I am a resident who was born and has spent most of my life in upcountry Maui and I support the proposed Moratorium on Visitor Accommodations Development. A temporary halt to the construction of visitor accommodations island wide -not just South and West Maui- is a critical first step to creating a new model of the tourism industry and curbing the current unsustainable volume of visitor arrivals to our island. The moratorium is aligned with the Maui Island Plan and halting the issuance of building permits for additional visitor accommodations is a necessary in order to implement a long term plan for management of visitor-unit expansion and it’s only a precursor to more meaningful action addressing the serious issues created by an exploitive industry that has resumed at an unprecedented pace, catering not to “quality” visitors but bargain basement pandemic vacationers to the detriment of our limited natural resources and resident’s quality of life, as clearly evidenced in East Maui, where drives of visitors continue to descend daily on these resident’s home in search of their piece of the Hawaii fantasy theme park experience.
Over the past year, the pandemic had made it painfully obvious that the mandate to protect public health and welfare is impossible to uphold if we continue to allow the visitor industry to dictate the course of development — we can not survive in a model that depends on never ending expansion and exploitation. We must take action to protect and preserve the health of our environment and community by implementing an island-wide moratorium, capping and managing the number of visitor accommodations, and fully dedicating ourselves to true diversification of our economy to achieve a more balanced, sustainable model, where tourism is no longer allowed to take more than it benefits our island and it’s residents. It’s not just a matter of quality of life, it’s a matter of survival.
I'm writing to request an addition to CARE-50 "Moratorium on Visitor Accommodations Development".
I respectfully request the following clause added:
4000.5 (E) this chapter does not apply to descendants of the indigenous citizens of the Kingdom of Hawaii or any entity where at least 10% of the stock of such an entity is held by descendants of the indigenous citizens of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Growing up in the islands and being of native-Hawaiian descent, I strongly feel that an ordinance that restricts the entrepreneurial vision of this land's indigenous people can not be righteous. I humbly request that you take into consideration how this ordinance may affect the business objectives of a now minority indigenous people.
Aloha, I SUPPORT the proposed bill for a "MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS FOR VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS (CARE-50),
I also am requesting the bill to be immediately implemented and modified to include ALL of Maui County, and not just South and West Maui.
Since the beginning of the pandemic Mayor Victorino has been saying over and over that Maui is not going back to "over-tourism", and Maui will be moving to Quality over Quantity.
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BILL FOR A MORATORIUM on building permits
Mahalo
Suzanne Dorn
Kihei
Absolutely ridiculous that the local residents of Maui are once again put aside for the pleasure of tourists and the money they generate within the wealthy chain hotels. The beaches do not belong to the hotels or the visitors.
I wish I had the time to write something eloquent but I just found out about this and testimony is due. In a nutshell, it doesn’t make sense. Cramming more tourist in and more locals out is not going to bridge the gap in a financially sustainable life for full time residents; in fact it might make it worse. I can’t even begin to explain the damage it will cause to the island and ocean; the two reasons why people come here in the first place. I saw firsthand the reef rebound when in shut down. I fear with all my heart the irreparable damage that will be caused if we saturate this island with more tourism development. Pono up and do the right thing.
The last thing this island needs are more hotels. Did you not learn anything from the pandemic and the crush of unemployment of 2020? Honestly, it seems idiotic that more hotels is even being considered. Where are the workers going to live? Rents are sky high out of control and buying a home is completely out of reach for the majority. Please keep your stupidity in check and support this moratorium. Maui County does not need more hotels!!
We have too many resorts and too many tourists already. We have to limit those coming as our resources are also limited! As a health care professional, an er doctor, my wife and I are considering leaving as the housing crisis (which is NOT a separate issue) and the overcrowding is increasing the work and decreasing the available workforce. It all stems from a single root cause and that is We need to stop over tourism and a moratorium to hotel and any vacation rentals activities must be stopped
A moratorium will allow us to rethink Mauiʻs tourism role and what type of tourists Maui wants to attract. If itʻs decided (I hope not) that we want more lodging for tourists, we can drop the moratorium. If we donʻt implement a moratorium NOW, we will never be able to undo any damage done. COVID has stolen the focus for the last year; itʻs time to focus on building the tourism Maui citizens want, not just what investors want.
