Lahaina residents got a victory this week in the passing of Senate Bill 2919, which clarifies the counties’ authority to regulate short-term rentals. It will be signed into law by Gov. Josh Green on Friday.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen is now proposing county legislation that would phase out vacation rentals in apartment-zoned areas.
“If successful, this legislation will support the return of approximately 7,000 transient vacation rentals (TVRs) to the local housing market and specifically 2,200 in West Maui, again, for long-term rental consideration,” he said at a joint press conference Thursday alongside grassroots community organization Lahaina Strong.
Bissen said if passed, the bill would go into effect on July 1, 2025, for West Maui and Jan. 1, 2026, for the rest of the island.
“Most, if not all, of these TVRs impacted by this session's legislation were previously built and designed for workforce housing in West Maui, and our goal is to return them to their intended purpose,” explained Bissen.
The TVRs Bissen referred to are part of what’s known as the Minatoya list. They have been operating under an exemption that grandfathered in units built before 1989 to operate as short-term rentals. The new legislation would repeal that decision, bringing more housing for residents.
Councilmember Keani Rawlins-Fernandez has championed limiting and phasing out short-term rentals for years. She said they’ve heard from lots of vacation rental owners who oppose the regulations.
“Consistently, the argument was about protecting their investment properties — their second, third, fourth, fifth home — when our residents have lost their only home,” she said, her voice filled with emotion. “And so that's what we're weighing today. We're prioritizing our residents. What good are jobs if you don't have anywhere to live?”
She explained the Minatoya list's origins began in the 1980s when offshore investors started buying condos on Maui to "capitalize on the vacation rental market," which rapidly reduced housing inventory, she said.
"In response, the council in 1989 attempted to limit STRs to the hotel zone where it should be," continued Rawlins-Fernandez. "In 1991, that council clarified the restriction on short-term rentals for all properties built after '91 that were not zoned hotel," she said.
"The Deputy Corporation Counsel Richard Minatoya co-authored an opinion negating the 1991 ordinance, providing an exemption to units built before March 4, 1991, allowing the owners to continue profiting off the units since that time. In 2015, Mayor Arakawa and the council passed a law that codified Mr. Minatoya’s opinion, that this bill today seeks to repeal," she explained.
Bissen said the county is prepared for legal pushback from short-term rental owners. But the new state law supports moving forward with action.
“We anticipated a legal battle already, and we just added one stronger point to our case by having the Legislature say that the county can regulate our short-term rentals,” he said.
Lahaina Strong has been pushing to convert short-term rentals into local housing since the August fire displaced thousands of residents and highlighted Maui’s housing crisis.
“Through our efforts with the Lahaina community and people across Hawaiʻi, we've transformed our housing crisis into a critical law,” said Paele Kiakona, one of Lahaina Strong's organizers. “Yesterday's passage of SB2919 in Hawaiʻi State Legislature is now a tool we can now put in the hands of our counties.”
Lahaina Strong said they will now be packing up their "Fishing for Housing" camp at Kāʻanapali Beach.
Organizer Jordan Ruidas talked about what it’s taken to get there.
“One hundred seventy-five days we've set up on this beach and we have fought through thick and thin, through high tides, crazy winds, torrential rains, STR owners that aren't happy about what we're standing for,” she said. “We fought through everything and this team and this community deserves this win.”
The county proposal needs to go to the planning commissions of Maui, Moloka’i and Lāna’i for community testimony and discussion, before approval by the Maui County Council.
As a first step, it is scheduled to be heard by the Maui Planning Commission on June 25.
