Maui's Bill 88 Just Cleared the County Council — Here's What It Means If You Own a Vacation Rental Condo

Maui's Bill 88 Just Cleared the County Council — Here's What It Means If You Own a Vacation Rental Condo

If you've been holding your breath waiting to see whether Maui County would offer any kind of relief from Bill 9, the wait may finally be ending. On June 19, 2026, the Maui County Council passed Bill 88 on its second and final reading by a 7-2 vote. It's now sitting on Mayor Richard Bissen's desk, and given that he personally testified in favor of it, his signature is widely expected any day now.

If this becomes law — and it appears very close to doing so — it would create the first real off-ramp for some condo owners facing Bill 9's short-term rental phase-out.

What Bill 88 actually does

Bill 88 creates two brand-new zoning districts: H-3 and H-4 Hotel Districts. These are modeled closely on the existing A-1 and A-2 apartment zoning standards, with one critical difference — properties zoned H-3 or H-4 retain the right to operate as short-term/transient vacation rentals.

The bill is aimed specifically at properties on the so-called Minatoya List — the roughly 104 apartment-zoned complexes, totaling about 7,167 units, that the County's Department of Planning has on record as having legally operated as vacation rentals for decades. Of those, the County estimates about 4,500 units across those properties could potentially seek rezoning into the new H-3/H-4 categories.

What it does not do

This is the part that matters most for managing expectations: Bill 88 does not automatically rezone a single property. It only creates the zoning category and the legal pathway. Every complex that wants H-3 or H-4 status still has to go through its own individual rezoning process — a property-specific zoning map amendment — separately, after the bill becomes law.

Housing and Land Use Committee Chair Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins put it plainly during the council's deliberations: the bill only establishes the district; rezoning has to happen property by property after that.

What's already happening with rezoning

The county isn't waiting around. The very first wave of rezoning applications — Resolutions 26-110 and 26-111 — is scheduled for review by the Housing and Land Use Committee on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. If your building is on the Minatoya List but isn't named in this first round, that doesn't mean it's been denied — it just means your property's active rezoning process hasn't started yet.

One detail worth flagging for any condo association considering this path: a property owner testified that land-use planners have quoted $200,000 to $500,000 per property just to prepare the studies required for a rezoning application. That's a meaningful hurdle, especially for smaller associations.

How this fits with Bill 9

Quick recap for anyone who hasn't been tracking this closely: Mayor Bissen signed Bill 9 into law as Ordinance 5909 on December 15, 2025. That law phases out short-term rentals in apartment-zoned condos — West Maui properties have until January 1, 2029; everywhere else, including South Maui, the deadline is January 1, 2031.

Bill 88 doesn't repeal or weaken those deadlines. It's a complementary measure that gives a subset of properties a potential way to keep their short-term rental rights, but only if they go through — and succeed at — the rezoning process before their phase-out deadline hits.

The TIG's Exhibit 2 List — the 53 properties with the strongest case

Before Bill 9 passed, the Council's Temporary Investigative Group (TIG) studied which Minatoya List properties had the strongest case for staying short-term rentals. Their criteria focused on properties priced out of reach for local residents, properties exposed to sea-level rise, and properties made up mostly of timeshare units. The TIG published its findings on October 14, 2025, in what's officially called Exhibit 2 — a list of 53 properties recommended for Council-initiated rezoning into H-3/H-4.

Being on this list isn't a guarantee of rezoning, and it isn't required to apply — any Minatoya List property can seek H-3/H-4 status on its own. But Exhibit 2 properties carry the County's implicit endorsement, which generally means a shorter, less expensive, less uncertain path than properties applying without it.

Here's the complete Exhibit 2 list, organized by region:

East Maui

• Hana Kai-Maui

West Maui

• Maui Eldorado
• Hale Kaanapali
• Kāʻanapali Royal

• Kapalua Bay Villas
• Lahaina Beach Club
• Kahana Outrigger 

• Pikake
• Lokelani
• Hale Kai I
• Maui Sands II
• Hale Mahina Beach
• Hale Ono Loa
• Kuleana 
• Hono Koa
• Paki Maui 
• Papakea

Mā'alaea 

• Milowai-Maalaea
• Hono Kai
• Lauloa Maalaea
• Maalaea Kai
• Island Sands

South Maui

• Maui Schooner
• Maui Kamaole
• Kīhei Bay Surf
• Maui Vista
• Kīhei Bay Vista
• Hale Kamaole
• Kamaole Sands
• Maui Hill
• Maui Sunset
• 1178 Uluniu Rd
• 1194 Uluniu Rd
• 1440 Halama St
• 1444 Halama St
• 1470 Halama St
• 2131 Iliili Rd
• Indo Lotus Beach House
• Moana Villa
• My Wai'i Beach Cottage
• Kapu Townhouse
• Waiohuli Beach Duplex
• Wailea Ekahi 

• Wailea Ekolu
• Palms at Wailea I
• Grand Champions 

That's 53 properties in total — and notably, a large concentration in South Maui, which makes sense given how much of the affected inventory sits here.

A few things worth knowing about this list:

• Inclusion isn't an approval. It signals that the TIG believed these properties had a strong case, not that the County has rezoned them.
• Several smaller single-unit Kīhei properties made the list (the Uluniu Road and Halama Street addresses, for example), likely reflecting the TIG's criteria around sea-level rise exposure or unaffordability rather than size.
• Exclusion doesn't mean you're out of options. Properties not on Exhibit 2 can still individually apply for rezoning — it's just a longer, costlier road without the County's implicit head start.
• The list is final as adopted by the TIG — Council confirmed in October 2025 that no further additions would happen through the TIG process itself; any changes now would require separate Council-initiated or applicant-initiated legislation.

What this means if you own a condo on the Minatoya List

• You're not automatically safe, and you're not automatically out. Being on the Minatoya List makes you eligible to apply — nothing more.
• Being on Exhibit 2 gives you a real head start, but still requires going through the rezoning process.
• Timing matters more than ever, especially for West Maui owners working against the earlier 2029 deadline.
• Talk to your HOA board now about whether your association plans to pursue rezoning, since this will likely be coordinated at the building level rather than unit by unit.
• The litigation against Bill 9 is still active and hasn't gone away. Multiple lawsuits are working through the courts on separate timelines, and Bill 88's passage doesn't change where any of those cases currently stand.
• There's an election factor too. Maui has council and mayoral elections later this year, which could shift the political landscape around enforcement and future amendments.

The bottom line

Bill 88 is a meaningful development — arguably the first real sign of flexibility the County has shown since Bill 9 passed — but it's a process, not a guarantee. If you own a vacation rental condo here in South Maui, or you're considering buying one, the smart move right now is to find out whether your specific building is on the Minatoya List, whether it made the Exhibit 2 list, and where it stands in the County's rezoning pipeline.

Not sure where your property stands in all of this?

This is exactly the kind of situation where having someone tracking it closely on your behalf makes a real difference. Whether you're trying to figure out if your Kīhei or South Maui condo qualifies for H-3/H-4 rezoning, weighing whether now's the time to sell before more clarity emerges, or eyeing a Minatoya List property at today's discounted prices because you understand the upside — I'd love to talk through it with you.

📞 808-481-9748 ✉️ benjamin@the808team.com 🌐 benjamin.the808team.com

I'm fluent in Mandarin as well, so if you're working with clients or family members who'd prefer to discuss this in Chinese, I'm happy to do that too.