Thursday, December 3, 2015

Musings: Gems and Blems

Though it's a sort of torture to watch Kauai County Council meetings — I'm always acutely aware of the limited minutes of my life ticking by — they do sometimes turn up a gem or two.

Like this bit of complete cluelessness, uttered by Councilman Gary Hooser:

Working together, taking our time and not reacting to the mob mentality as mentioned earlier, we can find a way to reach some common ground.

Wow. Great insight. It's just too bad he didn't have it when his own red-shirted mob was outside the Council chambers at 3 a.m., bullying a vote on his anti-GMO Bill 2491.

Because there's no mob scene around the B&B/homestay issue, which Gary was referring to. Just residents sick and tired of seeing their property taxes go up, and their neighborhoods turned into defacto resorts, because the County is unwilling and/or unable to regulate transient vacation accommodations in all their many forms.

In this case, Gary is pushing a measured approach because he wants to grandfather in all the existing homestays, which neither the planning department nor the Council majority seem to support.

Except for Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura, who finds it “very unjust” that all the people who for years never did seek a B&B use permit — and yes, they were available all this time — aren't being given automatic approval.

According to information I obtained under a public records request, the planning commission approved homestay use permits in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, three in 1998 and one in 2004. It also denied two permit requests in 1998. There obviously was a process, which some homeowners did seek out and use, to obtain permits for lawfully operating a homestay/B&B.

So can we please cancel the pity party for folks who have been operating for years while claiming there was no process to get a permit?

Councilman Mason Chock also demonstrated that he's uninformed when he noted a “small handful” hadn't “gone through the process” and he was “inclined to ensure they're heard and what can be done for them to continue.”

In fact, 11 people who were operating homestays without permits have managed to obtain them in the past six months, using the existing use permit process. These include several on ag land, which would be prohibited under the proposed homestay bill.

To date, planning has approved 20 use permits for homestay operations.

In recent months, another nine operators withdrew their applications for various reasons, like maybe they had illegal structures or other planning/zoning issues. Two had their permit requests denied. Seven are fighting their denials though the contested case process. Action was deferred on three and another one went to the planning commission last month.

Though planning has screwed up plenty, homestay operators are being heard and given ample opportunity to make their case. Councilmembers should check their sympathy, especially when it's directed toward their friends, and allow the planning commission to do its job.

What they need to focus on now is crafting a bill that doesn't repeat the same errors as the TVR law. Councilmembers spoke a lot about the need for a fair process, which is why the issue of grandfathering in current users is such a big deal. As a reader noted in comments on a recent post:

Grandfathering is a term to allow a previously legal use to continue when laws are made that no longer allow that use. It is severely wrong in this situation, where B&Bs have always been allowed with a Use Permit. Grandfathering was never meant to allow Un permitted uses to be made legal. And the current home stay process should not grandfather any operation that did not bother to get a Use Permit and in fact did operate illegally.

A previous Council made that terrible error when it passed a TVR law that allowed only those who had been illegally operating to seek permits. The law-abiding folks were forever barred from obtaining the lucrative permits that run with the land. It was one of the most unjust acts the Council has perpetrated, and it screwed locals big time. It's simply not fair to again let folks slide when they failed to use an existing process and instead chose to gamble that the county wouldn't enforce against them.

As Council Chair Mel Rapozo noted, tourist accommodations have always been illegal on ag land under state law. That's why it was such a travesty that a previous Council — including JoAnn — amended the TVR law to allow them there. While I'd rather see homestays than TVRs on ag land, neither is appropriate.

Councilman Ross Kagawa got it right when he observed: “Just because a mistake was made doesn't mean we gotta continue the mistake.”

Amen. So revise the homestay bill to require inspections of the property, and deal with enforcement.

Mel revealed that the Council, along with its legal analyst, has been investigating some of the TVR abuses. “There's violations everywhere you look in the TVR neighborhoods,” he said. “It's horrific what we're finding, and where's the enforcement? It's not there.”

