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Moratorium unnecessary with population-based cap

Council Member Kelly King recently introduced a bill to put a moratorium on new hotels.

I have a better idea: Maui should enforce the 30 percent of resident population cap that is in our 2012 Maui Island Plan.

That cap has already gone through the plan’s review process so really needs little further debate; presumably it was acceptable to those who worry about jobs in the tourism industry. All it needs is some teeth behind it.

One possibility is a cap-and-trade mechanism as is used to control pollution. Whatever it is, we need to get the hotels to comply with the Island Plan, and the only way to do that is to enforce it. Since existing hotels are already over the limit, any new hotel would not be allowed unless all the existing hotels volunteer to cut their quota, which is not likely to happen.

Scott Werden

Haiku

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