From: Jill <jillkbee@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2026 3:07:18 PM (UTC-10:00) Hawaii
To: HLU Committee <HLU.Committee@mauicounty.us>
Subject: West side rezoning consideration
You don't often get email from jillkbee@gmail.com. Learn why this is important
Dear Committee
My name is Jill Beesecker and along with my partner Jerod Olson, we own two condos in Honokowai Palms. We are concerned with all the legislation in place and notice that on some of the lists out there for zoning changes, Honokowai Palms is not being considered. We are asking that the committee please consider our property be placed on the list for zoning changes to allow for short term rental. I have sent messages to multiple council members and it was recommended to submit my testimony to this committee. We appreciate our ability to share our story.
Just to give a little background, Jerod and I moved to Maui in 2017. I worked at Maui Memorial Hospital as a nurse and Jerod had a few different jobs, most notably at Aqualani in management. We have considered Maui our home since then but had to move back to the mainland in 2022 after the passing of my father. We hoped to come back but when the Lahaina fires occurred the following year, we teamed up with GEM to offer our housing to fire victims. At this point in time both our condos are on Airbnb and we come back to spend time when we can.
It is very concerning to us that future legislation may prevent us from continuing this. Long term rental is not a good option for our units and I can’t imaging any other units on the property. Our current mortgages are about $1400 and $1700 respectfully, and our current HOA fees are just over $1100 each. Once you include Hawaii electric utilities, we would have to ask for $3000 per month just to break even. Our condos are 500 square feet and not suitable for more that a singe person or couple, but only come with one parking space per unit.
When we moved to Maui in 2017, our rent was $1800 and we paid our own utilities. We bought that very same unit which now we would need close to $3000 to afford as stated above. We bought the second unit as an investment property and rented for about 6 months long term at $2400 per month at that time in 2021. Even at that time locals made it clear they could not afford that rent but we were lucky enough to find a lovely tenant who was doing seasonal work during whale season. We began the venture into vacation rental after that which has had its ups and downs mostly due to the fires and the recovery of the Westside. We find that our Airbnb guests are true lovers of Maui who cannot afford the expensive hotels and resorts but love to learn and experience everything that Maui has to offer.
The current legislation that would make short term unavailable with likely be detrimental to us. Long term rental would be challenging at best to cover our expenses. Selling our properties is a devastating thought to us and we can’t imagine who would even be able to afford these properties. Our current mortgages are at the low rates of 2.6% and 3.5%. Anyone buying the properties now would be hard pressed to cover the expenses I shared above with a higher mortgage.
Please consider Honokowai palms to be rezoned to allow for short term rentals so that we and many of our other owners can continue to afford to spend our time there and not lose our investments. We truly love Maui and hope to continue our lives and ventures here.
Aloha honorable members of the committee. I completely support Resolution 26-129 and 26-130. I totally agree with the testimony of the Hale Ono Loa board as it was well researched and presented and last but not least completely accurate. Hale Ono Loa is not conducive to long term housing for all the reasons already articulated.
Thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to address this hearing.
Respectfully submitted,
Tim Glenn
Hale Ono Loa, Unit 112
I am writing to express my strong support for Resolution 26-129 and urge the committee to adopt Councilmember Cook’s August 5th amendment to include Kihei Resort in the H-3/H-4 Hotel District transition.
Our community is highly unified, with over 93% of owners voting for this zoning designation. Due to escalating environmental and infrastructure challenges—including frequent flooding and failing utilities—our complex is fundamentally unsuited for residential use. It simply doesn't make sense to send local families into a flood zone for long-term housing.
Securing this zoning is the only responsible and realistic path forward given our property's limited functional lifecycle. Please formally adopt the amendment and pass Resolution 26-129 with Kihei Resort included.
Mahalo for your time and service.
Connie Webb, Owner, Kihei Resort
I am in opposition to supporting lists of properties getting pushed through this process. We all know that there are properties that should be upzoned! But we cannot support this unilateral decision-making. Our community deserves for there to be a legitimate process put in place, but this is not that. Each property should be vetted on an individual basis before getting submitted for upzoning. It took us years to get Bill 9 heard, then passed. Yet, you are speeding through this exemption process. It shows that this Council's priorities are business and "property rights," meanwhile this committee is called "Housing and Land Use."