Mel wants Planning to address the Council next month about its enforcement efforts against illegal TVRs, and its plans to enforce the B&B/homestay law. Because without enforcement, what is the point?

There's another interesting issue that hasn't come up. Folks who bought properties in the visitor destination areas, where homestays and TVRs are allowed, ostensibly paid more for that privilege. Is the county going to be sued if it continues to erode their property values by allowing a proliferation of visitor accommodations outside the VDA, either by permitting outright or failing to enforce?

Finally, though JoAnn admitted she had not even read the homestay bill, which is only four pages long, she was bemoaning the fact that the Council couldn't question people who testified, due to a recent rule change. “it's important to understand the circumstances each person is speaking from,” she sniffed.

No, it's not. Rather than rely on the self-interested comments of the public to guide her in “good decision-making,” perhaps JoAnn should start by doing her homework and actually reading the controversial bills that come before the Council.

That, and pay attention and/or reference written testimony, so you don't throw a hissy fit when your colleagues won't allow a person to repeat their entire six-minute testimony because you didn't capture all the points. It's a public process, JoAnn. It's not all about you. 

And Gary, "bite me" — the phrase you uttered to Ross — is never an appropriate way to speak to another Councilmemember. Especially when you love to lecture folks about treating the Council with respect. 

Time to grow up — and learn a new comeback. That one is juvenile and tired already.

61 comments:

Anonymous said...

When questioned by the County Council, why couldn't the planning department produce evidence of a single B&B permit that had been issued over the past 20 years? Because they told those B&B owners who inquired about obtaining one that there was no permit available to specifically address Homestays and B&Bs, therefore one was not needed. B&B owners were told that they did not qualify to even apply for a TVR permit since their accommodations did not fall under the definition of a TVR. In 2008, the County Council specifically stated that their TVR ordinance DID NOT address B&B and Homestays, but that they would address it as a separate issue at a later date. Logic follows that something that does not exist is unobtainable.

Robin said...

What is the County stance on airbnb rentals? I see at least 15 in the Kalaheo area including one just down the street from my house. I may be wrong, but I don't think most of these are permitted. My other neighbors who ran a B and B got cracked down on, only because they had paid taxes which is how the county located them. I presume airbnb people don't pay taxes? However, it is easy to identify airbnbs from the internet so the County could also send them cease and desist letters (assuming no permit). If the County does not want to fight airbnb, then all the other B and B owners just need to sign up with airbnb!

Joan Conrow said...

9:34 -- I'm not sure when that questioning occurred, but planning was able to provide me with the approval date of some 20 B&Bs over the past 20 years. So as I noted in the post, since some people did obtain permits, they were obviously available. Now I'm not disputing that some folks may have been given bad info from planning, but there most definitely was and still is a use permit process for B&Bs/homestays.

Anonymous said...

Did you all get the part of the RAISES? Insane 47,000 to 70,000 for HR clerks.

A tax clerk from 57,000 to 114,000?

Are you fricking serious?

And the people wonder why taxes go up every year.

Remember Charlie Foster's 30,000 raise for supporting a PA on his blog. 30K raise for being on the job for less than 2-3 months.

All the county is doing is adding faux responsibilities to jack up pay raises. So they can make a hard push to raise the GET tax.

Anonymous said...

So Mina Morita got busted for political reasons while other TVR and BnB's operate illegally on AG land.

The county of Kauai is so fucked up!

Anonymous said...

10:23 try get your facts straight, the State, not County went after Mina, who actually dug her own grave on that one. Nice lady but sorry you play with fire you get burn sometimes.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the County of Kauai is so f***ed up. The majority of the council members are self serving bureaucrats who use their positions to further their own political careers. Council Chairman Rapozo is the worst. Let's hope his dream of being Kauai's next mayor never gains momentum. His pompous, self-aggrandizing manner is embarrassing to watch.

Anonymous said...

Only shows how incompetent the county is in enforcing laws.

Like the county council members like to say "pick on the low lying fruits".