I donʻt believe itʻs in Mauiʻs interest to wholesale tourism, yet thatʻs essentially what is being done. $ spent per tourist has dropped substantially since the 1980ʻs, yet the number of tourists has soared. We all see the impacts of overtourism, but itʻs especially obnoxious on the Hāna-side. We can not continue to kill off the uniqueness of Hawaiʻi.
I support CARE-50.
We must implement this immediately with an extension to all of Maui county.
The state and county have failed the local residents again and again by siding with the visitor industry. All I see is accommodating visitors and nothing benefiting the local people. We are crying out for help. Our land and housing our being take over by foreigners and making it impossible for a local family to own a house. Is this right? Would you like to see a Hawa’i with no locals living here? Why is Las Vegas our ninth island? Because no one can afford to live here at home anymore! It is a tragedy that will continue, unless our government decides to do something about it instead of just talking about it all the time.
I support this Moratorium and ask that the whole county be included in this. The quality and way of life has been constantly degraded by the massive tourism influx, and the first step to addressing any problem is to press pause and re-evaluate. Thank you so much for your consideration.
I support a moratorium on any building of hotels, timeshares, or homes to be used as vacation homes. Maui is in dire need of housing for residents who live and work here that is actually affordable and not located in undesirable locations. It has gotten to the point that residents are unable to have a good quality of life here on Maui and as healhcare professionals my family is looking to relocate out of Hawaii due to the overcrowding and overtourism.
I support this Moratorium and ask that the whole county be included in this. The quality of life for residents here in Maui county are being significantly impacted in a negative way. We need more resources and focus to be on the very serious housing crisis as well as protecting the culture and nature, and managing the massive footprint happening on our island.
Tourism has gotten to the point where it’s out of control. Better education and caps are a first step.
Please make this moratorium enforced immediately. Mahalo for your time
The amount if visitor accommodations is ridiculous already. The illegal vacation rentals are everywhere. The larger hotels do not pay for the infrastructure needed to accommodate all these visitors. We will look like Oahu soon!! Stop already!
Council Member Kelly King, Chair
Council Member Shane Sinenci, Vice-Chair
Members of the Climate Action, Resilience, And Environment Committee
RE: MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS ON VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS Hearing Date: Wednesday, May 19, 2021, at 9:00 AM
Aloha Chair King and members of the Committee,
Mahalo for the opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of the Fairmont Kea Lani.
Fairmont Kea Lani strongly opposes this bill and its proposed measure.
The Fairmont Kea Lani is a 450-unit all-suite and villa resort in the purpose built resort zoned area of south Maui (Wailea). We employ a staff base of approximately 700 people; all are Maui residents and contributing members of our community. Throughout the Island-wide closure of tourism last year due to COVID, I am proud to report that we spent multiple millions of dollars to ensure ALL our employees were able to maintain 100% health coverage through to year end 2020. Our dedication to supporting our community extended far beyond colleague health coverage – we conducted property-funded food drives of locally sourced items which directly assisted our neighbor farmers/fishermen/suppliers, as well as organized mass food and PPE donations. Fairmont Kea Lani has a long standing reputation of welcoming our Kamaʻaina community and of being a strong supporter of local commerce. From discount programs in our food outlets to purchasing roughly 90% of our fish and 80% of our produce from local Maui-based businesses, we have and will continue to be symbiotic with the environment within which we operate.
