Aloha.

Welcome to the 20th session of the policy committee on planning, land use and economic development.

Today is Tuesday, November 4th, 2025.

I'm calling this meeting to order at 1104 a.m.

Present in HEVO chambers are Councilmembers Michelle Galimba, Rebecca Viegas, Jennifer Kagiwada, Fresh O'Neishi, James Houstis.

Joining us shortly is Councilmember Matt Kenely E.

Kleinfelder.

Absent and excused are Councilmembers Heather Kimball and Holaka Inaba.

My name is Ashley Kirkwitz, Chair and Presiding Officer.

At this time, Mr.

Clerk, if we could please take testimony from the public.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Just noting that we do not have any testifiers here in Hilo via Zoom.

We do have one testifier in our Kona chamber.

Scott, if you could introduce our testifier, please.

Thank you, Ray.

Yeah, today we've got Joshua Montgomery.

In opposite opposition, Bill 98.

Joshua, go ahead and state your name for the record and proceed.

You'll have three minutes.

Hello, this is Joshua Montgomery at the Kona side in opposition to Bill 98.

So we've now had uh six months since Bill 47 passed, and it was it was uh passed into law and put in a code.

And one of the things that we brought up during that process was that what there wasn't enough management capability and there wasn't enough labor to implement the law in a timely way.

Uh it turns out that we were right.

Uh my guess is that you're having trouble hiring and filling the positions to enforce this, and that of course you're having management problems uh dealing with the interpretation of this law.

And I I have some good evidence of that sitting in front of me today.

I've got an email here from Micah Gonzalez, uh, a land use planner in the planning department dated September 10th, uh, where she says that it's likely the county will require all rental units to be permitted and free of code violations in order to get a registration.

So, according to the planning department, and this email that I'm holding from them, uh anybody who goes for registration needs to have everything fully permitted at their home.

Uh, this is not what was represented when this bill was passed.

Uh, it is not what was represented to the public, and it's continued not to be what was represented in uh the media as folks are talking about this.

The other correspondence I have here is from Heather Kimball.

Uh, several of you are CC'd on these messages.

On October 7th, she clarified that tiny homes with wheels would be denied.

And so all of the homeowners that were told this was just a registration and they just needed to fill out a piece of paperwork.

The ones that are running tiny homes that are using that revenue to pay their mortgages, that are using that revenue to pay for their kids to go to college, that are using that revenue to pay their taxes to the county of Hawaii.

All of those people are out of business.

Finally, I have another email from Heather Kimball.

Uh, this one dated uh it looks like September 8th, uh, where she says anything permitted as an additional farm dwelling may not be used as a TVR.

So all of the farmers on AG that are currently successfully renting additional farm dwellings, who have been for decades in many cases without complaint, that count on that money to pay their mortgages, that count on that money to offset the cost of running a farm in Hawaii, which are substantial.

All of those families that count on that income will not be able to register under this law.

I'd encourage you to rethink this law.

Uh, to take into consideration the fact that you're putting a lot of families out of business, that you're impacting people's ability to afford to live here in Hawaii, to take into account the fact that you're doing enormous economic damage to local families who count on this money to pay their mortgages.

30 seconds.

Finally, and one of the things that that's the most frustrating about this entire process is that it's being misrepresented to the public as just a registration.

My neighbors, many of whom are unaware of this registration of this process, are gonna be stunned to find out in six months or in a year and eighteen months, whenever you actually get your ducks together to actually implement this, that they're out of business.

They're gonna be stunned.

The county has an obligation to communicate honestly with the public about the legislation that's written and the way that it's enforced.

Thank you for your testimony, Josh Bloom.

That concludes Kona Madam Chair, that's all the testifiers we have on your committee this morning.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

If we can move on to order of business, bills for ordinances.

Bill 98, last chance.

If anyone would like to testify in bill 98, please speak up now.

Hearing and seeing on Bill 98, Amends Ordinance Number 25-50 and ordinance amending chapter 6 of the Hawaii County Code 1983, 2016 edition as amended relating to transient accommodations.

Delays the effective date of ordinance number 25-50 relating to transient accommodations until July 1, 2026.

Introduced by Councilmember Kimball.

Motion to approve Bill 98 and send to Council with a favorable recommendation.

There's a motion by Councilmember Galimba and a second by Councilmember Kagiwada to forward Bill 98 to the council with a favorable recommendation.