A two-year effort addressing the controversy over bed-and-breakfast operations on O'ahu has resulted in measures that could increase the number of such accommodations but impose new requirements.

Two amendments before the city Planning Commission call for lifting the ban on new bed-and-breakfast accommodations, limiting them to residential neighborhoods and requiring more information about them in advertisements.

Public hearings are expected before the amendments are sent to the City Council for further hearings and final consideration.

Opponents said they were "at a loss" to understand the city's action.

The bed-and-breakfast amendments are a "wholesale sell-out of the community," said Don Bremner, spokesman for Keep It Kailua!

"It promotes the marketing of our neighborhoods for monetary gain and tourism sprawl," Bremner said in a press release. "The only beneficiaries are the few people who would destroy our residential character and turn it into a resort."

He questioned whether new regulations would help control illegal operations.

But Tonic Bille, who has advocated for more bed-and-breakfast homes, said the law would have a positive impact on the industry and the community.

"They will be regulated," said Bille, president of the Bed and Breakfast/Transient Vacation Unit Association of Oahu.

Issues that have angered some residents will be addressed in the permitting process, including parking, number of guests and any other concerns neighbors have because the city can impose conditions, Bille said.

"I know the people who have all these complaints will see a big difference," she said.

VOCAL OPPONENTS

Controversy over bed-and-breakfasts, which operate out of a home and are run by a person living there, and transient vacation units, where the operator lives off-site, came to a head two years ago when opponents of the tourist lodgings became more vocal.

Complaints about parking problems, loud parties, late-night arrivals and more were heard at neighborhood board meetings, particularly in Kailua and on the North Shore, and at the City Council.

The council proposed two amendments to the ordinance governing such operations and directed the Department of Planning and Permitting to review them. The planning department has now sent the two amendments to the Planning Commission with some deviation from the council's proposal, said David Tanoue, planning department deputy director.

One amendment calls for the repeal of the present bed-and-breakfast law, allowing them in residential neighborhoods under a conditional use permit, and provides an avenue for neighbors to block the operation.

The second amendment requires transient vacation units, including bed-and-breakfast homes, to include the permit number and addresses for the units in any advertisement. It also establishes fines for noncompliance.

CONDITIONAL USE

The measures would strengthen the city's enforcement ability, Tanoue said.

"Both resolutions came from the City Council on a unanimous vote," he said. "For the department, we look at that as a clear intent of what the council wants to see move forward, so we're working within that framework. ... So we maintained the council's intent of opening up the bed and breakfast in certain situations but we folded it into our current system."

Conditional Use Permits would allow the department to place requirements on the permit that will mitigate negative impacts, he said.

The amendment would not allow bed-and-breakfast homes on agricultural land, because the state and the city are developing policies to protect agricultural lands, said Henry Eng, planning department director, in a memorandum to the Planning Commission.

Bille said the amendments didn't completely satisfy her and she plans to lobby the Planning Commission. She had wanted to use up to three bedrooms in a home instead of two, and she doesn't want to include an address in an advertisement.

Too many tourists arrive and have no place to stay, she said, and would be knocking on her door at all hours if the addresses were published. And three bedrooms are necessary to survive.

"The national standard for making it financially is five rooms," Bille said. "I would never ask for five rooms. Three rooms would be reasonable because if you have two rooms you would need another job."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.