This committee should be focused on creating solutions for residents of Maui County who continue to be impacted by disaster! Our housing crisis continues to grow, and this Council (and this Committee specifically) is instead focused on reducing the impact of Ordinance 5909. Please spend your time instead on doing things like creating carve outs that benefit our community, such as exemptions for "short-term" or "month-to-month" rentals for those who have been impacted by disasters. Families who have to move out of their homes would rather find a month-to-month rental situation than having to move from AirBnb to AirBnb.
Please do not rezone any properties in Ma'alaea until you have considered the more than 42 years of context behind, and labor invested in preparing for my recent work in Ma'alaea, as a Lifetime Member of Ma'alaea Village Association, who has developed multiple, multi-million-dollar grant applications in service of the organization in an effort to develop a regional wastewater reclamation system, over more than three-and-a-half years of dedication to solving the community-scale wastewater challenge with novel solutions that integrate decades of education, strategy and structured effort that was always dedicated to the recovery of reefs - and human beings - in Maui.
Mahalo nui loa for your service!
Travis A. Liggett, MS
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis@livingmaui.org
Greetings and Salutations Chair and Committee Members:
My name is Edward Codelia. I am a Kula resident and have worked in Maui real estate since 1994. I oppose Resolutions 26-129 and 26-130 and any amendments adding additional properties.
The argument presented for 10 Walaka Street exposes the fundamental problem with this process.
The owner states that long-term rents will not cover his purchase and operating costs. But that is not a unique land-use hardship. It is the basic financial argument of virtually every short-term-rental owner: short-term rentals are more lucrative than long-term housing.
As a real estate professional, I understand that an income-producing property’s value reflects its anticipated income. If a buyer pays a price supported by vacation-rental income, the fact that ordinary residential rents will not support that purchase price does not prove the property is unsuitable for housing. It proves the property was purchased at a price capitalizing its tourism income.
Government zoning does not exist to guarantee that investment income, protect a buyer’s purchase price or ensure that the most profitable use remains legal forever.
What does this agenda actually accomplish?
It does not construct one new home.
It does not require one affordable rental.
It does not create a diversified economy.
It does not necessarily increase tourism capacity because Ordinance 6008 limits qualifying properties to their historical number of vacation-rental units.
At best, it preserves existing visitor accommodations, higher tourism-related tax revenue and the market value associated with short-term-rental income. If preserving tax revenue and tourism inventory is now the Council’s overriding policy, it should say that honestly. It should not continue presenting these measures as part of a housing strategy.
Bill 9 was enacted after years of hearings, analysis and public testimony under the promise that apartment-zoned vacation rentals would be returned toward Maui’s housing inventory. The Council then created H-3 and H-4 hotel zoning and began restoring vacation-rental rights property by property, category by category and Council member by Council member.
The Council cannot credibly describe both actions as housing policy. Phasing out vacation rentals to produce housing and restoring those same uses to preserve tourism income are opposing policies.
The work performed by cleaners, maintenance workers, handymen and property managers is honest and necessary work. But perpetuating Maui’s dependence on servicing visitor accommodations and absentee-owned investment properties is not economic diversification. It leaves local workers maintaining properties they increasingly cannot afford to live in or near.
Resolution 26-129 is equally defective. Planning has stated that sea-level-rise exposure combines different hazards, affects every parcel differently and should be evaluated parcel by parcel. Yet the required parcel-specific analysis is absent. The proposed eligibility standard has already been expanded to include Special Flood Hazard Areas to accommodate properties selected in advance.
The agenda then allows still more properties to be added from a list of 104 projects containing 7,167 units. That is not a narrow exception. It is an open door through which Bill 9 can continue to be dismantled.
I ask the Committee to:
1. Add no properties on August 27.
2. File or defer Resolutions 26-129 and 26-130.
3. Establish one objective and publicly disclosed standard applicable to every property.
4. Require parcel-specific housing, hazard, infrastructure and fiscal analyses.
5. Consider Makai Sunset Inn separately from 10 Walaka because their circumstances are materially different.
If the Council has abandoned Bill 9’s housing objective in favor of protecting tourism revenue and private property values, it should repeal or amend Bill 9 openly.
It should not accomplish that result through politically sponsored exceptions.
Maui residents gave this process years of their time and testimony. They deserved a lasting housing policy—not a temporary political performance followed by building-by-building reversals.
