Posted on Sun Jun 17 2007
The Kauai County Council is debating Bill 2204, dealing with vacation rentals. This bill has been evolving since 2005, and is approaching completion. The thrust of it is that vacation rentals outside of designated Visitor Destination Areas will be prohibited, and enforcement can be applied merely for having a website advertising a TVR. However, existing TVRs will be grandfathered.
One controversial area relates to TVRs in Agricultural zoning. The first draft of the bill would have excluded agricultural-zoned properties from grandfathering. After discussion with Kauai Council member Tim Bynum, amendments were made, allowing operators on Agricultural land to obtain State Land Use Commission Special Permits by July of 2008, which would allow them to be grandfathered.
Unfortunately the amendment contains overly-strict language, requiring more than 50% of household income to be derived from farming, and proof that products are regularly sent to market. We are urging the Kauai Council to leave it up to the Planning Commissions to decide on these permits, based on criteria already codified in the State Agricultural statutes. Productively farming two-acre parcels is impractical and cannot be forced. Controlling future proliferation of TVRs does not need to cost existing operators their livelihoods.