And specifically speaking to our envirnonmental stewardship, during the closure we installed Phase 2 of our rooftop solar system to help mitigate our dependence on external energy sources. This phase nearly doubled our eco-friendly and sustainable solar generated power. Additionally, in order to minimize unnecessary food waste, we installed diversion technology to help us both measure and monitor food waste. Likewise, we have continued our efforts towards global sustainability by partnering with a local farmer who is using our raw waste product as animal feed. These are only a few of the initiatives underway at our property and represent only a fraction of our commitment to Maui, its people and our planet.
I share the above information not to brag as we are humble in our efforts and recognize there is always more we can (and will) do. The information is shared to help educate you, our County Council, on our efforts and to caution that policies such as the generic targeted Building Moratorium under consideration are detrimental to our ongoing ability to do what’s pono. As I’ve noted in prior testimony, we recognize our responsibility to do what’s right to minimize our environmental footprint and support our community. We are not riding a wave of popularity nor are we looking for quick real estate return, short term investment or tax avoidance. We are very committed to Maui and are heavily invested in its people. We sincerely believe we are an important part of Maui and have a responsibility to help manage tourism. Therefore, I respectfully call upon you to ask this question: Do illegal short term rentals (both visitor AND owner) share what I believe to be our collective vision of a better Maui?
Ultimately, restricting construction, expansion and renovation in resort zoned areas of Maui will adversely impact our business as well as those within the respective supporting trades across the island. The moratorium, as proposed, will stifle our industry’s ability to continue efforts towards the development of an even more sustainable tourism infrastructure. Most importantly to note, pausing visitor accommodation development will not stop visitors from traveling. It is our earnest position that visitors should be encouraged to stay in Maui's purposely constructed and zoned resort areas. If development is paused in these resort areas, the already extensive proliferation of illegal short-term rentals in our residential communities will likely increase to fill the void. This must not be allowed to continue. Further, enforcement efforts that target illegal vacation rentals and unpaid taxes will help drive down tourist volumes and, as is evidenced by the efforts on Oʻahu, is more than self-funding. Redirecting tourists back into resort zoned areas and legal accommodation will create increased tax revenues, reduce mainland property ownership thereby allowing for more affordable-to-local housing options with viable long term rental opportunities, create healthier communities with the stated desired “quality over quantity” visitor and visitor experience.
For all these reasons, Fairmont Kea Lani strongly opposes this bill and its proposed measure.
Respectfully,
Michael
MICHAEL PYE
AREA GENERAL MANAGER, HAWAII
GENERAL MANAGER, FAIRMONT KEA LANI
I support this moratorium. My name is Jody Bowman, I was born and raised in Haiku. Local residents don't want or need more hotels. We need affordable housing. We need a more balanced economy that is not mainly dependent on visitor dollars to survive. We want to enjoy Maui, our home, we don't want to feel trampled on by wave after wave of visitors. Let's put our energy, planning and tax dollars toward local residents and what is best for our community.
Too many tourists. Private beachfront homes taking over our beaches and access.
Residents who rent out a single u it, should not have higher home taxes, all trying to survive.
Off island owners buying in residential neighborhoods and creating visitor
accommodations, should pay higher taxes.
Hotels use our water, roadways and utility systems . They do not accommodate local residents. Money money money…No true Aloha. Think of the community events the Intercontinental Hotel use to host years ago. Enough already. It was so peaceful, quiet and easy traffic while hotels were not open
I support the CARE-50 CC 21-232 MORATORIUM ON VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS DEVELOPMENT. I believe all counties of Maui should take a pause from giving out permits for new visitor accommodations. Maui is already stressed from the number of daily visitors. The roads have too many rental cars, there is not adequate parking or bathroom facilities at public beaches. New developments negatively impact the quality of the environment. More parking lots increase the amount of unfiltered runoff into the ocean. Hotel and condo developments require the use of more of Maui's precious water supply. Please let Maui's resources have a break from the stress of constant development.
