Sweeping Amendments to LUO Proposed by City
On Friday the 13th of August, the Director of the Department of Planning and Permitting of the City and County of Honolulu forwarded to the Planning Commission proposed amendments to Chapter 21 of the Land Use Ordinance (the "LUO") relating to Transient Accommodations. The sweeping proposals can be found Here. The many proposed changes include the following 5 things of note:
- Timeshare units will be classified as "hotel and resort," thus simplifying the regulation of those types of accommodations. Currently, if such units are located on residential-zoned property, they would be classified under the category of land use for the underlying zoning. Additionally, no hotel unit may be used as a timeshare. Under Section 25 of the proposed bill, "hotel unit is defined as "a dwelling unit or a lodging unit located in a hotel building." Accordingly, hotel units may not be used as bed and breakfast homes ("B&B") or transient vacation units ("TVU") and must be booked by guests through a centralized hotel booking system. Hotels and hotel units that have existing certificates of occupancy for hotel uses must comply with the development standards for hotels.
- Condominium hotel units are no longer permitted to be used as a primary residence, and must be part of the hotel room inventory available for rent to the general public. This is a departure from the current ordinance that is silent on whether long term occupancy of such a unit is permitted.
- For Waikiki, amendments to the Master Use Table now allow hotels, condominium hotels and hotel units as permitted uses in the Apartment Precinct and Apartment Mixed Use Precinct of Waikiki. No B&Bs or TVUs will be permitted.
- B&Bs and TVUs may not exist anywhere except for certain areas in the A-1 and A-2 apartment districts in or near Ko Olina, the Gold Coast and Turtle Bay. No new B&Bs and TVUs will be allowed or permitted in Residential Zoned areas. This restriction shall not prohibit the renewal of a valid certificate of registration originally issued prior to a subsequent development plan amendment. Enforcement tools and penalties have been added to address illegal B&Bs, short term rentals and violations of the LUO. Limiting eligible zoned areas and providing greater enforcement on B&B and TVU use is intended to protect residential neighborhoods and housing stock.
- So-called "Specialty Hotels" will be permitted. Transit related Hotels will be permitted in the I-2 intensive industrial district and IMX-1 industrial commercial mixed-use district subject to certain conditions. Business travel hotels will be permitted in the BMX-3 community business district, subject to certain conditions.
The City and County of Honolulu Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed LUO amendments on Wednesday, September 1, 2021, at 11:30a.m. Link to the agenda may be found Here.