Section 13-231-59 - Limitations on commercial use permits for vessels moored elsewhere(a) The department recognizes that it may be necessary or desirable to operate a commercial vessel from more than one small boat harbor, and that lack of mooring facilities in certain areas has required numerous vessels to establish permanent moorings offshore, outside of the small boat harbors of intended use. Therefore, notwithstanding section 13-231-57, the department may issue a limited number of commercial use permits to owners of vessels moored elsewhere for use of small boat harbor facilities. The number and categories of those commercial use permits shall be based on the physical capacity of the small boat harbor facilities to accommodate the additional volume of activity expected to be generated by the additional permits, and shall be determined by the department on a case-by-case basis for each small boat harbor, subject to the limitations listed in subsection (b).(b) No commercial vessel moored elsewhere shall use any small boat harbor facilities for commercial purposes unless the owner of the commercial vessel moored elsewhere has been issued a commercial use permit for that vessel, or the vessel is exempt from commercial use permit requirements under the provisions of subsection 13-231-57(c) or as otherwise permitted by the department. "Commercial purposes" as used in this subsection includes the staging, loading and discharge of passengers or supplies at a state boating facility for further transport to a vessel's offshore location by means of a water taxi or any other vessel, or provisioning a vessel before or after a voyage involving the carriage of passengers for hire.(c) The number of commercial use permits for vessels moored elsewhere which may be issued for each small boat harbor shall be as follows: (1) Maalaea small boat harbor: twenty;(2) Lahaina small boat harbor: sixteen;(3) Manele small boat harbor: six; and(4) All other small boat harbors except for Heeia Kea small boat harbor, which is subject to section 13-256-73.1: no limit.(d) Each commercial use permit issued for a vessel moored elsewhere shall be assigned one of the following categories, depending on the passenger-carrying capacity of the vessel named in the permit: | (1) | Category I | one to twenty-four passengers |
| (2) | Category II | twenty-five to forty-nine passengers |
| (3) | Category III | fifty to seventy-four passengers |
| (4) | Category IV | seventy-five to ninety-nine passengers |
| (5) | Category V | one hundred to one hundred forty-nine passengers |
(e) No commercial use permit for vessels moored elsewhere shall be issued for any vessel with a passenger-carrying capacity in excess of one hundred forty-nine, and no existing commercial use permit issued for a vessel moored elsewhere shall be issued a permit whenever the owner seeks to increase the passenger-carrying capacity above the limit of the category to which the current permit was assigned.(f) The department reserves the right to impose further restrictions on the operation of commercial vessels moored elsewhere, on a case-by-case basis, as may be necessary to reduce congestion and achieve more efficient use of small boat harbor facilities. Restrictions may include designation of docking times for passenger loading and unloading or fueling, and parking restrictions for patron and delivery vehicles. Additional restrictions shall be implemented by addenda to existing commercial use permits issued by the department. Refusal of a permittee to accept or comply with additional restrictions implemented in this manner shall be cause for immediate termination of the commercial use permit.
(g) Use of any vessel in violation of this section may be cause for termination of all small boat harbor use permits issued to the owner by the department. [Eff 2/24/94; am and comp SEP 25 2014] (Auth: HRS §§ 200-2, 200-3, 200-4, 200-9, 200-10) (Imp: HRS §§ 200-2, 200-3, 200-4, 200-9, 200-10)