A measure that would close about half of vacation rentals in Maui County passed the first reading in the full council by a narrow 5-3 vote this week. Now, it’s headed to a second and final reading on Dec. 15.
Known as Bill 9, it would phase out about 7,000 short-term rentals in apartment-zoned districts over the next five years.
“To me, it's about balance and right-sizing the tourism industry, prioritizing our people over profit,” said West Maui Councilmember Tamara Paltin, who has championed the bill.
Paltin said she’s seen firsthand how vacation rentals have eroded local neighborhoods in recent years.
“Too much will never be enough for them,” she said during Monday’s special council meeting. “Even when it was too much, there was no efforts to limit, so if too much is never enough, then just enough should be more than enough.”
Council Chair Alice Lee voted against the bill. She expressed concern for what she called “huge” economic losses — and criticized the legislation itself.
“I've been in this business over 26 years, and honestly, this is one of the worst bills I've ever seen, structurally and the way it has been handled in a sort of backwards fashion,” she said. “In other words, you come up with a bill and then you rationalize it later, you justify it later, as you go along. And this has been the journey. And to me, this process has contributed to making this community very divisive.”
If Bill 9 passes, the county administration estimates nearly $61 million in annual loss in real property tax and another $15 million loss in general excise and transient accommodations taxes. But the Finance Department says it plans to compensate through other tax rate adjustments.
Monday’s meeting included hours of split and impassioned public testimony, followed by council discussion before the vote on whether to move the bill to its final step.
Councilmember Tom Cook of South Maui voted no.
“This isn't going to be like pulling a tooth and it's over. It's going to be like getting a drill for years,” he said. “And that's my real concern, is that it's going to be the litigation and all of that is just going to be hard on everybody.”
Moloka’i Councilmember Keani Rawlins-Fernandez supports the measure.
“Some people see Maui as a business, and some people see Maui as our home,” she told fellow councilmembers. “Unlike the generational families and residents that have built community here, many STR [short-term rental] owners we heard from are free from experiencing the challenge of weighing the loss of family and friends being priced out of a system that is designed to price them out.”
Bill 9 was proposed by Mayor Richard Bissen in May 2024 to free up housing for local residents, with strong support from grassroots community group Lahaina Strong. Since then, it passed through several bodies, including the Maui Planning Commission and the council’s Housing and Land Use Committee, with lengthy public testimony at each step.
Recently, a council Temporary Investigative Group recommended rezoning for about half of the affected properties.
During Monday’s meeting, councilmembers voted against a proposed amendment to Bill 9 that would have achieved that goal. Council lawyers said the bill is most legally defensible in its original form.
But many councilmembers say they’re committed to seeing separate legislation passed to streamline zoning changes. That would allow many of the affected properties to continue as vacation rentals.
Lānaʻi Councilmember Gabe Johnson says the tourism industry has been the focus of Maui’s economy, but he wants to see that change through the bill.
“I think that it's been a long time coming, and we are smart and we can pivot from this. So that’s why I’m rising in full support.”
Councilmember Yuki Lei Sugimura voted against the measure. Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins and Shane Sincenci supported the phase-out.
What comes next?
The council is currently short a member with the Kahului seat remaining vacant following the death of Councilmember Tasha Kama in October. Three candidates were nominated for the role, with councilmembers in a deadlock vote over the choice. Now, Bissen will appoint a candidate.
A Maui County spokesperson told HPR the mayor plans to conduct interviews with all the candidates before making a decision. It’s unclear if the new member would be appointed in time for the Bill 9 final vote on Dec. 15.
According to the latest version of Bill 9, notification to property owners would take place by March. After that, owners could either convert their units to long-term rentals, keep them for personal use, seek a change in zoning, or sell them.
Legal challenges to the bill are also anticipated.
The phase-out deadline for West Maui would be Jan. 1, 2029. Affected units in other areas of the county would need to end short-term renting by Jan. 1, 2031.
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