Cherry picking is away the county bullies people who they believe are weak and let the rest get away with committing tax fraud and violating VDA, home stay, BnB laws.

It's just a ploy to pander to the public for votes. Look we at least got one or two so it's better than nothing. This mentality and derelict of their duties and responsibilities are unacceptable.

Anonymous said...

Joan "Because without enforcement, what is the point?"

Exactly! That's why I oppose any "voluntary compliance" schemes.

Anonymous said...

what a frickin mess a complete disaster on all sides in every chair i am completely disgusted

Anonymous said...

11:42. If you're disgusted, stop complaining, run for Council, a that's the trouble with our new Kauai population, too much self-serving complainers.

Lboyd said...

How about looking at the taxes people are paying. I would say the first thing to do would be to raise property taxes well above current levels for all these, like you know commercial, mainland property tax rates. And check out if they are paying GET and TAT. I find it really frustrating to read these posts since I know the county needs funds, these are not very popular enterprises. Why not just tax them at high enough rates it discourages them. And then you have few if any problems with enforcement and the satisfaction some of you would feel from putting them in jail.

Anonymous said...

first since u do not know who i am how do u know i have not run b fore and am a Kauai person if i do run again i am pretty sure you wont b voting for me cuz i would assume ur a troll who more then likely cant vote here tell ya what u run first blabbermouth i will follow get a grip w ur nasty comments its people like you that keeps people like me from running aloha and stfu mahalo

Anonymous said...

While it is true grandfathering was never meant to be a sort of approval of an unpermitted activity, permitting of unpermitted items already in place is clearly allowed by the CZO, and well it should be. But yes, these applicants must go thru the process without prejudice for or against.
I shall also share that the idiotic, often racist, irrational response by the public to B&B applications was such in the early years that the Planning Department often discouraged applicants and said if there were no complaints, that matters should simply remain as they were. Just pay your taxes and follow all density , health and parking rules.

Anonymous said...

The testimony of the mortgage broker with the "un-farmable" $1.6 million property in the state agriculture zone brings tears to my eyes and a quote from Gunga Din:
"Now it is not good for the Christian's health To hustle the Aryan brown, For the Christian riles and the Aryan smiles, And it weareth the Christian down. And the end of the fight is a tombstone white With the name of the late deceased-- And the epitaph drear: "A fool lies here Who tried to hustle the East." Good try, but no cigar.

Anonymous said...

The County is trying to make the assertion that "if we don't say that you CAN do it, you can't do it" this flies in the face of centuries of law. If the LAW says you can't do it, well then you can't. The Planning Dept has the idea that everyone needs permission to do anything. Orwellian at best....nonsense at least.
There may have been a process to get a BnB permit, but it was not a law that you needed one.
The last time the County went after someone for a non-conforming (which is in County new parlance, illegal) was the Timmy Bynum affair.
Two County gals knew that this ignoramus was using his filthy Ag Estate property illegally, or in a non-conforming manner, and they went after him. Zealously.
Timmy gets the County to jackpot him 300,000 the County pays an additional 700,000 in legal fees. A million bucks for the Kauai's last interlude with an "illegal" rental, that ended up never even being prosecuted.
The County better gear up on getting those pesky "search warrants". This is still America and no body can go on you property except in an emergency, and even that is up to opinion.
Gary is ignoramus, Tim is an ignoramus, what are 2 ignoramus? Ignorami, Ignoramuses or Ignorameese?
Spending all this money, a Planning Department that is a law unto itself, a council that spends money like a hooker in shoe store and the regular Kauai folks work 2 jobs and live with their parents. Rents at 2500 and the Council blames everything on BnBs.

And Mel just looks serious as the County goes bankrupt and the roads remain overgrown and pukas to the max.

Anonymous said...

"Self aggrandizement" - some will need to explain what this means to Ross as it applies to him too but he may not understand this large of a word.

Anonymous said...