I am a resident who was born and has spent most of my life in upcountry Maui and I support the proposed Moratorium on Visitor Accommodations Development. A temporary halt to the construction of visitor accommodations island wide -not just South and West Maui- is a critical first step to creating a new model of the tourism industry and curbing the current unsustainable volume of visitor arrivals to our island. The moratorium is aligned with the Maui Island Plan and halting the issuance of building permits for additional visitor accommodations is a necessary in order to implement a long term plan for management of visitor-unit expansion and it’s only a precursor to more meaningful action addressing the serious issues created by an exploitive industry that has resumed at an unprecedented pace, catering not to “quality” visitors but bargain basement pandemic vacationers to the detriment of our limited natural resources and resident’s quality of life, as clearly evidenced in East Maui, where drives of visitors continue to descend daily on these resident’s home in search of their piece of the Hawaii fantasy theme park experience.
Over the past year, the pandemic had made it painfully obvious that the mandate to protect public health and welfare is impossible to uphold if we continue to allow the visitor industry to dictate the course of development — we can not survive in a model that depends on never ending expansion and exploitation. We must take action to protect and preserve the health of our environment and community by implementing an island-wide moratorium, capping and managing the number of visitor accommodations, and fully dedicating ourselves to true diversification of our economy to achieve a more balanced, sustainable model, where tourism is no longer allowed to take more than it benefits our island and it’s residents. It’s not just a matter of quality of life, it’s a matter of survival.
I'm writing to request an addition to CARE-50 "Moratorium on Visitor Accommodations Development".
I respectfully request the following clause added:
4000.5 (E) this chapter does not apply to descendants of the indigenous citizens of the Kingdom of Hawaii or any entity where at least 10% of the stock of such an entity is held by descendants of the indigenous citizens of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Growing up in the islands and being of native-Hawaiian descent, I strongly feel that an ordinance that restricts the entrepreneurial vision of this land's indigenous people can not be righteous. I humbly request that you take into consideration how this ordinance may affect the business objectives of a now minority indigenous people.
I support this moratorium to protect all areas of maui from excessive visitor & construction development.
Aloha, I SUPPORT the proposed bill for a "MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS FOR VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS (CARE-50),
I also am requesting the bill to be immediately implemented and modified to include ALL of Maui County, and not just South and West Maui.
Since the beginning of the pandemic Mayor Victorino has been saying over and over that Maui is not going back to "over-tourism", and Maui will be moving to Quality over Quantity.
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BILL FOR A MORATORIUM on building permits
Mahalo
Suzanne Dorn
Kihei
Absolutely ridiculous that the local residents of Maui are once again put aside for the pleasure of tourists and the money they generate within the wealthy chain hotels. The beaches do not belong to the hotels or the visitors.
I wish I had the time to write something eloquent but I just found out about this and testimony is due. In a nutshell, it doesn’t make sense. Cramming more tourist in and more locals out is not going to bridge the gap in a financially sustainable life for full time residents; in fact it might make it worse. I can’t even begin to explain the damage it will cause to the island and ocean; the two reasons why people come here in the first place. I saw firsthand the reef rebound when in shut down. I fear with all my heart the irreparable damage that will be caused if we saturate this island with more tourism development. Pono up and do the right thing.
The last thing this island needs are more hotels. Did you not learn anything from the pandemic and the crush of unemployment of 2020? Honestly, it seems idiotic that more hotels is even being considered. Where are the workers going to live? Rents are sky high out of control and buying a home is completely out of reach for the majority. Please keep your stupidity in check and support this moratorium. Maui County does not need more hotels!!
We have too many resorts and too many tourists already. We have to limit those coming as our resources are also limited! As a health care professional, an er doctor, my wife and I are considering leaving as the housing crisis (which is NOT a separate issue) and the overcrowding is increasing the work and decreasing the available workforce. It all stems from a single root cause and that is We need to stop over tourism and a moratorium to hotel and any vacation rentals activities must be stopped
A moratorium will allow us to rethink Mauiʻs tourism role and what type of tourists Maui wants to attract. If itʻs decided (I hope not) that we want more lodging for tourists, we can drop the moratorium. If we donʻt implement a moratorium NOW, we will never be able to undo any damage done. COVID has stolen the focus for the last year; itʻs time to focus on building the tourism Maui citizens want, not just what investors want.
