Testimony for Planning Commission October 23, 2007
Bed and Breakfast ordinance
by Thomas Croly
 
I would like to thank the commission for your careful attention and extended discussion of the details of the proposed Bed and Breakfast ordinance at your last meeting. I would especially like to thank Commissioners Uu, Hedani and Guard for their suggestions that have lead to my proposal today.
 
One percent, One permit per owner, and One million dollars a year for affordable housing.

This is my proposal:
 
One Percent. I would like to suggest you limit B&B use to no more than One percent of the island’s housing inventory. By making one percent of the island’s housing inventory, available for B&B accommodations, island resident B&B owner/operators will be able to continue to facilitate more than $40 million of island-wide visitor spending from our guests.
 
One permit per owner. I fully support the idea raised by commissioners Hiranaga and Hedani that only one B&B permit be granted to any property owner. I agree with the need to guard against single individuals or entities buying up much of Maui’s residential housing for vacation rental or any other purpose. However I do support that the owner be able to employ an onsite manager.
 
One Million Dollars a year for affordable housing. For the privileged of being able to run their operations I am proposing that all B&B owners pay annual impact fees that would go toward providing affordable housing for island residents. I suggest an annual impact fee of $1000 per room that is used in the owners dwelling and $1500 for each bedroom of any additional dwelling to be used for vacation rental purposes.
 
For example, if someone has a single Bed and Breakfast room in their house and has a 2-bedroom cottage, then the annual impact fee proposed would be $4000. ($1000 for the B&B room and $3000 for the 2-bedroom cottage). These impact fees applied to less than 1 percent of our island’s residential housing would generate well in excess of a million dollars per year.
 
For this idea to be a reality, the definition of Bed and Breakfast will have to include the use of ohana dwellings, either as the owner’s residence or as visitor accommodations. Also the $35,000 Ag income test will have to be eliminated because this would exclude most of the B&Bs on the island.
 
If you choose to omit all ohana dwellings from B&B use, then this new ordinance will have very little application and will not provide any assistance at all in addressing the broad based vacation rental issue. It will be helpful to perhaps a half a dozen or so B&B operations in rural zoning. But you will have missed the opportunity to help to create real regulation for this industry.
 
If you like this idea and would like to know why I think this proposal will be both fair and effective I encourage your questions.