Maui Short-Term Rental Update: Bill 88 Passes — What It Means for Bill 9

Maui’s short-term rental saga just took its most significant turn since Bill 9 became law. On June 19, 2026, the Maui County Council gave final approval to Bill 88, a measure creating two new hotel zoning districts designed to throw a lifeline to thousands of vacation rentals being phased out under Bill 9. It now heads to Mayor Richard Bissen’s desk for signature.

If you own a Minatoya List condo, are weighing a purchase, or are just trying to track where this is all heading, here’s a clear-eyed update on both bills and how they fit together.

First, the foundation: Bill 9

On December 15, 2025, the Council passed Bill 9 by a 5–3 vote, and Mayor Bissen signed it the same day. It’s now codified as Ordinance No. 5909. The law corrects a decades-old zoning exemption that let transient vacation rentals (TVRs) operate in apartment-zoned (A-1 and A-2) districts — areas originally intended for long-term housing. These are the roughly 7,000 “Minatoya List” units, concentrated mostly in Kihei (South Maui) and West Maui.

The phase-out deadlines:

• West Maui: short-term rental use must cease January 1, 2029 (last legal guest night December 31, 2028).
• South Maui and the rest of the county: use must cease January 1, 2031 (last legal night December 31, 2030).

Bill 9 does not ban tourism. Hotel- and resort-zoned rentals, hotels, timeshares, and B&Bs are untouched. It’s a targeted zoning correction, not a blanket prohibition.

Now the news: what Bill 88 does

Bill 88 grew out of a Temporary Investigative Group (TIG) recommendation and is intended as the “softening” companion to Bill 9. It establishes two new hotel zoning categories — H-3 and H-4 — modeled on the existing A-1/A-2 apartment standards. The goal is a “like-for-like” classification for the roughly 4,500 grandfathered vacation rentals at 104 Minatoya List properties, so they could continue operating as visitor accommodations rather than being phased out entirely.

A few points are essential to understand:

It does not rezone anything by itself. This is the single most misunderstood part. Bill 88 only creates the H-3 and H-4 districts. Each individual property owner would still have to apply separately to rezone into them — a process that is neither automatic nor cheap.

The cost may be the real catch. During testimony, one condo owner said land-use planners quoted him $200,000 to $500,000 per property to prepare the studies the rezoning process currently requires — a figure he argued is prohibitively expensive for most associations and could effectively nullify the bill’s intent. Expect calls to streamline that process.

It overrode the planning commissions. All three county planning commissions — Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi — had unanimously opposed the framework. The Council advanced it anyway, clearing committee 6-1 in late May and passing final reading 7-2 on June 19. Council Members Keani Rawlins-Fernandez and Gabe Johnson were the dissenting votes.

Two guardrails were added. One amendment requires that, before Bill 88 takes effect, a property owner must have notified the Department of Planning and the department must confirm that TVR use occurred at the property before September 24, 2020 — aimed at stopping roughly 1,700 non-Minatoya properties from using the new zones as a backdoor to start vacation-rental use. A second amendment exempts Molokaʻi from H-3 and H-4 entirely.

Mayor Bissen, who testified in favor, framed the measure as an intentional next step in implementing Bill 9. Supporters included the Maui Vacation Rental Association and the Realtors Association of Maui, who pitched it as modernizing the zoning code without creating new short-term rental inventory.

Why the political ground shifted

This is a real reversal from where things stood in February, when the Maui Planning Commission rejected the rezoning concept and the path forward looked all but closed. What changed is alignment at the top: the mayor, organized labor (the ILWU, representing hotel workers), and a Council majority converged on the view that a designated zoning home for these long-operating properties beats simply erasing them.

Opponents — including Lahaina Strong and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs — argue the opposite: that Bill 88 risks unraveling years of work to return apartment units to residential use, and that it created the new districts before the county made parcel-specific findings on housing suitability, sea-level-rise exposure, and infrastructure. Council Member Tamara Paltin, who voted yes, signaled she wants to revisit whether shoreline-adjacent properties should even be eligible, citing recent swells and king tides washing debris onto Honoapiʻilani Highway.

The lawsuits are still live

Separate from the legislation, Bill 9 is being challenged in court. Two suits were filed within days of signing — Malter v. Maui County (Kāʻanapali Royal owners) and Lynam v. County of Maui (a proposed class action covering all ~7,000 Minatoya properties). Both argue the phase-out is a “regulatory taking” without just compensation, pointing to ~45 years of allowed rental use and citing Honolulu, where similar restrictions were previously blocked in federal court. The county says the ordinance is legally defensible because it relies on state-authorized amortization powers rather than an immediate ban.

The key practical point: no court has issued an injunction. The Bill 9 deadlines remain in effect, and the litigation has not paused the clock.

What this means if you own or are buying

For owners of affected apartment-zoned condos, Bill 88’s passage adds a possible path to keep operating — but it’s conditional. The district now exists (pending the mayor’s signature), yet rezoning your specific property is a separate, expensive, and not-guaranteed application. The prudent posture is to plan around Bill 9 as written — 2028 in West Maui, 2030 in South Maui — and treat a successful H-3/H-4 rezoning as upside, not as a given.

For buyers, zoning remains the decisive due-diligence question:

• A hotel- or resort-zoned unit (e.g., certain studios at Kaanapali Shores or Royal Kahana) is unaffected by Bill 9 and can continue operating short-term today.
• An apartment-zoned Minatoya unit has a built-in expiration on its short-term rental income unless and until it successfully rezones — so the price should reflect that uncertainty.
• Whether a given property is on the TIG list of ~104 candidates, and whether its association can absorb the rezoning cost, materially changes the math.

Either way, confirm the zoning designation, the property’s pre-2020 use history, and its rezoning eligibility before committing. Given how fast this is moving — a brand-new ordinance plus active litigation — it’s worth verifying current status with a knowledgeable local agent, and getting the legal and tax angles from a qualified professional.

Quick statewide context

Maui isn’t alone. The Big Island’s Bill 47 takes effect July 1, 2026, with mandatory STR registration ($250–$500/year) and fines up to $10,000 for operating unregistered — a registration-and-enforcement approach rather than a phase-out. Oʻahu confines whole-home STRs to resort zones (Bill 41), and Kauaʻi has limited new permits since 2008. The state Transient Accommodations Tax also rose to 11% on January 1, 2026. The throughline across the islands: concentrate vacation rentals in resort and visitor districts, and tighten everything else.

This update reflects publicly available information as of June 23, 2026, and is intended as general information, not legal or financial advice. Bill 88 awaits the mayor’s signature; Bill 9 / Ordinance 5909 remains subject to ongoing litigation. Verify current details before acting.