From: Jill <jillkbee@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2026 3:07:18 PM (UTC-10:00) Hawaii
To: HLU Committee <HLU.Committee@mauicounty.us>
Subject: West side rezoning consideration
You don't often get email from jillkbee@gmail.com. Learn why this is important
Dear Committee
My name is Jill Beesecker and along with my partner Jerod Olson, we own two condos in Honokowai Palms. We are concerned with all the legislation in place and notice that on some of the lists out there for zoning changes, Honokowai Palms is not being considered. We are asking that the committee please consider our property be placed on the list for zoning changes to allow for short term rental. I have sent messages to multiple council members and it was recommended to submit my testimony to this committee. We appreciate our ability to share our story.
Just to give a little background, Jerod and I moved to Maui in 2017. I worked at Maui Memorial Hospital as a nurse and Jerod had a few different jobs, most notably at Aqualani in management. We have considered Maui our home since then but had to move back to the mainland in 2022 after the passing of my father. We hoped to come back but when the Lahaina fires occurred the following year, we teamed up with GEM to offer our housing to fire victims. At this point in time both our condos are on Airbnb and we come back to spend time when we can.
It is very concerning to us that future legislation may prevent us from continuing this. Long term rental is not a good option for our units and I can’t imaging any other units on the property. Our current mortgages are about $1400 and $1700 respectfully, and our current HOA fees are just over $1100 each. Once you include Hawaii electric utilities, we would have to ask for $3000 per month just to break even. Our condos are 500 square feet and not suitable for more that a singe person or couple, but only come with one parking space per unit.
When we moved to Maui in 2017, our rent was $1800 and we paid our own utilities. We bought that very same unit which now we would need close to $3000 to afford as stated above. We bought the second unit as an investment property and rented for about 6 months long term at $2400 per month at that time in 2021. Even at that time locals made it clear they could not afford that rent but we were lucky enough to find a lovely tenant who was doing seasonal work during whale season. We began the venture into vacation rental after that which has had its ups and downs mostly due to the fires and the recovery of the Westside. We find that our Airbnb guests are true lovers of Maui who cannot afford the expensive hotels and resorts but love to learn and experience everything that Maui has to offer.
The current legislation that would make short term unavailable with likely be detrimental to us. Long term rental would be challenging at best to cover our expenses. Selling our properties is a devastating thought to us and we can’t imagine who would even be able to afford these properties. Our current mortgages are at the low rates of 2.6% and 3.5%. Anyone buying the properties now would be hard pressed to cover the expenses I shared above with a higher mortgage.
Please consider Honokowai palms to be rezoned to allow for short term rentals so that we and many of our other owners can continue to afford to spend our time there and not lose our investments. We truly love Maui and hope to continue our lives and ventures here.
Mahalo,
Jill Beesecker and Jerod Olson
Aloha honorable members of the committee. I completely support Resolution 26-129 and 26-130. I totally agree with the testimony of the Hale Ono Loa board as it was well researched and presented and last but not least completely accurate. Hale Ono Loa is not conducive to long term housing for all the reasons already articulated.
Thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to address this hearing.
Respectfully submitted,
Tim Glenn
Hale Ono Loa, Unit 112
I am writing to express my strong support for Resolution 26-129 and urge the committee to adopt Councilmember Cook’s August 5th amendment to include Kihei Resort in the H-3/H-4 Hotel District transition.
Our community is highly unified, with over 93% of owners voting for this zoning designation. Due to escalating environmental and infrastructure challenges—including frequent flooding and failing utilities—our complex is fundamentally unsuited for residential use. It simply doesn't make sense to send local families into a flood zone for long-term housing.
Securing this zoning is the only responsible and realistic path forward given our property's limited functional lifecycle. Please formally adopt the amendment and pass Resolution 26-129 with Kihei Resort included.
Mahalo for your time and service.
Connie Webb, Owner, Kihei Resort
I am in opposition to supporting lists of properties getting pushed through this process. We all know that there are properties that should be upzoned! But we cannot support this unilateral decision-making. Our community deserves for there to be a legitimate process put in place, but this is not that. Each property should be vetted on an individual basis before getting submitted for upzoning. It took us years to get Bill 9 heard, then passed. Yet, you are speeding through this exemption process. It shows that this Council's priorities are business and "property rights," meanwhile this committee is called "Housing and Land Use."
