"That's a bad situation," county Planning Director Jeffrey Hunt responded Tuesday. "We certainly didn't want to cause anyone any hardship."

It has caused distress to Stafford, who for the last seven years as a self-employed travel agent in Haiku has been referring clients to unpermitted vacation rentals, mostly on Maui's north shore.

According to Stafford, the owners of the vacation rentals informed her last month of their intentions to voluntarily shut down. A number of them mentioned they had been contacted by a county representative and given a deadline to cease and desist or face fines and an eventual forced shutdown.

Hunt announced on July 3 during a County Council Planning Committee meeting that his department would pursue complaints against illegal vacation rental operators. On Tuesday, he said he did not view his announcement as a "crackdown" but simply enforcement of the current county statutes.

Outside hotel districts, the only vacation rentals permitted under the County Codes are bed-and-breakfast operations within a residential district. Bed-and-breakfast permits require the owner to live in the home in which the rental units are provided.

The county, however, has allowed other types of transient vacation rentals to open if the operators apply for county conditional permits in urban districts and state land use special permits in rural or agricultural districts.

Many transient vacation rentals reputedly have been operating without any of the permits.

A 2005 county-sponsored study estimated there are as many as 800 illegal transient vacation rentals in Maui County as opposed to approximately 224 businesses that have proper permits to operate.

When Hunt announced the intention to enforce county laws, it was a reversal of the position taken by previous administrations that instructed zoning inspectors not to independently investigate illegal short-term rentals, and allowed operators to stay open once they applied for proper permits.

Mayor Charmaine Tavares, who appointed Hunt when she took office in January, supports the Planning Department's new policy on enforcement.

"If we want people to follow the law, then we should be enforcing it against those who don't," Tavares said Tuesday.

As a former County Council Planning Committee chairwoman, Tavares said she's studied the issue extensively and found that many people, including the county's three planning commissions, did not want the county ordinance changed on vacation rentals. In fact, commissioners have called for actions against those operating in violation of the law.

After a year of discussion on a proposal to broaden county laws on vacation rentals, the Council Planning Committee, chaired by Council Member Gladys Baisa, voted in February to file the bill that would have set standards and policies for vacation rentals and bed-and-breakfasts in agricultural and residential districts.

Committee members said there wasn't enough community support for a new ordinance. When the bill was filed, Baisa pledged to work toward drafting a new proposal in the future.

Hunt himself promised a new proposed ordinance sometime this fall.

Tavares pointed out that permit processes are in place for transient vacation rental operators. Many of them have complied with the process, but others have not.

"I don't have too much sympathy for these folks," Tavares said, referring to the operators without permits.

The mayor said her only regret about her department's enforcement of the law is that previous administrations — under Mayors James "Kimo" Apana and Alan Arakawa — led people to believe it was OK to operate illegally.

Hunt's announcement on July 3 apparently prompted many of Stafford's vacation rental operators to shut down voluntarily. Hunt said he was glad to hear about voluntary shutdowns.

"That's what they should do. It's the law of our community and most people understand this," he said.

In some cases, Stafford said her vacation rental operators indicated they received notice from the county that a complaint had been filed against them. Stafford said she was told the complaints had to do with lack of a permit.

Critics of unpermitted vacation rentals have also complained about the effects of transient rentals on their neighborhoods, claiming there is more noise and that allowing short-term rentals led to a lack of affordable rentals in their communities.

Hunt said his agency has made approximately 20 complaint-driven contacts over the last month against unpermitted vacation rental operators. He said the department has yet to actively seek noncompliant vacation rental operators, but it does plan to do so.

When the new enforcement policy is implemented, Hunt said his staff will take a three-tier approach. First, inspectors will go after vacation rental operators who have "scoffed at the law" and have never filed any permit applications to become legal.

The next priority for enforcement will be operators who never received amnesty from the county.

The third priority for the enforcement will be for those who did receive amnesty – they will have until Jan. 1 to cease their operations or be subject to enforcement.

Stafford said she was aware that the vacation rentals to which she referred clients did not have permits, but she referred their services based on promises by the previous county administrations that a "more reasonable" permitting process would be developed.

"This is what we've asked for for the last six years," she said. "It's ridiculous, this permitting process we have."

Hunt described the current permitting process as "arduous" but pointed out that many operators have nonetheless completed its requirements.

Since his July 3 announcement, Hunt said a number of transient vacation rental operators have applied for permits.

He said his department has received positive comments on the enforcement policy. Vacation rental operators who have completed the permitting process are thanking county officials for enforcing the law, he said.

Stafford said she has referred clients to at least seven permitted vacation rentals, but she doesn't do more because they don't have the "eco-friendly" atmosphere that her clients are seeking in a vacation on Maui.

"I really wanted to concentrate on eco-friendly tourism," Stafford said.

Vacation rentals in agricultural districts like Haiku can be a "win-win" situation for Maui because it allows visitors to have a "heightened experience" of the island while providing income to local residents, she said.

The slowdown in business has led Stafford to lay off two staffers.

"I can't afford to pay them," she said.

In addition, the new policy has left Stafford at a loss about what to tell clients about reservations and whether the vacation rentals booked months in advance will be in business by the time they get to Maui.

"We can't tell them every thing's good because we don't know," she said.

Tavares recommended Stafford and other travel agents in her predicament refer clients to permitted vacation rentals, which are listed on the Maui Visitors Bureau Web site.

Stafford said she has explained the situation to clients and told them that their only other options would be to stay in a permitted condominium or a hotel when they visit Maui. One man refused the alternatives.

"He said it was 'totally unacceptable.'"

She said her clients want an "authentic" experience when they visit Maui. "Tourism is moving away from the resort area that's not real. People want something that's real."

David Dantes of the Maui Vacation Rental Association said his group has heard from a number of vacation rental operators contacted by county inspectors over the last two months.

He said the county's enforcement practices have been inconsistent, with different vacation rental operators being given different deadlines to comply with permitting rules. Some have been told they would be fined $1,000 for non-compliance and others were told they faced as much as $10,000 in penalties, Dantes said.

He said he believes the new enforcement policy is an "overreaction."