Shutting down a half a dozen B&Bs, that have been operating for years with no complaints, is not going to solve Kauai's long term housing crisis. Allow those who have been operating with the promise that the county would address their permitting process at some unspecified date in the future, to finally be legally permitted. Stop lumping them into the same category as illegal TVRs with inadequate septic systems that are ruining neighborhoods. They are not the same!
Council member Kagawa,it is unrealistic to believe that just because your children were born and raised on Kauai, they are somehow entitled to own a home here. Look around you. There are millions of people in America who will never own a home, even if their grandparents were able to purchase one back in the 50's using the GI Bill or during the 60's or 70's when housing costs were not astronomical. You are misplacing your anger and frustration on a few dozen people who have nothing to do with the problem. Better to turn your focus to creating long term affordable housing with financing available for those of us who will never be able to "set aside" a 20% down payment for a half a million dollar home.

Anonymous said...

Mel did a good job yesterday , and showed lots of control with the out of control councilwoman.So did Arryl and Ross. Will they file sanctions against Gary for saying bite me. They should, no place for that kind of thing and if Gary can't control his mouth during the meeting, and nothing happens to him, it will just get more and more uncivil.

Anonymous said...

The Council should restrict future B&Bs to the VDA, period. No more grumbling, no more complicated permitting, no more neighborhood arguments, no more contested case hearings, public hearings. Put em where they belong and the issue is solved. B&Bers will scream foul; but consider this. The County provided a lengthy window of opportunity for B&Bs to apply for a permit anywhere on the island; before and after the interim ordinance was put in place. During that time 30+ owners applied, 20 got permits the remaining are pending. Considering the generous opportunity the County gave the operators, it is time to close that window by requiring that future B&B permits be confined to the VDA. Come on Council. Fair is Fair. Act on behalf of the residents this time.

Anonymous said...

"Bite me" as defined by the new urban dictionary volume IV means "fuck you, you little prick". However the revised standard new age fully annotated and partially amended English adult version dictionary defines it as "a special term of endearment among alpha males, especially when used in a political environment". Gary and Ross were too far apart to chest bump or high five each other and so a few terms of endearment were their only option. Personally I will never forget Council Chair Mel shouting into the microphone "up yours" during a meeting in which they were discussing school lunches. His regular use of the phrase "pissed off" is a particularly colorful localism and but I suppose he figures that it just part of the local vernacular and at least Ross will understand and not be offended. Yes, what a fun meeting that will be when they start trying to figure out who has the foulest mouth, is the most uncouth, or who just says the stupidest things. Can you be sanctioned for saying stupid things? Ross better watch out!

Anonymous said...

7:13 o wow calling Ross stupid, who the heck are you you coward. Typical transplant, a local would say it face to face. Go back to where you came from. Nobody wants you here.

Anonymous said...

Sick of all this crybaby shit about how your grandkids should be entitled to live somewhere because your past generations did.
My father served in the Marines! I just left the Army. And we moved around a lot for generations. No place for my family to call home and claim special rights to keep because we were SERVING.
But to watch TV and see Ross Kagawa's angry sense of entitlement have laws passed so his spawn get an advantage in housing is sickening. You think you get special status cause you born here. I think I get special status cause I SERVED and never got to call a place home for more than a few years. Well guess what. No one special.
You should get your real estate based on merit and not based on how many of your ancestors shit in the same spot before you.
Oh poor tings - your house in Hanalei worth 7.5 million dollars and its hard for you to pay the property taxes! You feel they so entitled to that land. Cause why? Cause they your friends.
Him and the crying rich haoles - flip sides of the same coin.

Anonymous said...

So this new salary raises should be investigated like the audit and the federal government should file criminal government corruption charges. It's not going to stop unless the FEDS bust them like the Kapahi meth ring. There's check but no check mate in the multinational government corruption game.

Kauai Boy said...


"According to information I obtained under a public records request, the planning commission approved homestay use permits in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, three in 1998 and one in 2004. It also denied two permit requests in 1998. There obviously was a process, which some homeowners did seek out and use, to obtain permits for lawfully operating a homestay/B&B."

