As Hawaii advances toward a sad memorial date, the one-year anniversary of the Lahaina wildfires, it is fitting that the Maui County Planning Commission has backed an assertive shift in land-use policy. The panel last week logged a 5-0 vote in favor of the mayor’s proposal to phase out short-term rental use of about 7,000 units on the Valley Isle.
The fact that the vote was unanimous following such a contentious public debate is telling. The commission plainly, and rightly, recognizes that the crushing need for housing far outweighs any economic value of the allowance for vacation rentals in the county.
Of course, there still remains room for adjustment while the reduction in short-term rentals plays out; a lengthy review process, as the draft bill is introduced in County Council, awaits. There are areas within Maui’s apartment zone that may be more suited to resort use, so some rezoning action might achieve a better balance.
But on the whole, Maui can no longer afford the relaxed stance on the vacation-rental sector it has taken for decades. The Aug. 8 wildfires destroyed about 3,500 homes in Lahaina and killed 102 people. Action now is imperative.
The blow to Maui’s spirit and economic stability has been extreme. The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization estimated that the island lost more than $13 million of tourism spending each day in the weeks following the fire.
A gradual recovery has started, with UHERO projecting visitor arrivals to return to 80% of pre-fire levels by the end of this year.
The employment effects, according to the analysis, are severe, with the displacement of families and the destruction of homes and the vast majority of Lahaina businesses. It’s this local impact that’s so worrying — and the driving force behind Mayor Richard Bissen’s rental conversion initiative.
That proposal seeks to ban short-term rental use of about 2,200 properties in West Maui as of July 1, 2025. Vacation-rental rights for the balance of about 4,800 would end Jan. 1, 2026.
Maui tried to limit short-term rentals to resort-zoned properties in 1989. But in an opinion written by Deputy Corporation Counsel Richard Minatoya, an exemption list grandfathering vacation rentals built before March 5, 1981 was created.
This did not achieve reasonable regulation of vacation rentals but merely postponed a reckoning until the land-use conflict reached a critical point. And that point was reached on Aug. 8, 2023.
The suddenness of the proposed change ignited an understandably emotional debate, pitting residents against those who own the units and soon may lose the rental revenue they produce. Some of the rhetoric during commission hearings has been overheated, and some of the rental owners argued that the change is an unfair taking of property rights.
This is an untenable argument. The right vested in a residential-zoned property is for rental to residents, not for what is essentially a hotel function.
The mandate for Maui’s government is to see that the county has the capacity to accommodate its residents, its basic workforce. There are initiatives underway to redevelop housing areas — Kamehameha Schools is one of the entities working on that — but this longer-term project can’t meet the demand soon enough.
Some of the affected rental owners may not make sufficient money from conversion to long-term leases to cover unit expenses: The fast turnover of tourist guests is more lucrative.
That is not the basis for evaluating Bissen’s proposal, though. If it is passed, it will provide resident housing quickly — and in fire-ravaged West Maui, that’s what counts.
