The Hawaii County Council is struggling with the proliferation of short-term rentals (STRs), which have taken residences off the market for locals and contributed to rising housing prices. Council Bill 121, tightening rules and turbo-charging enforcement, has been seen as a solution — but unfortunately, the county has been tussling over the bill now since November 2022.

At a Nov. 8 meeting of the Council’s planning committee, members considered a reset. After five additional proposed amendments were introduced, bill co-author and Council Chair Heather Kimball asked whether the Council should continue to tinker with the bill or simply scrap it, replacing it with a more straightforward law.

Bill 121, now a 30-page draft, has become confusing and unwieldy, and the Council should indeed scrap it — not to drop the ball on tighter enforcement of STRs, but to ensure the public is fully apprised of where the county is heading on this issue, and because Hawaii County has a new mayor and two new Council members coming within weeks.

It would also be fruitful to separate out enforcement and penalties from the changes in permitting requirements that are being sought.

Registration of STRs has been required by Hawaii County since 2018, and no new permits have been allowed since then — but Hawaii County does not have a stringent process for monitoring rentals offered on major platforms used by tourists, such as Airbnb and VRBO, distinguishing illegal operators from those with legal permits or nonconforming use certificates.

According to an analysis by the Hawai‘i Appleseed Center for Law &Economic Justice, 1 in 24 homes on Hawaii island are short-term rentals, and 52% of these are owned by people living outside of Hawaii. But official numbers are hard to come by.

Outgoing Mayor Mitch Roth weighed in on the issue during his reelection campaign, stating the importance of adopting new STR rules because current Hawaii island law is full of “loopholes.” And Mayor-elect Kimo Alameda says a priority for the county must be cracking down on illegal rentals, which usurp properties otherwise available to local residents. They’re both right.

The County Council should heed Alameda’s call for strong enforcement action and establish law on this issue promptly. There’s no reason to dither on this while hashing out other rules.

Bill 121 requires hosting platforms to register with the county, and bans them from providing booking services or collecting fees from illegal STRs, with fines of $1,000 to $10,000 per day for violations. Honolulu County successfully regulates STRs under a similar process. This section of the proposed law should be adopted with urgency.

The arguments over particulars of Bill 121’s rules are more knotty.

As currently written, Bill 121 would categorize STRs as “owner-hosted,” “operator-hosted” and “unhosted,” with each category subject to various requirements and fee schedules. Some categories would not be permitted in certain zoning districts, but all would be required to meet certain standards such as maximum gathering sizes, quiet hours and parking requirements.

Kimball has said that she introduced the bill because a large number of constituents in her Hamakua Coast district feel besieged by transient renters. Another overarching concern for the island is the loss of living space for locals as owners rent to the lucrative STR market.

Identifying all STRs in operation, by keying permits to the county tax map and transient accommodations tax number, along with stricter rules for “unhosted” STRs — often operated by out-of-state owners who don’t retain a local manager and are removed from local effects and concerns — should be the highest priorities here.

Hawaii’s Grassroots Institute and others have urged the Council to wait for findings of an economic impact study on STRs that it commissioned in July. That request is reasonable.

Should a new bill or bills be introduced, drafts must go through renewed review. However, by addressing the issues with urgency, it’s reasonable to expect that Hawaii County can see positive action on this issue early next year.