I am curious, Joan, as to how your public records request was made. The term "homestay" was not in common use in the 80s, the 90s, or even in 2004. Did you search for "B&B use permits"? Are any of the "homestays" for which you found approved homestay use permits during those years still in business? I cannot think of one.

Is it possible for you to do a search and see if there has ever been a law specifically prohibiting the short term rental of a room in your home and, if there is, when such a law was enacted?

Joan Conrow said...

My records request was phrased: Please provide me with a list of all the properties that have received a use permit to operate a bed and breakfast and/or homestay, to date.

I'll see what I can find out re: a law specifically prohibiting the short term rental of a room in your home.

Anonymous said...

7:13 pm - Sounds like you're defending Gary's bad behavior.

Anonymous said...

The Council's new concept of emptying out the BnBs and renting out "rooms" as long term housing is not as novel as Mel and others believe.
The first uses of major housing issues being solved by "room rentals" started in the Coal area of Britain in the 1700s. Soon the Big Coal and Big Sugar realized that peolle preferred to have their own poopy potties and kitchens.
So about 200 years ago they designed and built housing. There was a little planning and all of the work was done by hand, but they did it.
Our Council's efforts to bring the past should also include outhouses, open sewers and homeless camps(leper colonies). Kauai's housing problems will be fixed.
The Coal/Sugar barons also controlled all businesses, roads, schools and politicians.
Today the new Barons are the politicians. The schools, roads, housing all suck the big high hard one. And that is the real "bite me".
On another note, how can such derogatory lingo be exchanged between our County Fathers....and who was Ross speaking with at the Council that brought out Da Hoos' Big Bite Me slur.

Anonymous said...

According to one of the counsel members, the purpose of property taxes is to provide county government with revenue. One of the issues with property taxes is their inherent inability to be assessed equitably. Is it possible to assess value based on the actual purchase price the current owner originally paid? Original purchase price= CAPPED assessment. Transfers between family members that does not reflect accurately the last purchase exchange price, can be looked at. Been in your home for 20 years? Paid $200K? Fine. That is your basis until you sell your home. No more inflated/unfair/inaccurate assessments. Ala CA's Prop 13, it's capped. Buy a 2 million or 20 million dollar property? That's your basis!

We all know that is is impossible for federal, state or local governments to "create" anything: jobs, opportunity, housing...whatever. They can heavily influence an environment for all of those things by ( failed) promises or programs that take( or subsidize) from one class and give to another, like: ZIRP, bank bailouts, inability or refusal to account for billions of dollars spent by the DOD, subprime auto loans, refusal of state government to share revenue as previously agreed with counties, Quantitative easing, constant acrimony/self serving BS at counsel meetings. Maybe its time to decrease the counties dependence on propety taxes, and institute a county sales tax, with a prebate offered to all county residents, regardless of income. It's time for some new ideas,some compromise and planning on the county level, to insure that the county does have a revenue stream in the future, to service it's residents efficiently, and fairly.

Anonymous said...

The CZO speaks to residential use , and definately reserves the VDA for transient uses and specifically spells out where those areas are. it's called the comprehensive zoning code, which codified what is allowed where. That you and others have come up with a creative new name like home stay does nothing to change the fact that you are running transient operations, which are prohibited outside of the VDA.

Anonymous said...

This is crazy. We are effectively adding hundreds of new hotel rooms. Would anyone approve a new 500 room hotel on Kauai right now? I doubt it. And people who stay in Airbnb's are not necessarily the big spenders we try to attract. This is a path toward disaster.

Anonymous said...

@8:27 am

You have legally summed it up in three sentences. I sure hope our council won't transform the whole island into a Maui, Kona, Oahu, or better yet a Hanalei.

Anonymous said...

Tough soldier boy talking shit. So soldier boy one of your family falls on hard times and loses his job, home or his rental, and can't afford a new place becuz everything is sky high. whatcha going to do? Give him a shopping cart and a black plastic bag and kick his ass out on the street?

