section of map showing current unpermitted short term rental units in the Kapahulu area

It is with mixed feelings that Aunty reports the passing of both Bills 85 and 89 at Monday’s City Council meeting.  Bill 85 would have been the one to pass to totally stop the illegal short term rentals with strict enforcement and fines.  Bill 89 allows for homeowners to apply for permits allowing them to rent out 2 rooms in their homes on short term basis.  Everything else will be penalized and fined if they get caught.  The Mayor will probably nix Bill 85 and pass Bill 89 because it is more in line with what he first proposed this year to allow more short term rentals.

The hundreds of testimonies of those who wanted to have all short term rentals legalized and permitted would admit to having unpermitted short term rental businesses and justify it by how great they are by supplying what tourists wanted and paying their taxes.  Some of them were very brazen, some were humble.  All were breaking the law.

How many of them, and how big a deal is it to them?  Check out melekomo808.com for one of the illegal whole house rental units currently banking it.  It is a drop dead gorgeous place on the beach in Kailua and looks like a high end Maui resort hotel.  Rates are $5,000 per night with 6 night minimum stay ($30,000 for 6 nights).  That kind of money motivates the push for legalizing short term rentals and encourages more investors to bid up our island properties out of reach for local families to buy and live in.  Hopefully, when Bill 89 passes, enforcement and fines kick in – big time, and their profit motivation disappears.   Otherwise it will be business as usual as the players in this field flaunt their illegal activity because civil action becomes a non event as it has in the past.

How invasive is our current situation?  Check out airdna.co for a map of what is currently available as short term rentals through Airbnb and Vrbo rental sites.  Enter “Honolulu” or whatever area you are interested.  A map of the area will show purple, blue, or green dots indicating whole house, room, or shared room rentals.  Most of the sites listed are for whole house rentals (purple dot).  Each dot can be clicked on for details about nightly rates, but addresses are not listed, though you could do a guess on which house it is by the location on the map.

Just in the city area of Honolulu from Hawaii Kai to the airport, there are 7,527 active rentals, 86% of them are entire home rentals.  The rental growth chart shows a history of the expansion ~ 2,500 units in 2016, and has grown to 7,527 units today in less than 3 years time.  Some are legal because they exist in Waikiki, with special district status.  All others are illegal.

These numbers are current to Airbnb and HomeAway rental sites.  There are more sites that do not report to this market minding overview, so actual numbers are higher than shown.  For example, right around the corner from Aunty is a short term rental house with tourists staying for a few days, coming and going constantly.  This house is not listed on the map.  A property on the next block with 2 big ornate houses that occasionally have large groups staying for a week or so are also not listed on the map.  These might be listed on Craigslist or other rental sites that airdna does not track.

Aunty testified that the expansion of illegal short term rentals was not only because of investors’ motive for profit, but also because of the non-enforcement of our existing laws and piddly consequences.

Slowly, and insidiously, our residential neighborhoods have been invaded.  They are not as obvious as monster houses, but they are just as, or more detrimental to our local lifestyle.  Hopefully, with the passing of Bill 89 and proper enforcement that follows, we can protect our neighborhoods from unwanted changes.

***Want to protect our neighborhoods on the State level?  Governor Ige has before him a Senate Bill – SB1292 – which will undermine our city county laws and recognize renting platforms such as Airbnb as registered agents of Hawaii, giving more legitimacy to illegal rentals by collecting taxes.  Attached are 3 ways to reach Governor Ige.  Aunty just did the second option and sent a comment to Governor Ige.  He responded (a robo response but still informative) immediately.  He has until June 24 to send in a notice of intent to veto, and then until July 9 to veto.  Please ask him to veto SB1292!

FIRST – Phone GOVERNOR IGE’s office IMMEDIATELY [(808) 586-0034] before his voice mailbox fills up. Ask him to VETO SB1292 and tell him why. Let his office know that you are a voter, a taxpayer, and are upset that SB1292 might become law.  Remind him of his 2016 veto message (attached)

SECOND – Send the governor your online opinion right now. Ask him to VETO SB1292. Click Comment to Governor Ige to be directed to his website.  Remind him of his 2016 veto message (attached)

THIRD – Phone GOVERNOR IGE’s office [(808) 586-0034] again in by Friday. Ask him to VETO SB1292 and tell him why.

A 3 story monster with 2 entrances and multiple electrical meters in Foster Village

Wednesday was a GREAT day for us monster house opponents because the Honolulu City Council unanimously passed the 3rd reading of Bill 79, which made major changes to the LUO (land use ordinance) for Oahu.  In short, house sizes for our average 5,000 square foot lots or smaller are limited to 60-70% of floor area ratio to lot size, wet bars (which monster people would convert to illegal kitchens) are limited to 1, laundry rooms are limited to 1, electric meters are limited to 1, and number of bathrooms are limited to 4 1/2. Adequate parking must be provided, and at least 25% of the lot cannot be impervious (concrete or asphalt).  The bigger lots allow for more wet bars, bathrooms, etc. but size limits will still be in place, and inspections will be allowed for a year after occupancy to check that the house has not been altered.

