Lahaina

Operating rules

Primary residence

No

Min stay (nights)

—

Max nights / year

—

Max occupancy

STRH permits: no more than six bedrooms used for STRH use on Maui (three on Moloka'i), and total guests at any one time no greater than two times the number of bedrooms (i.e., a hard ceiling of 12 guests on Maui). STRH use is permitted in no more than two single-family dwelling units per lot, and not in any accessory dwelling. No occupancy cap is set by Ordinance 5909 for apartment-district TVRs (those are being terminated outright rather than capped).

Zoning-restricted

Yes

Cap on licenses

West Maui community plan area (includes Lahaina): 50 STRH permits total, cut from 88 by Ordinance 5239 (Bill 69 (2021), Draft 1), effective 8/15/2021. Other areas for reference: Hāna 15 (was 30); Kīhei-Mākena 46 (was 100), no more than five in Maui Meadows; Makawao-Pukalani-Kula 15 (was 40); Pā'ia-Ha'ikū 48 (was 55), with no new permits inside the special management area; Wailuku-Kahului 6 (was 36); Moloka'i zero. TVRs operating under a ch. 19.40 conditional permit count against these caps. The Council must review a community plan area's restriction once approved STRHs exceed 90% of the cap. Separately, an applicant may hold no more than one STRH permit unless each additional home is County-assessed at $3,200,000 or higher at the time of each application.

Grandfathering: SUBSTANTIALLY REPEALED AND BEING AMORTIZED. The 'Minatoya list' grandfathering — codified at MCC 19.12.020(G) by Ordinance 4167 (2014), which itself codified Ordinance 1797 (1989)'s exceptions for structures lawfully existing/approved on 4/20/1989 — was REPEALED by Ordinance 5909 effective 12/15/2025. Under new MCC 19.12.070(B), TVR uses that were lawful before the ordinance's effective date under Ord. 1797 (1989) or MCC 19.12.020, 19.32.040, 19.37.010(B) or 19.500.110 'must be phased out and will no longer be permitted after an amortization period': for the West Maui community plan area (Lahaina) the use may continue until 12/31/2028 and must cease 1/1/2029. STILL EXEMPT under 19.12.070(C): validly existing time share units, uses permitted and operating within the terms of a variance, and uses otherwise permitted by law. Ordinance 5909 §11 also preserves rights accrued under a pre-existing binding lawful agreement with the County executed per the Maui County Charter. STRH permits in effect when Ordinance 5239 was enacted remain valid to their expiration date and may be renewed irrespective of the 19.65.030(R) caps.

Zoning: Zoning is THE controlling variable for Lahaina, and the answer differs per parcel. (1) BASELINE: MCC 19.37.010(A) prohibits TVRs in all zoning districts except B&B (ch. 19.64), STRH (ch. 19.65), conditional permit (ch. 19.40), TVRs permitted under chs. 19.14/19.15/19.18/19.22/19.32, and hotels permitted by applicable zoning. Ordinance 5909 struck '19.12' from that list of carve-outs — that deletion is precisely what ends apartment-district TVRs. (2) APARTMENT (A-1/A-2): Ordinance 5909 repealed MCC 19.12.020(G) (the Minatoya exception for buildings lawfully existing on 4/20/1989) and added 19.12.070 amortizing the use. In the West Maui community plan area — which contains Lahaina — the use may continue only until 12/31/2028 and must cease 1/1/2029. Ordinance 5909 also repealed MCC 19.12.025 (the voluntary declaration converting TVR property to long-term residential use) and amended MCC 19.500.110(A) so nonconforming-use protection no longer shields an amortized use. (3) HOTEL (H-1/H-M/H-2): unaffected; TVRs continue. Much of the Kāʻanapali resort strip is hotel-zoned and is NOT swept up by Bill 9. (4) PLANNED DEVELOPMENTS (19.32.040(I)): Ordinance 5909 deleted the A-1/A-2 planned-development pathway; the surviving path requires final approval plus at least one unit operating as a vacation rental on or before April 20, 1981, parcels with at least some residential district zoning, and a duplex/multifamily (or single-family + duplex/multifamily) composition. (5) RESIDENTIAL (R-1/R-2/R-3) and other districts: STR only via a ch. 19.65 STRH permit (West Maui cap 50) or a ch. 19.64 B&B permit. (6) AGRICULTURAL district parcels additionally require a State Land Use Commission Special Use Permit (SUP2). (7) Lahaina also contains Maui County Historic District No. 1 and No. 2 (MCC 19.06.010(S)), which layer additional review. Verify the specific TMK's zoning with the Maui County Planning Department before relying on any of the above — the County's own Minatoya list is expressly informational only and confers no right.

