With just 10 days to go, U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ruled in favor of short-term rental property owners on Thursday, halting the Oct. 23 implementation of an ordinance to protect Honolulu residents from the impact of short-term rentals on the state’s soaring housing prices.
Until further notice, the injunction prohibits the City and County of Honolulu, as well as the Department of Planning and Permitting, from enforcing or executing the ordinance’s restriction on 30-to-89-day leases.
“We are presently examining the court’s verdict from this afternoon.” “We are glad, however, that the court recognized the critical issues at stake in this case,” said Gregory Kugle, attorney for the plaintiff, the Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance, in an email.
Ordinance 22-7, which was approved in April, redefined the phrase “short-term” for rentals in Honolulu. Short-term rentals have been defined by lease lengths of at least 30 days since the implementation of the first rental regulations in the 1980s. However, the rule would raise the minimum rental length to 90 days for houses not zoned as resorts.
The ban was enacted on the grounds that these rentals, popularized by sites such as Airbnb, are disturbing local ways of life and pushing up prices in communities that are unable to handle the housing market’s volatility caused by the inflow of out-of-state residents and visitors to Hawaii.
Judge Watson, an Obama appointment, ruled that the ordinance violated a land-use clause in an earlier act.
