MAHALO to everyone who has reached out and wants to help oppose the newly proposed County Bill to phase out Minatoya condo short term rental properties. Continuing to advocate for Maui as a whole and the people who call her home as well as those who love to visit of paramount importance.

LEGAL / COUNTY PROCESS UPDATE

We are aware of some inquiries and evaluation into the legal implications of SB2919. There are a number of different legal strategies being discussed at this time and the merits of each are being evaluated. 

With this, it is important to note that before a legal process potentially ensues, there is still a different process of going through the Maui County planning commission and County Council to be voted on in order for this to be implemented. Oral and written testimony opposing this bill is crucial and we will be working to help deliver some effective talking points on this front. 

Any lawsuit of this scale is going to be best strategized and served with a coordinated effort, which is what HIMAST and the individual county organizations are working on. 

Your current best course action is to support the island organizations with membership and donations. Please help to spread the word amongst your network, social media, and other vehicles for people to join MVRA and HIMAST. 

We need people to join our island organizations so that we can meet this challenge with the resources, strategy, and execution plan to succeed.

Short term rental properties and their Maui operations are Hyper-Local and these proposed bills are also fought by voting appropriate council members that support local small business. Promoting these interests over global multi-billion dollar corporate interests can be very influential in shaping Maui’s Future.

COUNTY UPDATE

With the passage of SB2919, the County of Maui has announced that they will introduce a bill to phase out of Apartment Zoned STRs on the Minatoya List.

• We are aware that a copy of the proposed Bill has been circulated. Please note that this is not the official Bill and it is likely to change some before it is introduced in June.

• The Bill is scheduled to be heard by the Maui Planning Commission on June 25, 2024 with Molokai and Lanai Planning Commission hearings to follow.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• We are working with our partners to schedule a variety of meetings in the next few weeks. This will include a variety of in person and virtual. 

• SAVE THE DATE: Thursday, May 23rd 5:30pm HST we will be hosting a virtual meeting with AirBnb. Stay tuned for invite and additional details. 

A LOOK BACK

The first part of this year has proven to be a busy one! We have been hard at work behind the scenes working to protect our industry.

• State Legislative Season - MVRA helped to defeat over 20 state bills during this past session that were harmful to our industry with the support of other island alliances and the new statewide advocacy organization- Hawaii Mid and Short-Term Rental Alliance (HIMAST).

• MVRA Board Members traveled to Oahu to meet with State Legislators, meet with industry partners, testify at the Capital and conduct interviews for media

• Meeting with the Mayor - In March our MVRA Board of Directors along with industry professionals met with Mayor Bissen and members from his team. We provided them with a presentation that can be found here. 

• A few key a takeaways from the meeting:
• • The mayor and his staff were very attentive and gave us 90 minutes to share our attached presentation, insert personal stories, and then conduct a quick Q&A. Our intentions were to help establish that we are a huge proponent of affordable housing here on Maui and that legal vacation rentals help make this happen as well as numerous other important components of Maui’s overall vitality. 
  • The massive property tax contributions from STR properties were initially questioned but then verified by their own staff and they were surprised to see this.
  • The local job impact stats that we presented had a significant impact. 
  • A local gentlemen who owns and operates a cleaning business in West Maui that was born and raised in Maui spoke to his reliance on the industry and how it allows him to pay his team well and provide for his family here. 
  • The mayor was non-committal if he intended to pursue Minatoya properties for potential conversion to long term and stated that he needed to discuss with his corporate council on the legality of this before further exploring.
  • The mayor appeared to be open to meeting with us more in the future

MVRA ACTION PLAN

• MVRA is actively engaged with STR platforms Airbnb and Expedia (VRBO) to coordinate activities and leverage resources.

• MVRA is also actively engaged with other industry organizations including HIMAST to mobilize advocates on Maui and throughout the state.

• MVRA is in discussions with expert attorneys to support our industry as we push back on proposed policies.

• MVRA is currently transitioning a new Executive Director. Throughout this process, the organization remains active and continues to lead advocacy efforts on Maui.

• MVRA continues to add members to strengthen its Board of Directors to advocate on behalf of the Maui STR community.