Bill 9 on Maui: What It Actually Means (September 2026 Update)

If you've been hearing chatter about "Bill 9" and vacation rentals on Maui and aren't totally sure what it means for you, you're not alone. It's one of the biggest real estate stories on the island right now, and it's still evolving. Here's the plain-English version, plus where things stand today.

The Quick Recap: What Is Bill 9?

Bill 9 is a Maui County law (officially Ordinance 5909) that Mayor Richard Bissen signed in December 2025. In simple terms, it closes a decades-old zoning loophole that let condos in "apartment-zoned" buildings — the ones known as the Minatoya List — operate as short-term vacation rentals, even though those zones were originally meant for long-term housing.

The goal: return thousands of units to long-term residential use and ease the island's housing crunch.

The deadlines:

• West Maui: short-term rentals must stop by January 1, 2029
• South Maui and the rest of the county: short-term rentals must stop by January 1, 2031

What Bill 9 does NOT touch:

• Hotel and resort-zoned condos
• Timeshares
• Permitted bed-and-breakfasts and licensed vacation rental homes

So no, Maui isn't banning tourism or vacation rentals island-wide — it's specifically targeting apartment-zoned units. Still, that's roughly 6,000+ units affected, concentrated mostly in Kīhei and West Maui.

The Plot Twist: Bill 88 and the "Hotel Zoning" Lifeline

Here's where it gets interesting. Not long after Bill 9 passed, the County Council introduced Bill 88, which created two brand-new zoning categories — H-3 and H-4 hotel districts — specifically for properties that had been legally operating as vacation rentals before Bill 9.

Bill 88 passed on June 19, 2026, and is now law (Ordinance 6008). But here's the catch: it doesn't automatically rezone anyone. It just creates the door. Each condo complex still has to individually apply and go through a full rezoning process — public hearings, planning commission review, the works — to actually walk through that door and keep operating as a short-term rental.

So Bill 88 gave some hope to owners on the Minatoya List, but it's far from a guaranteed save.

Where Things Stand Right Now

This is the part that's still actively moving:

• Back in February 2026, the Planning Commission actually voted against a broader hotel-rezoning framework, which means any rezoning push now needs a tougher two-thirds supermajority vote from the Council.
• In July, the Council started working through the first real rezoning attempts — dozens of specific Kīhei and West Maui properties are being considered for that H-3/H-4 hotel zoning.
• Most recently, the Council's Housing and Land Use Committee has been hashing out which properties even qualify to be considered, and they landed on a criteria tied to sea-level-rise exposure — basically, properties that are significantly threatened by erosion and flooding are the ones being prioritized for the hotel-zoning pathway. That vote passed narrowly, 5-4.
• Up to 16 properties are currently in the mix under this specific process, and the committee is meeting again today (September 9) to keep working through it.

Meanwhile, there are also a few lawsuits challenging Bill 9 itself, but as of now, no court has stepped in to pause or block the law. The 2029 and 2031 deadlines are still officially the law of the land.

What This Means for You

If you own, or are thinking about buying, a Minatoya List condo:

• Check the zoning before anything else. Whether a specific property is apartment-zoned (and therefore affected) is the single most important due-diligence question right now.
• "On the list" doesn't mean "safe" or "doomed" yet. Even properties being considered for the new hotel zoning still have to clear a full public rezoning process — nothing is automatic in either direction.
• The clock isn't at zero. West Maui's deadline is 2029, South Maui and the rest of the county is 2031. There's still real time here, and rezoning attempts could change the picture for some properties before then.
• This affects value and strategy differently property by property. A condo with a real shot at hotel rezoning is a very different investment than one with no path forward, even if they're both technically on the Minatoya List today.

Bottom line: Bill 9 is a big deal, but it's not the end of the story — it's still being written, one council vote at a time. If you've got a specific property in mind, or you're wondering how this affects a purchase or sale you're considering, reach out and I'm happy to walk through it with you.