WAILUKU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The Maui County Council is hunting at ways to crack down on overtourism in response to the visitor growth it seasoned past calendar year.
Councilmembers say they want to far better regulate the business this yr, so it doesn’t come about yet again.
“Residents have been distinct in their demand for fast council action to deal with tourism in Maui County,” claimed Council Vice Chair Keani Rawlins-Fernandez.
Rawlins-Fernandez launched a proposal to cap visitor units and to quit camper vans from currently being made use of as short-phrase accommodations.
Several residents assistance the strategy.
“We have extra lodge rooms for every capita than Oahu,” claimed David Dorn, who supports the proposal.
“We are far more tourist dense than Waikiki. Maui now has up to a single vacationer for every single two to a few locals, considerably exceeding our boundaries and our stages established in the Maui Island Plan. This is absolutely unsustainable.”
“We just never have the infrastructure, the room, or genuinely the public endurance to be overrun by effectively-that means site visitors,” claimed Lucienne de Naie, who is also in assist of the proposal.
“We need to type of deliver some type of alerts that we have variety of some caps.”
Hilton Grand Vacations submitted penned testimony in opposition stating, “The proposed cap will not successfully address the challenge of unlawful brief time period rentals and will be harmful to the neighborhood and legally-functioning transient lodging, an economic motor for Maui.”
Some lawmakers said discovering a remedy will acquire extra time.
“I assume this difficulty requires to have a great deal a lot more dialogue,” claimed Council Chair Alice Lee.
“I don’t feel it is a solution for the place we are hoping to go to, and I do think that we wander a fine line. I really don’t assume this is the answer. I’m likely to vote in opposition to also,” stated Councilwoman Yuki-Lei Sugimura.
The resolution to mail the proposed bill to the Maui County Preparing Commission handed 6-3 on Friday.
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