I learned a new -ism word today thanks to an article in the Maui News forwarded by my Damon Key colleague Mark Murakami. Currently, Maui’s “Hotel” zoning allows the property owner to build an apartment or a single-family residence as well as a hotel, but in Mansionism discouraged on land with hotel zoning, Harry Eagar writes:
The Maui Planning Department would like to take a stand againstcreeping mansionism in the hotel district, but Planning Director JeffHunt says the best way to approach the problem remains under discussion.
…
The draft hotel bill would delete apartments and single-family houses as permitted uses in hotel zones.
Generally, a less-intensive use within a district is seen as a good thing, and the article points out that “the community was pleased when that lot was ‘saved’ from dense hotel development.” Yet, building a large house is now characterized as some sort of malevolent act, apparently because of concerns that ownership of this type of property isn’t egalitarian enough (much of this is beachfront property), and according to the article, the planners are “worried.”
The article also exposes two other points about how government planners view private property: (1) as a source of revenue, and (2) not really yours, but theirs:
However, the desire, and ability, of some people to affordhotel-zoned real estate for private homes worries the planners.Kaanapali isn’t likely to be torn down to make room for McMegamansions,but there are other hotel-zoned lots, especially in South Maui, thatare yet unbuilt.
The planners have two concerns. One is gettingthe best return on the expense of building infrastructure for theselots. The more units, the more tax revenue per acre.
The other isindirect. If low-density housing sops up resort lots, then unless thetotal number of tourists is reduced, the tourists will have to be putsomewhere else.
“We want an efficient use of our hotel-zonedlands,” said Hunt. “If we put low-density housing within them, we willhave to extend our resorts. They’ll consume more land.”
“Our” lands? “We put?” “Our resorts?” I guess it is their world…you just live in it. As to the concern that Maui tourists will have nowhere to go, remember that this is the same planning department engaged in a widely-publicized crackdown on vacation rentals (which, by the way, are permitted in the Hotel zone) because it wanted to force tourists to stay in hotels.