Aunty and fellow members of HiGoodNeighbor.com testified along with others in support and thanks.  A pleasant surprise was that even representatives of Hawaii’s building industry showed support for the bill.  Prior to, they voiced strong opposition to any changes and instead blamed the Department of Planning and Permitting for not clamping down on (mostly foreign) builders who found ways to build huge – legally.  These foreign builders would then alter, subdivide, rent illegally, sell and repeat, all the while not get caught or stopped. This was a case of a few bad apples spoiling the face of our island neighborhoods for profit, so hopefully those bad apples go away.

But not soon enough

It had been a mission for Aunty for about 2 years ever since seeing and reading the news about monster houses coming up in Palolo Valley and Kaimuki.  Unscrupulous builders were buying up old houses, knocking them down along with all the wonderful trees, and putting up structures with the most bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens that they could fit without any regard to their neighbors, parking, or communities.  One of the most heartbreaking stories was that of Missy Mai’i, who bought a little house with a great view of the city and ocean a few years ago.  A monster builder put up a multi-level house on a slope next to her and totally took away her view.

Just recently, the same thing is beginning to happen to Aunty.  The property just behind Aunty was purchased by a contractor a few years ago and he received a permit soon after.  He did nothing for years but rented out the dilapidated 2 story house and cottage on the lot to several renters who came and went.  It was filled with weeds and random plantings and looked like a dump but Aunty could still look out her back windows and see sunrises over Maunalua Bay and Koko Head, about a half inch of ocean, and the charming rooftops of Kaimuki houses.

The bad apple seed is sprouting

This shows half of the total foundation, which continues after the 8′ concrete divide in mirror image to the street beyond

In October, Joey, a young local contractor working under the owner builder contractor began to demo the old houses and everything else on the lot.  The owner builder is foreign but at least he hired Joey.  A huge old mango tree, banana trees, moringa, and avocado trees were ripped out, laying bare the entire lot.  Slowly more work was done, hollow tile walls erected around the property, trenches dug out, rebars laid in, and truckloads of gravel dumped, filled, and leveled into semi-erected walls.

It was at this point, neighbors began to gather and would speak to the owner who occasionally came to view the progress.  Each person had a different story of what they heard would happen from him.  We organized a meeting with the owner so we could all get the same picture directly from his mouth.  He brought his wife who acted like she couldn’t speak English and his pretty young daughter.  He seemed like a nice person and would agree to remedy our concerns about water overflow if it rained heavily, making sure the contractor waters the site twice a day to cut down on dirt flying into our houses, and maintaining green spaces.  His wife suddenly could speak English and assured us that she and her family would start a garden.  They would live in the back house and their other daughter would come back from the mainland to live in the front house.

Construction continued, hollow tile foundation walls got taller, more fill came in and plumbing pipes were laid in and buried, a massive wall of concrete blocks grew right down the middle of the property.  The site was never watered down, water overflow concerns were not passed on to the grading contractor.  At this point, Aunty viewed a set of building plans from DPP (Department of Planning and Permitting) which is available to the public.  The 2 houses were only divided by a common wall and massive – each one were mirror images of each other and 2 stories high.  Two full kitchens, 2 wet bars, 9 bathrooms, 2 dens, 12 bedrooms.  7,386 square feet under roof for a 7,500 square foot lot.  120 linear feet of house with 12 windows on the 2nd floor looming over Aunty.  Yuck, yuck, yuck.

For now, Aunty still has a view and is taking as many photos at different times of the day and plans to paint the view as it is now.  Soon, it will be lost and blocked out by the 2 houses.   It will be like having a 30′ high fence, 5 feet away as Aunty’s new back view.  Hopefully this will be the last of the monsters, and that Aunty can get used to her soon to be altered reality.

One of Aunty’s favorite pastimes is gardening.  Every plant in the yard has a little story – where it was bought, who gave it, etc.  Lizards run around, bees buzz, and birds perch and poop.  One unwelcome bird pooper is the Bulbul –  an invasive species that was released in Hawaii, probably by a bird lover who let their illegal pets into the Islands. They are black with red butts.  These birds feed on fruits, vegetables, and flower buds – Aunty’s orchid flower buds in particular.

Aunty would stick orchid plants into the stone wall up front and they would do okay, a few buds here and there but not too many flowers because the Bulbuls would find the new shoots and eat them before they bloomed.

This year, Aunty’s orchid plants became profuse with orchid spikes and buds. The Bulbuls seemed to be leaving them alone!  Each day would bring more buds and these slowly grew larger until a few of them started to bloom. Happy happy joy joy!!! until petals seemed to fall off, so Aunty gave it some organic fertilizer to boost the plants. However, it wasn’t the health of the plant causing the petals to break off.  Buds were also being nipped off.  The dang Bulbuls had found Aunty’s trove of orchids and began to feast.

Google searching brought up several solutions and Aunty wrapped either thin wire or fishing line around CDs and hung them from the low hanging tree branches above the flower sprays. They sway hither and thither with the wind and reflect mirror-like light.

Aunty also bought some reflective pinwheels to stick into nearby plants as extra precaution. They aren’t pretty in the tropical garden setting, but they are better than eaten up flowers and destroyed orchid buds.  So far, so good.  Bulbuls are leaving the petals and buds alone.  Orchids are happy.  So is Aunty.