This committee should be focused on creating solutions for residents of Maui County who continue to be impacted by disaster! Our housing crisis continues to grow, and this Council (and this Committee specifically) is instead focused on reducing the impact of Ordinance 5909. Please spend your time instead on doing things like creating carve outs that benefit our community, such as exemptions for "short-term" or "month-to-month" rentals for those who have been impacted by disasters. Families who have to move out of their homes would rather find a month-to-month rental situation than having to move from AirBnb to AirBnb.
Aloha Esteemed Chair and Committee Members,
Please do not rezone any properties in Ma'alaea until you have considered the more than 42 years of context behind, and labor invested in preparing for my recent work in Ma'alaea, as a Lifetime Member of Ma'alaea Village Association, who has developed multiple, multi-million-dollar grant applications in service of the organization in an effort to develop a regional wastewater reclamation system, over more than three-and-a-half years of dedication to solving the community-scale wastewater challenge with novel solutions that integrate decades of education, strategy and structured effort that was always dedicated to the recovery of reefs - and human beings - in Maui.
Mahalo nui loa for your service!
Travis A. Liggett, MS
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis@livingmaui.org
tinyurl.com/Maalaea-disclosure-and-context
Greetings and Salutations Chair and Committee Members:
My name is Edward Codelia. I am a Kula resident and have worked in Maui real estate since 1994. I oppose Resolutions 26-129 and 26-130 and any amendments adding additional properties.
The argument presented for 10 Walaka Street exposes the fundamental problem with this process.
The owner states that long-term rents will not cover his purchase and operating costs. But that is not a unique land-use hardship. It is the basic financial argument of virtually every short-term-rental owner: short-term rentals are more lucrative than long-term housing.
As a real estate professional, I understand that an income-producing property’s value reflects its anticipated income. If a buyer pays a price supported by vacation-rental income, the fact that ordinary residential rents will not support that purchase price does not prove the property is unsuitable for housing. It proves the property was purchased at a price capitalizing its tourism income.
Government zoning does not exist to guarantee that investment income, protect a buyer’s purchase price or ensure that the most profitable use remains legal forever.
What does this agenda actually accomplish?
It does not construct one new home.
It does not require one affordable rental.
It does not create a diversified economy.
It does not necessarily increase tourism capacity because Ordinance 6008 limits qualifying properties to their historical number of vacation-rental units.
At best, it preserves existing visitor accommodations, higher tourism-related tax revenue and the market value associated with short-term-rental income. If preserving tax revenue and tourism inventory is now the Council’s overriding policy, it should say that honestly. It should not continue presenting these measures as part of a housing strategy.
Bill 9 was enacted after years of hearings, analysis and public testimony under the promise that apartment-zoned vacation rentals would be returned toward Maui’s housing inventory. The Council then created H-3 and H-4 hotel zoning and began restoring vacation-rental rights property by property, category by category and Council member by Council member.
The Council cannot credibly describe both actions as housing policy. Phasing out vacation rentals to produce housing and restoring those same uses to preserve tourism income are opposing policies.
The work performed by cleaners, maintenance workers, handymen and property managers is honest and necessary work. But perpetuating Maui’s dependence on servicing visitor accommodations and absentee-owned investment properties is not economic diversification. It leaves local workers maintaining properties they increasingly cannot afford to live in or near.
Resolution 26-129 is equally defective. Planning has stated that sea-level-rise exposure combines different hazards, affects every parcel differently and should be evaluated parcel by parcel. Yet the required parcel-specific analysis is absent. The proposed eligibility standard has already been expanded to include Special Flood Hazard Areas to accommodate properties selected in advance.
The agenda then allows still more properties to be added from a list of 104 projects containing 7,167 units. That is not a narrow exception. It is an open door through which Bill 9 can continue to be dismantled.
I ask the Committee to:
1. Add no properties on August 27.
2. File or defer Resolutions 26-129 and 26-130.
3. Establish one objective and publicly disclosed standard applicable to every property.
4. Require parcel-specific housing, hazard, infrastructure and fiscal analyses.
5. Consider Makai Sunset Inn separately from 10 Walaka because their circumstances are materially different.
If the Council has abandoned Bill 9’s housing objective in favor of protecting tourism revenue and private property values, it should repeal or amend Bill 9 openly.
It should not accomplish that result through politically sponsored exceptions.
Maui residents gave this process years of their time and testimony. They deserved a lasting housing policy—not a temporary political performance followed by building-by-building reversals.
Mahalo,
Edward Codelia
Kula, Maui