WAILUKU, Maui — To surface appearances, Tuesday's meeting of the Maui County Council Planning Committee was about refining the bed-and-breakfast ordinance. To those advocating changes in the rules governing transient vacation rentals, it was more like the tolling on the final days of their best hope.

"We are disappointed that the council didn't see fit to expand the B&B ordinance to provide a large-scale solution to the TVR issue," said Thomas Croly, a board member of the Maui Vacation Rental Association, after the meeting adjourned.

Planning Chairwoman Gladys Baisa said she hopes to complete reviewing the three transient accommodations bills at an all-day session July 1.

The committee did not take votes Tuesday but sought to establish what Baisa called "comfort levels" about how to deal with the hot-button transient-rental issues: use of ohanas, corporate ownership, nonproprietor management.

It came down against all three.

The goal of the committee was clear enough: It did not want corporate, off-island and multiple ownership of B&B businesses.

The intent of the proposed ordinances, planner Joe Alueta reminded the committee, was to allow local residents to get a piece of the tourism business without taking a job in a big hotel while preventing minihotels from colonizing residential neighborhoods.

Another intention of the transient-rental bills is to streamline and clarify the permitting process, with five bills originally offered by Planning Director Jeff Hunt downsized into three.

The B&B bill is perhaps the easiest to deal with, since it updates an existing ordinance, County Code Chapter 19.64. The current ordinance has been criticized by operators and would-be operators as unworkable — few permits have been issued — but the broad outlines were threshed out more than 10 years ago.

The other bills would open new permitting procedures that replace the cumbersome conditional use permit process to allow commercial uses in noncommercial zones.

When the original B&B bill was passed, it denied use of ohana units — detached structures separate from a main house on a single property — as short-term vacation rentals. At the time, it was estimated that about half of unpermitted B&Bs were making use of ohanas.

The MVRA was hoping to "broaden" the B&B ordinance by allowing ohanas and hired managers.

As it developed Tuesday, the council committee was more interested in narrowing the scope for vacation rental permits.

There was a lot of discussion about ownership and management. The bill would limit permit holders to "natural persons," excluding corporations and other legally defined "persons."

Council Chairman Riki Hokama raised a scenario of a property owner issuing leases to individual managers to operate vacation rentals.

"It was never the intention, if I own 10 properties, and lease out nine" to people who would then obtain B&B permits, he said. He said he wanted tighter language because he anticipated that loopholes would be exploited.

"There are ways to circumvent even our best intentions," he said.

Council Member Jo Anne Johnson agreed in principle but worried about unusual circumstances. Some she cited were: An owner dies or becomes ill and has to travel off-island for treatment; a family trust owns the real estate; Mainlanders buy a house on Maui intending someday to retire to it but want to have a manager operate it as a B&B in the meantime.

In general, she said, her desire was to make sure that whoever is responsible for the operation is a "stakeholder" and not a faceless corporation, even if the "stake" is just being a friend B&B-sitting for a sick owner.

Baisa proposed language to allow a natural person to hold just one permit.

Also, permits would not be salable, although if a holder died, an heir might manage under a permit until getting one in his name.

Alueta said the intention is to prevent B&B permits from becoming "assets." An owner could sell the house but not the permit along with it. The new owner could apply for a new permit but would not be guaranteed of getting one just because the house had been a B&B before.

Hunt said for the same reason, permits would be issued only for existing houses. The intent would be to dissuade entrepreneurs from overbuilding in expectation of making money off a B&B. If they know they might have to use the house as an ordinary dwelling, they may build more modestly. Big houses could change the character of a neighborhood.

Along the same lines, the proposed ordinance adds a new restriction: A B&B cannot "change the character" of a rural, agricultural or residential neighborhood.

While the committee tightens the language, the bills expand the process to allow TVRs in rural and ag zones. The current B&B ordinance applies only in urban zones.

Still, finding appropriate language was a potential obstacle.

"How do we determine if it changes the rural or agricultural character of a neighborhood?" Council Member Mike Molina asked.

Alueta admitted that deciding what changes a neighborhood's character would be subjective, but he gave an example of how the planning department would handle it:

The ordinance allows B&Bs up to six guest rooms. But if an owner with a small lot came in for a permit and the necessary parking would "require him to pave his whole front yard," the department would oppose the permit. It might still support an application for a smaller operation.

The Molokai Planning Commission asked for special, more restrictive conditions for that island, including a limit of three guest rooms.

Molokai also insisted on owner-operators, no lessees. The committee was open to allowing lessees to obtain permits on Maui and Lanai.

Baisa said the committee eventually will discuss the "idea of caps" — limits on the number of TVRs/B&Bs in a single neighborhood.

The members were clearly intent on keeping the distinction between B&Bs and TVRs.

In a B&B, the operator shares a house with the guest rooms. Although the operator may not always be an owner, the operator must be an occupant of the house.

In a TVR, the owner may be off-property and, at least in the hopes of some operators, the manager need not live on the property or even nearby.

The problem with the bills from the planning director, said Croly, is that TVRs are limited to the business districts or resort districts — Kapalua, Kaanapali, Wailea and Makena. No TVRs would be permitted in residential, rural or agricultural zones — and conditional permits would be specifically barred.

The bill has not yet been discussed by the committee. But as written, it would leave TVRs in residential, ag or rural zones out in the cold, and that could be hundreds of them.

While the third bill would allow vacation rentals with up to 20 rooms in business districts, "that isn't our issue," said Croly.