Anonymous said...


Visitor Destination Area.

TVR owners and realtors have found any way they can to twist this. And boy,, have they! We've let them run all over us! We have to be REALLY specific in our bills these days! But I don't know if we have it in us to be conniving as them.
Grandfathering is just despicable. We've been bullied by attorneys that are out for the blessed buck, who have turned their backs on their very own communities.
Chun and Nishimoto, WTF?

Anonymous said...

Ha ha ha ha if your're talking about the FIRED county/state worker that was apart of the hit teams at Trees and Robs then good for that fucker.

That drug dealer who's side job is to run chicken fights reap what he sow.

He had a GREAT job but wanted to be Gangsta.

So there's no tears to be shed for that kind of gudots for the POWERS who want to raise high school drop out salaries to Masters degrees and doctorates degree levels are apart of the corruption. ie Gas Theft, leave fraud, fraudulent hiring, missing money, and other county of Kauai RACKETS.

No person who only has a GED should have a 50-100K county JOB.

Funny how you gudots said I was only good to get Government jobs but you dummies didn't know that it's harder to get a Fed Gov job then be handed a county or state welfare check/job because it's not what you know or are qualified to do but who you know and are related to.

Bozos

Anonymous said...

sounds like more and more of people are fed up with being taken over by TVRs and B&Bs. wait til planning tells us how many illegal vacation rentals there really are on Kauai. that will be something to be pissed about. close everyone of those guys down, no exception. enough already. we don't have to take this crap anymore. the council wants to be fair. be fair to the people of this island. not the violators.

Anonymous said...

"I'll see what I can find out re: a law specifically prohibiting the short term rental of a room in your home."

I did. Here is what my lawyer said (paraphrased), which is less than clear.

"There is not any law specifically prohibiting short or long term renting of a bedroom (in residential-zoned land). But commerce is generally forbidden in residential lands so both could technically be seen as illegal - just because of the money trading hands in a residential neighborhood. If an aggressive planning department wanted to crack down on all commerce in residential lands it could - going after short or long term rentals. Technically, renting a bedroom long term is just as illegal as renting a bedroom short term. But its best to get a use permit before you rent your extra room because what the government turns its fangs toward can change on a mob's whim.

Anonymous said...

vacation rentals be they TVRs or B&Bs should have never been allowed outside the VDA. Instead of enforcing the zoning code the county has in the name of "fairness" repeatedly allowed exceptions by grandfathering illegals and passing laws that provide a path for unwanted short term rentals to skirt zoning and get permits to operate in residential areas and on ag land. where is the fairness when a well heeled transplant can buy an house next to you and get a permit to run a B&B even though zoning doesn't allow it? Fairness seems to be for the haoles not the kamaainas.

Anonymous said...


A friend of mine was at a dinner, and was a little baffled when the host said she has a "legal, permitted TVR on AG Land." My friend said simply, that she may have one, but that HE didn't know of ANY TVRs on AG land that were permitted/legal.
So, does anyone know of any legal TVRs on AG land?
Mahalo

Joan Conrow said...

Yes, sadly, when the County Council amended the TVR law it permitted TVRs on ag land, so there are a number of very fancy and expensive TVRs on ag land with legal permits.

The planning commission also approved several B&B/homestays on ag land.

Anonymous said...


EVERYONE knows that TVRs were prohibited on AG land.
That's why I'm sure all the ones that got permitted never, ever, rented their places out before they got approval.
Because if they did, Planning would NEVER reward them for breaking the law, now would they? Haha

Anonymous said...

yeah. the joke's on us

Anonymous said...

People like the Huges got approval for their AG resort ventures then turned around and sold them for a fortune. The fucked up thing is that under guidance from ian Jung , they got permits for life. Their illegal activities were made legal by an unprecedented and illegal actions of the county that decided to skip the state law and approve vacation rentals on fake AG land. So much BS went on in those years with a complicit planning commission that failed to do their job. The law that allows these TVRs on agriculture land should be changed,it's not enough to just ban B&Bs on AG .

