WAILUKU - Eight Paia stores have closed in the past two months, and north shore business owners place much of the blame for the dire situation on Mayor Charmaine Tavares' decision to shut down nonpermitted short-term rentals, The Maui News reported today

.

Overall, revenue is down 45 percent, Susun White of the Paia Merchants Association told the Maui County Council's Land Use Committee. A quarter of that decline is blamed on the loss of short-term rentals, she said.

"It could take years for us to recover," White said.

For months now, the committee has been wending its way through a set of bills intended to rewrite ordinances governing short-term rentals, defined as transient vacation rentals and as bed-and-breakfasts. One of the more controversial proposals, including Thursday, involves whether to allow bed-and-breakfasts on land zoned for agriculture.

Islandwide, visitor numbers and tourist expenditures are down almost 18 percent from a year ago, according to the state tourism liaison's office. The state says rising airline ticket prices and the ongoing mortgage and financial banking collapses as well as unnecessary government regulation of cruise ships are responsible for the poor tourism figures.

But Committee Chairwoman Gladys Baisa said she's received numerous e-mails from north shore business people who said their downturn predates the shutdowns by ATA and Aloha Airlines or the banking crisis.

Paia business owner Patti Pottorff wrote the committee to say that her customers, many of whom are windsurfers, have told her that without accommodations close to the beach, they are instead opting for vacations in Mexico and the Bahamas.

The committee Thursday took public testimony for about 1 hours and discussed the bills itself for less than an hour.

The administration proposed the ordinances to streamline the short-term rental application process and further regulate where they are allowed. In the meantime, Tavares ordered her administration to crack down on illegal vacation rentals.

Tavares has maintained that the dramatic increase in nonpermitted TVRs in recent years has contributed to a long-term rental housing shortage and has damaged the character of some residential communities.

Jocelyn Perreira, executive director of the Wailuku Main Street Association, said she prefers that the county keep its conditional-use permitting process for vacation rentals. The administration and operators want to get rid of it, calling it cumbersome and slow. However, Perreira said that short-term rentals still need greater oversight.

"We're all in for the fight of our lives," Perreira said. "Businesses should focus on local population as the meat and potatoes, and the visitors are the gravy."

Dave DeLeon of the Realtors Association of Maui called on the committee to bring short-term rentals back on line in time to save local businesses.

"We're making progress, and every time we meet we move a little bit ahead," Baisa said. "We're inching along."

But the committee took no actions Thursday.

Council Member Jo Anne Johnson did introduce an amendment that says that in order for a bed-and-breakfast to be allowed in an agricultural district, the applicant must first prove that its state farm plan has been fully implemented, and that it complies with Hawaii law regarding allowable uses in on agricultural zoned property.

Johnson said she has concern about whether state law even allows TVRs and bed-and-breakfasts to be operated within agricultural districts.

"I'm looking at trying to be a little more restrictive," Johnson said. "We are literally trying to save the family farm."

Her amendment also prohibits bed-and-breakfasts where restricted by private community association bylaws and in an agricultural district with a condominium property regime.

"Most of the people that have filed under CPRs are very sophisticated," Johnson said. "Two owners can go on one lot and create a setting where in some cases they are not even doing any farming."

Johnson said she is trying to prevent the county from opening itself to litigation by those who oppose short-term rentals on agricultural land.

"I just don't want to see more pressure on the development of our farmlands when we have an opportunity to create sustainable farms," Johnson said.

Jim Smith testified that putting bed-and-breakfasts on ag land discourages the farm lifestyle that needs to be preserved.

"What we're talking about is an economic engine versus our moral values," Smith said. "The bill is a failure."

* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.