Douglas S. Chin, Christina N. Ohira, Cori J. Terayama and Eric S. Robinson appeared before the Hawaii Supreme Court representing the State Land Use Commission in a case examining the use of agricultural lands or farm dwellings for short-term vacation rentals.
Due to the limited land area in the Hawaiian islands, the State of Hawaii designates and regulates certain lands designated for agricultural use only. In 2021, the State Land Use Commission (the “LUC”), the expert agency tasked with regulating agricultural lands, issued a ruling disallowing short-term vacation rentals (i.e. AirBnb, VRBO, etc.) from agricultural lands. Several affluent owners of parcels in the agricultural district challenged the LUC’s decision in court and a judge agreed with them. The LUC, through the current Hawaii Attorney General, turned to the Firm and its Firm Directors, Doug Chin and Christina Ohira, to advise the LUC and take the lead as outside counsel–based on the Firm’s unique combination of litigation and land use expertise—in appealing the judge’s wrong decision and to stop the dangerous proliferation of transient hotel and resort-style commercial enterprises on lands that ought to be exclusively used for farming and agricultural activities.
Three Buckets for Evaluation of Land Use: Watch Mr. Chin’s argument at 13:15.