Since it was built in the 1970s, the 225-unit Maui Sunset condominium complex in Kīhei has essentially operated “like a typical hotel or resort” in an apartment-zoned district.

The property, which includes mostly timeshares and short-term rentals with a smaller portion of owner-occupied and long-term rental units, employs 10 full-time workers, including overnight security guards, maintenance and cleaning staff, and a front office reception staffed seven days a week. There’s a pool and one parking spot per unit, and rules like no pets.

“This complex was established in the ‘70s to be a timeshare and short-term rental facility, and we feel it should continue to do that,” said David Doyle, who sits on the board of directors.

Properties like Maui Sunset are hoping that years of operating as visitor lodging will earn them hotel zoning status and help them avoid the upcoming ban on more than 6,000 short-term rentals in apartment districts.

The Maui County Council is proposing that 3,402 of these units across 48 properties, including timeshares, leasehold properties and apartment complexes that function like hotels, be rezoned as hotel districts. 

But on Tuesday, the Maui Planning Commission largely disagreed, recommending denial for most of the units and approval for a handful of properties that are entirely timeshares or have variances in place that allow vacation rental use. A big part of the debate boils down to what should count as a hotel and what should be converted to housing. 

“Nearly every condo on Maui can point to a pool, say, ‘Hey look, there’s a guy that comes to cut the lawn once a week with his own equipment,’” said Lauryn Rego of Our Hawai‘i. “Anyone can post a picture behind a desk, ‘see we’re working,’ or slap a resort on a sign. Those things cannot become the threshold for permanent hotel zoning.”

The heatedly debated Bill 9, which was passed by the Maui County Council and signed by Mayor Richard Bissen last year, seeks to phase out vacation rentals in apartment-zoned districts in hopes of opening up more housing for locals after the 2023 Lahaina wildfire destroyed hundreds of rental units.

The ban takes effect Dec. 31, 2028, for properties in West Maui, where the fire decimated the housing market. For the rest of the county, the date is Dec. 31, 2030.

Even before the short-term rental ban passed, the council was already working on potential exemptions aimed at cushioning the financial blow from lost taxes and allowing existing uses to continue. 

In June the council passed Bill 88, which created new hotel zoning categories for properties that have legally operated vacation rentals in apartment districts. In July, it voted to send two bills to the Maui Planning Commission for input on whether certain properties should have their zoning and community plan designations changed. 

For Maui community members who fought to get Bill 9 passed, the possibility of thousands of vacation rentals avoiding the ban feels like a reversal of last year’s intense debate and decision-making.

Shay Chan Hodges, a longtime Maui resident, said that Bill 9’s passage was the result of “sustained community effort and a clear public mandate to reclaim much-needed housing for the people who live here.”

“If approved, these rezonings could preserve the same short-term rental use that our community worked so hard to phase out,” Chan Hodges said. “To someone who reasonably believed this question had been decided nearly a year ago, it feels like a cynical bait and switch.”

But Wendy King, who lives in Kīhei full time and owns one of the affected units, said the proposal to exempt thousands of units “is a representation of a thorough compromise.” King said she has lived in the unit she owns and has also used it as a short-term rental to help pay her bills. 

“I think it’s important to recognize that a tremendous effort has occurred to come up with these resolutions, and it may not be what one side or the other wants entirely, but rather a compromise that represents a lot of collaboration,” King said. 

But testifiers on both sides agreed on one thing — the properties all come with different histories and uses that need to be considered carefully when deciding who should be exempt. 

Greg Pfost, administrative planning officer for the Maui County Planning Department, explained that the properties fall into several categories: 

• Properties with existing variances that allow transient vacation rental use. This only applies to the 262-unit Hale Kā‘anapali in West Maui and the 30-unit Kū‘au Plaza in Pāʻia.
• Properties that are fully timeshare units. This only applies to the 58-unit Maui Schooner in Kīhei and the 28-unit Hono Koa in West Maui. 
• Properties with a single owner that in most cases have only one unit. Some of the exceptions include the Lahaina Beach Club, which includes 12 units and acts like a hotel, according to Pfost.
• Properties with a mix of timeshare and transient vacation rentals, such as the 225-unit Maui Sunset, the 169-unit Kauhale Makai and the 140-unit Maui Hill, all in Kīhei.
• Properties with all or some leasehold units, such as the 105-unit Kā‘anapali Royal, the 118-unit Kuleana Resort in West Maui and the 80-unit Kana‘i A Nalu in Māʻalaea.
• Properties operating like hotels, such as the 440-unit Kama‘ole Sands in Kīhei, and the 364-unit Resort at Papakea and the 205-unit Maui Eldorado, both in West Maui.

