Aloha and good morning.

Welcome to the 27th session of the Policy Committee on Planning Land Use and Economic Development.

Today is Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026.

I'm calling this meeting to order at 11.32 a.m.

The committee is meeting here at the West Hawaii Civic Center.

Present for today's committee hearing are council members Jennifer Kagiwada, James Houstis, Fresh O'Nishi, Rebecca Villegas, Michelle Galemba, Heather Kimball joining us shortly are Councilmembers Holeka Inaba and Matt Kenneli E.

Kleinfelder.

I apologize.

Councilmember Inaba is in chambers.

And Matt has just arrived.

Thank you.

My name is Ashley Kirkwich Chair and Presiding Officer.

Mr.

Clerk, at this time, let's shift to statements from the public.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

As of right now, I don't believe we have any testifiers.

Just checking again.

If anyone would like to testify before our committee commences, please come up now.

Not seeing any.

If you don't mind, we can jump into Bill 175, Chair.

Yes, please proceed with order of business.

Thank you.

Last chance, Bill 175.

Do we have any testifiers?

Hearing and seeing none Bill 175 amends ordinance number 25 50 as amended.

The ordinance amending chapter 6 of the Hawai'i County Code 1983, 2016 edition as amended relating to transient accommodations.

Changes certain responsibilities for proposed vacation rental laws under ordinance number 25-50 from the finance director to the planning director.

Exempts prospective vacation rentals that have submitted a valid use permit or special permit application from ordinance number 25 50 and requires any funds collected under ordinance number 25 50 to be deposited into the short-term vacation rental enforcement fund introduced by Councilmember Kimball.

Thank you, Councilmember Kimball.

Motion, please motion to forward Bill 175 to Council with a favorable recommendation.

Thank you.

There is a motion by Councilmember Kimball and a second by Councilmember Inaba to forward Bill 175 to the council with a favorable recommendation.

Councilmember Kimball.

Yes, thank you.

Um sorry.

Coffee being cut in my throat.

Um I want to start with the substantive components of this.

Um this is an amendment to ordinance 2550.

Um, this the registration process for TVRs.

Um starting with section six.

Um, what this uh non-codified section would do is ensure that folks that had submitted an application for a special permit under the current bed and breakfast laws would be considered deemed registered.

Um, the reason for this is that there are probably going to be differences in the application process before and after the passage of Bill 147.

And so we wanted to make sure that folks that had already had their application received and um approved or accepted, sorry, by the department, even though it had not yet been processed, those would be considered deemed registered and they wouldn't have to submit a new one under Bill 147.

Um the section second section here is just to make clear under section seven that the funds from the um enforcement of the registration ordinance and um the fees themselves would be in go into the short-term vacation rental enforcement fund.

I would love to change the name of that fund to TBR fund, but there are reasons why we have to keep the naming convention that it's currently under.

Um, the other under section eight, as I was mentioning before when we were discussing 173, this is where there's a grace period of four months created between September 1st and December 31st to for anybody to to register.

Um basically we're doing this again as an uncodified section that gives the director the ability to waive any of the forcement penalties around not registering in this time period.

Um, if folks think that longer time is necessary, I'm certainly open to that conversation.

Um, other than those amendments, most of these are editorial.

As the registration process was being developed by the planning department with um the consultant.

It was clear that most of this process would actually fall within the planning department rather than the finance department.

So you see that shift where the the finance director was named to the planning director.

Um other than that, it's um pretty much just editorial, making sure that our cross references are correct.

There is one error in this that unfortunately I did not have the time to create the amendment for, and I will do that in first reading under section four.

There should be language in there that this is this section applies only to special permits that have already been issued or use permits that already have been issued or accepted by the department.

And it doesn't have that language in there, but I'll fix that at the next stage.

Happy to take any questions.

Thank you for the overview.

Members, any questions or comments.