Maui County Council members listened to hours of passionate public testimony Monday as they passed a “clean” version of Bill 9 on first reading.

Citing the need for housing for residents, a majority of Maui County Council members approved the bill that if enacted, would phase thousands of transient-vacation rentals out of Maui’s apartment districts in hopes of creating more long-term housing.

Council members Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, Tamara Paltin, Gabe Johnson, Shane Sinenci and Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins voted in favor of Bill 9, while Tom Cook and Yuki Lei Sugimura joined Council Chair Alice Lee in voting against it.

Bill 9 is scheduled for second reading Dec. 15.

The bill was proposed by Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen as one piece in a multi-pronged approach to ease the county’s housing crisis. The proposal seeks to reverse the legal status given to thousands of transient-vacation rentals that have been grandfathered into apartment zoning where they are otherwise not permitted.

Only minor amendments

Recommended for passage earlier this year by the Housing and Land Use Committee, Bill 9 passed on first reading after U’u-Hodgins proposed two small amendments — one to give county officials more time to notify property owners and another to amend some of the bill’s language to clarify its intent.

U’u-Hodgins said changing one date from January to March would give the directors of finance and planning the time they need to provide the required notice, and the changes in the language were just for clarification.

Paltin asked the county’s attorneys if approving Bill 9 with the clarifications would still qualify as a passing “clean bill,” and the attorneys said it would. Both of U’u-Hodgins’ amendments passed without opposition.

Cook also proposed a minor amendment to have the county produce a list of the affected parcels by tax status every year through 2030. Cook described it as a way of keeping track of the properties, and the amendment passed 7-1 with Johnson opposed.

“It’s just a measuring and monitoring method so we can see and address how many houses we’re getting and how successful we are,” Cook said.

Cook withdrew another suggested amendment that would have tied Bill 9’s implementation to work that’s being done on recommendations from a temporary investigative group, or TIG.

The recommendations include creating new zoning designations for properties where continued short-term renting might be appropriate, but Cook withdrew the proposal after the county’s attorneys said it would “potentially weaken” Bill 9 and didn’t have the support it needed to pass.

‘One of the worst bills’

Before County Council voted on Bill 9, Lee blasted the proposed legislation and the way it had been handled up to this point.

“I’ve been in this business for over 26 years, and honestly this is one of the worst bills I’ve ever seen,” Lee said.

For Lee and some of the opponents to Bill 9, one of their biggest concerns centers on lost tax revenue for the county.

“The money we’re going to lose is huge,” she explained. “It’s not a one-time loss; it’s every year. If it’s $75 million to $80 million, let’s say with all the different taxes, in 10 years that’s close to $1 billion.”

Taking language from opponents who spoke against the bill, Sugimura said she believes Bill 9 will “cripple” Maui’s economy and jeopardize essential services such as police and fire.

“It bothers me that this is going to bring costly litigation; that’s another thing testifiers said,” Sugimura added. “We could better use that funding to build housing, infrastructure, water — all the things that we need to run our county.”

‘Nowhere else to go’

Speaking in favor of Bill 9, Rawlins-Fernandez likened capitalism to “a snake that will eat itself if left unchecked.” She also pointed out that while some of Monday’s speakers described Maui as a business, others spoke of Maui as their home.

Many of her comments were echoed by Sinenci, who said his support came with a commitment to continue working on new zoning.

Sinenci also said it’s important for people to understand that Bill 9 does not ban all short-term rentals on Maui.

“We’re just addressing those in Apartment 1 and Apartment 2 zones, which after the TIG recommendations would be about 13% of the total,” he said. “We still have over 23,000 short term rentals on the island. When they’re talking about an economic crash, we still have those.”

Sinenci also said that because Bill 9 wouldn’t take effect for five years, owners would have ample time to continue renting their properties while seeking necessary zoning changes, if the changes are appropriate.

“Bill 9, some people may call it extreme, but we want to look at the context in which this bill is here before us — an entire town burnt down,” he said.

Sinenci said there are hundreds of thousands of Native Hawaiians living off the islands, and that was at the front of his mind when he cast his vote.

“When our people move to the continent, it’s just not the same,” Sinenci said. “For me as a councilman, I want to do everything possible to keep them here on the island, especially their kids. When Hawaiian and local people see the ocean and the mountains, we don’t just think about how we can make money off them and profit. We think about taking our families and our children and grandchildren to the beach and to commune with nature around us.

“When we think of a house or an apartment, we think of raising our families or taking care of our kupuna and not just about how we can buy as many as we can to make money. We don’t have nowhere else to go. However, a lot of us have already left.”