Lee Cataluna: Honolulu must not lose its chance to control tourism

The tourism industry is pestering Governor David Ige to withdraw his request to travelers to stay away from the islands.

Vacation rental owners in residential Oahu complain about attempts to close the loopholes that have allowed them to make money while causing painful nuisance to their neighbors.

After a brief period of serious public debates on how to handle the runaway visitor numbers to Hawaii, the greedy addiction for tourism money has resumed.

The pandemic has to be over if we argue again about getting more and more tourists to the islands, right?

The daily Covid-19 case numbers are now ONLY in the 300s. ONLY 193 Hawaiian residents died of Covid last month.

Yup. We are just before Pau.

Yikes

So far during the pandemic, Hawaii has seen the tourism industry collapse to almost nothing and then start again with the madness of incoming visitors who promised to quarantine their hotel rooms – a promise that is made easy, easy to break, and almost impossible to enforce can.

That summer it was like locks opening, and Hawaii had more tourists on each island than ever before. Tourists on Oahu went to Kalanianaole down to Hanauma Bay because there weren’t enough rental cars.

It was madness. For some who make their living from tourists, it was better than their wildest dreams.

Thankfully, the Honolulu Planning Commission serves as the voice of reason amid the call for tourism. The pandemic provided a ripe opportunity to recapture the parts of Hawaii that were sold to the almighty visitor industry and restore a more sensible and orderly lifestyle to those of us who live here. Despite discussions about the impact of right-sizing tourism earlier this summer, it looked like that opportunity was wasted when visitor numbers declined in the fall.

The first step in mitigating the negative impact of tourism in Hawaii is to remove tourism from neighborhoods.

The Honolulu Planning Commission is proposing a number of new restrictions to restrict vacation development to residential areas.

The calculation begins with this paragraph this aptly describes the situation:

“Short-term rentals disrupt the character and structure of our residential areas; they are inconsistent with the land use earmarked for our residential areas and are raising house prices for the resident population of Oahu by removing the housing stock from the markets for sale and long-term rental. The City Council notes that the economic benefits of opening up our residential areas to tourism are far outweighed by the negative impact on our neighborhoods and residents. “

The vacation rental industry has taken over the islands as mold can infest a building with poor ventilation and lax maintenance. State and local governments have not been paying attention for a long time, and when local residents started making noise that the problem became unsustainable, too much time was wasted hand-ringing and studying.

In the meantime, every measure discussed or adopted seemed to have large loopholes that made it possible to continue vacation rentals in residential areas. (Merriam-Webster defines a “loophole” as “an ambiguity or omission in the text that may circumvent the intent of a law, contract, or obligation”. Seems appropriate.)

The bill would require vacation rental bookings of at least 180 days. Exceptions would allow shorter stays for military personnel, medical personnel temporarily working in Hawaii, and full-time students, for example. New short term rentals would not be allowed in residential areas, including businesses that set up where the owner lives on land and rents out part of his home. Vacation rentals would only be allowed in vacation spots such as Waikiki, Ko Olina, Makaha, and on the North Shore near Turtle Bay.

These rules would go a long way towards ending the problem of tourism invading every part of the island. But it’s the money part that makes the proposal serious.

The fines for violating the new rules would increase from up to $ 10,000 per day to $ 25,000 per day. In addition, and more effectively, vacation rentals would be taxed at a higher hotel and resort rate, pay general excise and temporary lodging taxes, and have at least $ 1 million in commercial liability insurance.

If the members of the Honolulu Planning Commission and Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration can hold onto that position and reclaim Oahu neighborhoods for local residents, they will achieve what the administrations of Kirk Caldwell, Peter Carlisle, Mufi Hannemann and Jeremy Harris could or could didn’t want to.

It would be a significant moment, a return to prioritizing housing needs for locals; and not just apartments that locals can rent, but also the need for people to have peace, security and stability around their homes.