I donʻt believe itʻs in Mauiʻs interest to wholesale tourism, yet thatʻs essentially what is being done. $ spent per tourist has dropped substantially since the 1980ʻs, yet the number of tourists has soared. We all see the impacts of overtourism, but itʻs especially obnoxious on the Hāna-side. We can not continue to kill off the uniqueness of Hawaiʻi.
Support this moratorium! We must set boundaries NOW! ENOUGH already catering to tourism like its your first born.
I support CARE-50.
We must implement this immediately with an extension to all of Maui county.
The state and county have failed the local residents again and again by siding with the visitor industry. All I see is accommodating visitors and nothing benefiting the local people. We are crying out for help. Our land and housing our being take over by foreigners and making it impossible for a local family to own a house. Is this right? Would you like to see a Hawa’i with no locals living here? Why is Las Vegas our ninth island? Because no one can afford to live here at home anymore! It is a tragedy that will continue, unless our government decides to do something about it instead of just talking about it all the time.
I support this Moratorium and ask that the whole county be included in this. The quality and way of life has been constantly degraded by the massive tourism influx, and the first step to addressing any problem is to press pause and re-evaluate. Thank you so much for your consideration.
I support a moratorium on any building of hotels, timeshares, or homes to be used as vacation homes. Maui is in dire need of housing for residents who live and work here that is actually affordable and not located in undesirable locations. It has gotten to the point that residents are unable to have a good quality of life here on Maui and as healhcare professionals my family is looking to relocate out of Hawaii due to the overcrowding and overtourism.
I support this Moratorium and ask that the whole county be included in this. The quality of life for residents here in Maui county are being significantly impacted in a negative way. We need more resources and focus to be on the very serious housing crisis as well as protecting the culture and nature, and managing the massive footprint happening on our island.
Tourism has gotten to the point where it’s out of control. Better education and caps are a first step.
Please make this moratorium enforced immediately. Mahalo for your time
The amount if visitor accommodations is ridiculous already. The illegal vacation rentals are everywhere. The larger hotels do not pay for the infrastructure needed to accommodate all these visitors. We will look like Oahu soon!! Stop already!
Council Member Kelly King, Chair
Council Member Shane Sinenci, Vice-Chair
Members of the Climate Action, Resilience, And Environment Committee
RE: MORATORIUM ON BUILDING PERMITS ON VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS Hearing Date: Wednesday, May 19, 2021, at 9:00 AM
Aloha Chair King and members of the Committee,
Mahalo for the opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of the Fairmont Kea Lani.
Fairmont Kea Lani strongly opposes this bill and its proposed measure.
The Fairmont Kea Lani is a 450-unit all-suite and villa resort in the purpose built resort zoned area of south Maui (Wailea). We employ a staff base of approximately 700 people; all are Maui residents and contributing members of our community. Throughout the Island-wide closure of tourism last year due to COVID, I am proud to report that we spent multiple millions of dollars to ensure ALL our employees were able to maintain 100% health coverage through to year end 2020. Our dedication to supporting our community extended far beyond colleague health coverage – we conducted property-funded food drives of locally sourced items which directly assisted our neighbor farmers/fishermen/suppliers, as well as organized mass food and PPE donations. Fairmont Kea Lani has a long standing reputation of welcoming our Kamaʻaina community and of being a strong supporter of local commerce. From discount programs in our food outlets to purchasing roughly 90% of our fish and 80% of our produce from local Maui-based businesses, we have and will continue to be symbiotic with the environment within which we operate.