Anonymous said...

Jung's name pops up more and more in connection with years of free passes the County has given to vacation rentals. Another poster said its time to stop giving in to these guys at the expense of residents and farmers. How many out there agree its time to stop the giveaway?

Anonymous said...

Definitely time to stop the give away of residential and agricultural properties,time to correct the wrong advice and actions.

Anonymous said...

I think I have this straight.

Originally, the State had legal jurisdiction over all ag lands and under State law TVR's were not permitted on ag land. But then the State didn't want jurisdiction over every tiny piece of ag land particularly those not well-suited for agriculture. So it told the Counties to ID which were "important" ag lands and which were not and gave the latter over to the Counties' jurisdiction. This gave the Counties the power to grant TVR permits on them that they lacked before as was done on Kauai.

Anonymous said...


Isn't this about the time Joann started talking about "good ag and bad ag"?
So TVRs can only receive permits on "bad ag"?

(We all thought Joann had friends that already had illegal TVRs on "bad ag")

"Hugh's got approval for their ag venture then turned around and sold it for a fortune" and "under the guidance of Ian Jung they got TVR permits for life."

Shameful.

Anonymous said...

TVRs are prohibited on any land zoned ag. For purposes of the zoning code bad and good ag lands are meaningless. If you object to this travesty, say so!

Anonymous said...

TVRs are prohibited on any land zoned ag. For purposes of the zoning code bad and good ag lands are meaningless. If you object to this travesty, say so!

Anonymous said...

10:48 you don't have it straight at all,

Anonymous said...


OK
One more time:
Are TVRs legal on AG land?

And, the day of Council gifted Michelle Hughes with her grandfathered permits, was that the day she wore that
stupid red dress?

Anonymous said...

No, the TVR's on AG land are not legal, the state law prohibits overnight accommodations on AG land

Anonymous said...


OMG...."Yes." "No." "Maybe."

She said her "TVR on AG land is permitted and legal."

"No! Transient accommodations are not legal on ANY AG land."

Joan Conrow said...
"Yes, sadly, when the County Council amended the TVR law it permitted TVRs on ag land, so there are a number of very fancy and expensive TVRs on ag land with legal permits.

The planning commission also approved several B&B/homestays on ag land."

So Joan, it's "Yes, some are permitted and legal."

So stupid.... They can amend the law for such an important thing as this,
But they "can't do anything about 'grandfathering' - because "we'd have to change state law."

Grandfathering is our downfall.

Anonymous said...

That's why the state of Hawaii AG should investigate the county of Kauai for passing TVR's on AG lands and also grandfathering in illegal TVR's on AG land.

If they can go after Mina Morita then why aren't they going after the obvious breaking state of Hawaii TVR laws?

Anonymous said...

One might also ask the state why they only selectively enforce no TVRs on conservation land? Are some people more politically connected than others? Or do some people have more money and they don't go after them? What could possibly be the reason the state and county have failed so miserably?

Anonymous said...


Ag on Ag Land
Hotels in resort district
TVR's in the VDA
And NO TVR's in conservation districts

Anything else the County and/or State can frick up?

Anonymous said...

Convince the Council to restrict all future B&Bs to the VDA. Takes care of all the problems. Simple, effective, fair and cheap. Common Sense

Anonymous said...

Convince the Council to restrict all future B&Bs to the VDA. Takes care of all the problems. Simple, effective, fair and cheap. Common Sense

Anonymous said...

Just finished watching the entire Council meeting waiting for Hooser to say "bite me" but somehow I missed it? Can you direct me to the time slot or segment please? I want to put it on YouTube! He cannot keep getting away with this stuff.

Joan Conrow said...

Watch the second video. It's at 2:48:32.

Anonymous said...

who is this Jung guy? His name pops up a lot connected to fix up jobs.