Honolulu is increasingly becoming overrun with tourists, locals worry.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Imagesthird-biggest island, will now place further restrictions on where Airbnb, Vrbo and other short-term rental properties can be located throughout Honolulu and the island.
In a move that has roiled landlords and other short-term rental operators, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi — whose office pushed for the— has signed a bill that would place significant limitations not only on where Airbnbs and Vrbos can be located, but for the length of short-term rentals in large swaths of the island.
“We could feel the outcry from our communities across the island on what had gone on with illegal vacation rentals,” Blangiardi said in a press conference Tuesday. “[This] is to bring back our neighborhoods, where people grow up, where families are raised and not have them be mini-hotels, but be the neighborhoods they were designed to be, a source of great pride for all of us who have raised families here in Oahu.”.
She also expressed concern over a potential conflict of interest after Honolulu’s permitting department head recused himself from working on this legislation. Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting Director Dean Uchida’s wife, Joy Uchida, is employed by a firm that owns numerous condo-hotel properties in Waikiki and could benefit from this legislation.
which would take effect in 180 days, would place new restrictions on short-term rentals, such as requiring a parking spot for any rooms rented in residential areas and prohibiting illicit operators from advertising these properties.