And specifically speaking to our envirnonmental stewardship, during the closure we installed Phase 2 of our rooftop solar system to help mitigate our dependence on external energy sources. This phase nearly doubled our eco-friendly and sustainable solar generated power. Additionally, in order to minimize unnecessary food waste, we installed diversion technology to help us both measure and monitor food waste. Likewise, we have continued our efforts towards global sustainability by partnering with a local farmer who is using our raw waste product as animal feed. These are only a few of the initiatives underway at our property and represent only a fraction of our commitment to Maui, its people and our planet.
I share the above information not to brag as we are humble in our efforts and recognize there is always more we can (and will) do. The information is shared to help educate you, our County Council, on our efforts and to caution that policies such as the generic targeted Building Moratorium under consideration are detrimental to our ongoing ability to do what’s pono. As I’ve noted in prior testimony, we recognize our responsibility to do what’s right to minimize our environmental footprint and support our community. We are not riding a wave of popularity nor are we looking for quick real estate return, short term investment or tax avoidance. We are very committed to Maui and are heavily invested in its people. We sincerely believe we are an important part of Maui and have a responsibility to help manage tourism. Therefore, I respectfully call upon you to ask this question: Do illegal short term rentals (both visitor AND owner) share what I believe to be our collective vision of a better Maui?
Ultimately, restricting construction, expansion and renovation in resort zoned areas of Maui will adversely impact our business as well as those within the respective supporting trades across the island. The moratorium, as proposed, will stifle our industry’s ability to continue efforts towards the development of an even more sustainable tourism infrastructure. Most importantly to note, pausing visitor accommodation development will not stop visitors from traveling. It is our earnest position that visitors should be encouraged to stay in Maui's purposely constructed and zoned resort areas. If development is paused in these resort areas, the already extensive proliferation of illegal short-term rentals in our residential communities will likely increase to fill the void. This must not be allowed to continue. Further, enforcement efforts that target illegal vacation rentals and unpaid taxes will help drive down tourist volumes and, as is evidenced by the efforts on Oʻahu, is more than self-funding. Redirecting tourists back into resort zoned areas and legal accommodation will create increased tax revenues, reduce mainland property ownership thereby allowing for more affordable-to-local housing options with viable long term rental opportunities, create healthier communities with the stated desired “quality over quantity” visitor and visitor experience.
For all these reasons, Fairmont Kea Lani strongly opposes this bill and its proposed measure.
Respectfully,
Michael
MICHAEL PYE
AREA GENERAL MANAGER, HAWAII
GENERAL MANAGER, FAIRMONT KEA LANI
I support this moratorium. My name is Jody Bowman, I was born and raised in Haiku. Local residents don't want or need more hotels. We need affordable housing. We need a more balanced economy that is not mainly dependent on visitor dollars to survive. We want to enjoy Maui, our home, we don't want to feel trampled on by wave after wave of visitors. Let's put our energy, planning and tax dollars toward local residents and what is best for our community.
Too many tourists. Private beachfront homes taking over our beaches and access.
Residents who rent out a single u it, should not have higher home taxes, all trying to survive.
Off island owners buying in residential neighborhoods and creating visitor
accommodations, should pay higher taxes.
Hotels use our water, roadways and utility systems . They do not accommodate local residents. Money money money…No true Aloha. Think of the community events the Intercontinental Hotel use to host years ago. Enough already. It was so peaceful, quiet and easy traffic while hotels were not open
I support the CARE-50 CC 21-232 MORATORIUM ON VISITOR ACCOMMODATIONS DEVELOPMENT. I believe all counties of Maui should take a pause from giving out permits for new visitor accommodations. Maui is already stressed from the number of daily visitors. The roads have too many rental cars, there is not adequate parking or bathroom facilities at public beaches. New developments negatively impact the quality of the environment. More parking lots increase the amount of unfiltered runoff into the ocean. Hotel and condo developments require the use of more of Maui's precious water supply. Please let Maui's resources have a break from the stress of constant development.
Please amend this proposed bill to add all of Maui County and not restrict it to just south and west Maui.