Only two categories — properties that either had variances or were fully timeshares — got the greenlight from commissioners. They also backed an exemption for the 19-unit Hana Kai Maui in Hana, which holds a condo hotel operator’s license and has no owner-occupied or long-term rental units.

But with other properties, the commission recommended denial, saying the leasehold units and properties with a mix of timeshares and transient vacation rentals held potential for housing. They also denied single-ownership properties because they didn’t have enough information on specifications like kitchens and laundry as well as properties operating like hotels because they wanted more objective standards about what counts as a hotel. 

“My goal is trying to figure out what we can use for housing,” Vice Chair Andrea Kealoha said. “And so I’m prioritizing that.”

The council’s Housing and Land Use Committee has said that properties could be considered “hotel-like operations” if they included amenities such as 24-hour lobbies and front desks; staffing by multiple employees, especially unionized ones; and laundry and housekeeping services for the entire property.

Representatives of many properties made the case that they were essentially hotels. The Palms at Wailea pointed to its front desk run by Outrigger Resort, the clubhouse above the pool and its staff of 18. The Resort at Papakea listed its 24-hour front desk, property-wide laundry and housekeeping services and staff of 35. Maui Hill noted its contract with Aqua Aston as its resort management agent as well as a staff of 40.

Cara Birkholz, board president at The Palms at Wailea, said rezoning would simply allow the property to continue visitor services in a place “developed specifically to support tourism.” Birkholz, who has raised three sons on Maui, said she understands the need for more housing.

“I also believe that we can address that need while recognizing that properties specifically developed and historically operated as visitor accommodations, particularly those in designated resort communities, are different from residential properties that were later converted to vacation rentals,” she said. 

Some residents said they’d be fine with letting certain properties operate in appropriate locations.

“If it walks like a hotel, talks like a hotel, looks like a hotel, let’s make it a hotel,” said Carolyn Auweloa, co-founder of the Lahaina Community Land Trust. “But if it’s not a hotel, let’s cut the crap and let’s put it back into housing.”

Some of the units have already started to sell, though it’s too soon to tell how many will go to local families.

McKenna Woodward, public policy advocate with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said that according to Maui County Finance Department data as of July, 101 properties affected by Bill 9 have sold since the law took effect, with 25 purchased by local buyers. 

“OHA does not suggest that every unit will become local housing, but permanent hotel zoning would foreclose that opportunity before the county has had time to fully measure it,” Woodward said. 

Caitlin Miller, executive director of the Maui Vacation Rental Association, pointed to real estate data showing that 162 properties affected by Bill 9 sold between Dec. 1, 2025 and Aug. 14, 2026. Matching those sales up against real property tax records, she found that 12 of those sales, or 7.4%, are currently confirmed as owner-occupied. Another nine buyers appear to be likely Maui residents and owner-occupants, though property tax records haven’t been updated, Miller said.

“I want to be careful about what that tells us,” Miller said. “It is still early. It does not tell us how every remaining property is being used, and we should continue to track the data as more sales occur.”

Condo prices have been falling steadily on Maui since the passage of Bill 9, but some owners still think the units won’t be affordable to everyday families. Heidi Winslow, who owns a unit at the Hale Mahina Beach Resort in Honokōwai where all 52 units are leasehold, said leasehold financing isn’t like a regular mortgage and owners can end up paying more for a unit they won’t own forever. 

“Short-term rental is the only thing that makes ownership here mathematically possible,” Winslow said. “It isn’t a loophole. It’s the load-bearing wall of this entire ownership structure, and it has been since 1981. Banning short-term rentals in leasehold buildings like ours doesn’t produce affordable housing. It produces foreclosures and vacant units. It eliminates jobs and tax revenue.”

But Jordan Ruidas of Lahaina Strong said locals just need to be given a chance at housing. She asked the commission to be cautious in deciding where to switch to hotel zoning, warning the community could “lose that potential housing forever” once a property is upzoned.

“I want real neighbors,” said Ruidas, who lives near some of the properties in question. “I want families who live in these buildings and I want kids riding their bikes down the street. I want people checking in on one another after all these storms we’ve been having and I want neighbors who know one another. I do not want residential communities to become revolving doors of visitors coming and going.”

The Maui Planning Commission has until Nov. 24 to send the bills back to the Maui County Council, which will make the final decision.