

By a 5-4 vote, Maui County Council Member Tasha Kama maintained chairmanship of the Housing and Land Use Committee last week, although it came with diluted committee responsibilities and no jurisdiction over proposals for increasing housing availability or affordability.

With visitors choosing to go elsewhere, Maui County can expect “slow progress” in its economic recovery in the wake of the August 2023 wildfire disaster, according to economics professor Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization.

Maui Planning Commission members will take up the draft South Maui Community Plan update on Tuesday, and it comes with a very hot potato — a policy statement to increase residential housing by phasing-out short-term vacation rentals.