"We're gearing up to initiate enforcement on our own. We're not going to wait for a complaint," Hunt said during a County Council Planning Committee meeting.

"We enforce the laws that exist today. If you don't have a permit, you don't operate."

Hunt's stance is a substantial change from previous administrations that instructed zoning inspectors not to independently investigate illegal short-term rentals, and allowed operations to stay open once they applied for proper permits. Outside hotel districts, county land-use statutes currently allow only bed-and-breakfast operations as vacation rentals 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 vacation rentals to open in other zoning districts with county conditional permits and state land use special permits. In addition, many transient vacation rentals reputedly have been operating without a permit.

A 2005 county-sponsored study estimated there are as many as 800 illegal transient vacation rentals in Maui County.

About a dozen individuals testified Tuesday in support of a crackdown on illegal vacation rental operators, including representatives of the Maui Realtors Association, the Maui Hotel & Lodging Association and the Maui Vacation Rental Association.

Hunt, an appointee of Mayor Charmaine Tavares who took office in January, said the decision to not enforce, granting "amnesty" to illegal vacation rental operators during the last six years or so, has "muddied" an already complex situation.

His office stopped granting amnesty to vacation rental operators seeking permits as of Feb. 13. That means, anyone who submits an application for a transient vacation rental would have to stop operating until the permits are approved – a process that takes an estimated eight months to one year to complete.

With funding in the county budget that went into effect on Sunday for two additional enforcement officers in his department, Hunt will have as many as five inspectors working full time to carry out the administration's new enforcement policy on vacation rentals. A sixth inspector works part-time on zoning enforcement.

In the interest of fairness and in light of the low number of inspectors, Hunt and his staff have established a priority list on its crackdowns. 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 enforcement will be for those who did receive amnesty – they will have until Jan. 1 to cease their operations or be subject to enforcement.

Hunt said he hopes operators will turn their vacation rentals into long-term rentals. One testifier, however, indicated there was no evidence that illegal vacation rentals would turn into affordable housing units for Maui residents. In fact, Henry Vandervelde said he believed vacation units would turn into high-priced rentals for the rich and "new arrivals."

Hunt said he has no personal agenda against vacation rental operators, and in fact, has befriended a few he's met over the last few months while studying the issue.

"They're decent people. . . . But we are charged with enforcing the laws on the books," he said.

David Dantes of the Maui Vacation Rental Association said the 400 association members support enforcement of the county's zoning laws.

However, Dantes said the group believes inspectors should give enforcement priority to complaints about vacation rentals that put health and safety at jeopardy in their communities.

He said any plans to have inspectors search for illegal operators through their advertisements on the Internet would not be a optimal use of resources.

Dantes said most of his group's members live on their property and are full-time Maui residents who work full time to operate their vacation rentals. If deprived of their livelihood, "they don't know how they'll make ends meet."

Council Planning Committee Chairwoman Gladys Baisa said she's torn between supporting vacation rental operators who have good intentions and rely on the business for their livelihood and cracking down on those who simply set up the business to pay for their property while they live away from Maui.

She said she supports Hunt's approach to enforcement.

"I think it's OK. I think they're trying to be fair," she said.

Hunt said he could not say exactly when and where enforcement actions will be taken, but he did say it would be soon and he acknowledged that inspectors would likely focus on the areas where the department sees a majority of illegal transient vacation rentals, such as in Haiku.

In taking an enforcement action, state law requires county inspectors to give adequate warning to zoning violators prior to issuing a notice of violation. Hunt said his staff would allow a "brief timeline" to allow a violation to be corrected.

"This time line will be much shorter than the timeline that is used for those who have voluntarily submitted their applications," he said.

Administrative rules also allow for the consideration of how cooperative a violator has been in settling fines that have been imposed. Hunt said his office would consider reducing the amount of fines for violators who have been cooperative.

At the same time, Hunt said his office is working on a proposed vacation rental bill aimed at limiting the number of vacation rental units allowed in a neighborhood while permitting stand-alone vacation rental units outside hotel zones.

He said he hoped to submit a draft bill to the County Council by this fall.

While working with the county on a new law, Dantes said his organization would be willing to assist the county with identifying transient vacation rental operators who may not have proper zoning, but are complying with tax laws.

In addition, testifiers John Blumer-Buell of Hana and DeGray Vanderbilt of Molokai both expressed concern that the proliferation of vacation rental operators in their communities have substantially cut the number of affordable home rentals for residents.

"We're having a terrible impact from uncontrolled tourism," Blumer-Buell said.

Vanderbilt said communities in areas such as Wailua and Pukoo on Molokai have been completely overrun by vacation rentals.

"There's no local families left. Prices are just going through the roof," Vanderbilt said.