Almost nobody had anything bad to say about TVRs. Nobody in the audience of nearly 200 did. And four of the five panelists didn't.

Only county Planning Director Jeff Hunt had a discouraging word, and even he was trying to be conciliatory. When he took the job early this year, his department was criticized for not enforcing the zoning law, he said. Then when it did start enforcing it, he was criticized for that.

"We were damned when we didn't, and we were damned when we did."

All but a few of the island's estimated 1,100 short-term vacation rental businesses are facing extinction Jan. 1, The Maui News reported. Hunt was asked to explain why the county could suspend enforcement of the zoning law for years, then turn around and enforce it rigorously.

Hunt pointed to the number – 1,100. When enforcement was suspended pending passage of a bill that would have regularized TVRs, he said, there were an estimated 500 operating without permits.

During the six-year hiatus, TVRs grew at the rate of 14 percent per year "with no regulation at all."

"As the number of rentals increased, public support for them shifted," Hunt said.

With that shift, the new council filed a bill that had been under review for years. It would have made it possible for many (but not all) existing TVRs to get legal.

By scrapping the bill, most of the 1,100 operating businesses were left either with no way to get legal or no way to get legal by the end of this year.

"I think for a short period nonenforcement was reasonable," Hunt said.

But after six years, the administration no longer treats it that way.

That brought out the crowd, because many fear they will lose their incomes or even their properties with a deadline of Jan. 1.

The Maui Vacation Rental Association is preparing a lawsuit to block the county from proceeding with enforcement, but it has not gone to court yet.

Later in the meeting, expanding on his early remarks, Hunt said, "The argument to stay the course assumes a bill will be adopted. That is how we got into this situation six years ago."

The situation is giving Maui's visitor industry a global black eye, said panel member Vanessa Ghantous, executive vice president for operations at McCoy Customer Travel.

People who made plans to stay in TVRs as much as a year ago are being told their reservations cannot be honored. Hotels are either full or too expensive, said Ghantous, and Internet commentary is full of complaints about Maui.

"If people have a good time, they tell one person. If they have a bad time, they tell 10. Word is definitely spreading."

The meeting began with a short history of enforcement from former Mayor Alan Arakawa. During his four-year term, enforcement was stayed, so long as businesses had applied for permits. However, some operators say they were discouraged from applying.

The origin of the stay went back to the administration of the previous mayor, James "Kimo" Apana, and Arakawa said he accepted it while he was on the council.

Then the panelists each made a short presentation.

David Dantes, president of MVRA, said the county had strung operators along and then suddenly hung them out to dry, with a very short time to react.

Since notices of violation have been issued, at least 20 TVRs shut down in July, he said, and he assumes there were at least as many in August.

He said the operators have learned that the zoning enforcement division is going to change its rule so that merely finding an advertisement for a TVR would be evidence that it is operating without a permit.

Hunt later said that this change is in the works, but only for appeals to the Board of Variances and Appeals. It could not, as the operators fear, be used to convict anyone of a violation, because the board doesn't have that power.

"This is a crisis," Dantes said. "We are on the brink of financial disaster."

Thursday, he supplemented that statement with an exchange of e-mails with the mayor's office.

"In order for the public to appreciate why MVRA has no choice but to seek a court order, it must be understood that the county is unwilling to negotiate," he said.

He said Hunt referred MVRA to Mayor Charmaine Tavares, who referred them to Council Member Gladys Baisa, who chairs the Planning Committee, who responded that the council couldn't do anything until it had a draft bill to consider.

Bills to establish standards on permitting bed-and-breakfast operations and transient vacation rentals have been drafted and will go to the Maui and Molokai planning commissions for initial review in October. (See related story.)

That didn't help, Dantes said, because there is no way the bills can be acted on before his members will have to shut down.

Working with the council will not help meet the deadline set by Hunt, Dantes said.

"The solution is for the county of Maui to keep its word," he said.

Hunt said the solution is "to persuade the County Council to pass an ordinance."

Warren Watanabe, president of the Maui County Farm Bureau, spoke about the effect of TVRs in ag districts. He said farmers' worries are not just about TVRs but about anything that encroaches on farmland, because once ag land goes to some other use, "it's never going to come back."

He said the bureau supports making the application process "more user-friendly," but the answer to whether or not to put vacation businesses on ag land is to "reclassify," that is, change the ag land to urban. "Transient vacation rental has its place."

He said the current statewide review to establish which ag lands are "important" should be the guide as to where ag land can appropriately be changed to urban.

Dave DeLeon, who works for the Realtors Association of Maui, said the visitor market has changed over the decades, in favor of small rentals, and "the county needs to change or lose that market."

"The county has made a complete mess of a worthy component of the visitor industry," he said.

One of the objections to TVRs is a claim that they take long-term rentals away from residents, although MVRA disputes this.

Later, DeLeon was asked what the market would do with houses now being used for TVRs if they are thrown on the market, especially by owners who cannot pay their mortgages.

DeLeon, a licensed real estate agent, said he doesn't know.

"We'll see if the market collapses," he said.

In answer to a question about fractional ownership of large homes, DeLeon said it's already happening. This is somewhat similar to time share: a group of people club together to buy a house, with each getting use of it for a month or two each year.

DeLeon said he didn't believe this kind of ownership could be regulated, and at least the more expensive TVRs would end up in that kind of use, rather than going into the local long-term rental pool.

"The market is driven by lots of people with lots of money who want to come here," he said.

Hunt's draft bill would drive TVRs out of the ag and rural zones. That fits "smart growth" policies, he said, because "additional growth in rural dwelling patterns is a costly way to provide services." Smart growth brings people together in centers where people can get around by walking or biking, he said.

The General Plan revision, now under review, will include "urban growth boundaries, which will make it difficult for any development, not just TVRs, in nonurban districts," he said.

"The market seems to want small, rural home sites," Hunt said, but "the Planning Department will not support a lot of this zoning."

The forum was sponsored by The Maui News and hosted by the Maui Chamber of Commerce.