• Lahaina is an unincorporated CDP with NO city government and NO city ordinance. Every rule here is Maui County or State of Hawaii law. Do not expect a 'City of Lahaina' code to exist.
• Lahaina sits in the West Maui community plan area, which draws the EARLIER of the two Bill 9 deadlines — cease 1/1/2029, two years ahead of the rest of Maui County (1/1/2031). MCC 19.12.070(E): 'West Maui community plan area' means that area as defined by MCC 2.80B.070 on the ordinance's effective date. Confirm a specific parcel's community plan area before applying the 2029 date.
• The Council's stated justification is the August 2023 Lahaina wildfires: 'The August 2023 Maui Wildfires magnified that crisis when more than 5,400 households were destroyed, displacing 12,000 people.'
• Authority for amortization: HRS 46-4(a), as amended by Act 17, SLH 2024, which explicitly provides that transient accommodations may be phased out or amortized in any zoning district by county zoning regulations and are not a 'residential or agricultural' use.
• PENDING RELIEF — Bill 88 (2026) passed Council 7-2 on second and final reading June 19, 2026, creating H-3 and H-4 Hotel Districts in MCC ch. 19.14 for properties that lawfully operated TVRs before Ordinance 5909. It does NOT repeal Bill 9 and does NOT rezone anything automatically — each property must win a change in zoning through planning commission and Council approval with public hearings. The Maui Planning Commission had recommended denial (reported 8-1 against in February 2026). Individual Kīhei/West Maui rezoning resolutions were in Council committee as of 7/9/2026. Ordinance number and mayoral signature NOT confirmed in this pass — the Legistar copy retrieved still shows a blank 'ORDINANCE NO.' line. Monitor.
• LITIGATION — Ordinance 5909 faces takings challenges including a putative class action for ~7,000 Minatoya owners (Lynam v. County of Maui, No. 2CCV-25-0003780, 2nd Circuit, filed 12/22/2025). Secondary reporting indicates no injunction had issued as of spring 2026 and the deadlines remain in effect. NOT verified against a primary court record in this pass — treat as needs_review and monitor, since an injunction would materially change this record.
• The County's Minatoya/TVR list is expressly informational and confers no rights — the repealed 19.12.020(G)(5) said inclusion 'does not establish any right to operate a transient vacation rental unit, and no person may rely upon the list.' Ordinance 5909 does require the finance director to transmit a list of parcels subject to amortization to the Council, planning director and mayor by 3/15/2026, updated annually each 3/15 through 3/15/2030.
• STRH is not owner-occupancy-gated but is close-held: the permit holder must be a natural person holding ≥50% legal title (family trust/LLC/LLP/closely-held corporation allowed if not publicly traded and all principals are natural persons related by blood, adoption, marriage or civil union), must serve as manager or designate an immediate family member / Hawaii-licensed real estate agent, and the home must be a single-family dwelling built ≥5 years and owned ≥5 years before application. B&B (ch. 19.64) is the owner-occupied path.
• MCC 19.65.030(T): a dwelling unit developed under HRS ch. 201H or MCC ch. 2.96 (affordable housing) may not be used as a short-term rental home. MCC 19.65.030(M): single-family dwellings used as STRHs do not qualify for real property tax exemptions under MCC ch. 3.48.
• Maui County real property tax classification is a separate and significant cost layer for Lahaina STRs (Short-Term Rental and Commercialized Residential classes carry materially higher rates than Owner-Occupied). Rates are set annually by County budget ordinance and were NOT researched in this pass — this is a known gap.

Enforcement

Active enforcement

yes

Fines

Operating a transient accommodation (B&B, STRH or TVR) without the necessary permit in Maui County — including Lahaina — carries an initial civil fine of $20,000 plus $10,000 per day for each day the unlawful operation persists, under MCC 19.530.030 as amended to implement the 2018 Maui County Charter amendment (Charter §13-10). This replaced the prior $1,000 initial / $1,000-per-day ceiling; the higher fines took effect in late 2019 (reported as December 22, 2019, via Ordinance No. 5001, October 7, 2019 — ordinance number not primary-source verified in this pass). The $20,000/$10,000 schedule applies to four triggers: (i) operating a B&B, STRH or TVR in violation of the comprehensive zoning ordinance; (ii) violating a ch. 19.64 B&B permit; (iii) violating a ch. 19.65 STRH permit; and (iv) violating a ch. 19.40 TVR conditional permit. Enforcement orders become final 30 days after mailing/delivery; appeal lies to the Board of Variances and Appeals within that 30-day window, but an appeal does NOT stay the order. Unpaid civil fines may be added to any County taxes, fees or charges (except residential water/sewer). Separately, individuals found in violation are BARRED from applying for a B&B permit for two years or an STRH permit for five years. Misrepresentation on an STRH application also triggers denial/revocation plus a two-year application bar. State-level: failure to display the TAT certificate and post a local contact draws $500/day (first), $1,000/day (second), $5,000/day (third or subsequent).

Notes

Maui County runs a genuinely active, technology-driven enforcement program — this is not a paper regime. The Planning Department's Zoning Administration and Enforcement Division (ZAED) contracts LODGINGRevs (a Colorado-based TVR monitoring firm) to scrape and track 20,000-30,000 TVR advertisements across platforms multiple times weekly, filter out legal operations, and refer suspected illegal listings for inspection. Calendar 2019 alone produced 180+ Notices of Warning and 80+ Notices of Violation, $50,000 collected with $300,000+ more pending or in litigation, and a standing ban list of 605 names. Ordinance 5909 adds a scheduled enforcement trigger specific to Lahaina: the finance director had to notice affected owners by 3/1/2026 and transmit a parcel list with real property tax classification by 3/15/2026, refreshed annually each 3/15 through 3/15/2030 — meaning the County is building a maintained, tax-class-linked target list for the 1/1/2029 West Maui cutoff. Real property tax classification is the County's cross-check on whether a unit is actually operating as a TVR. CAVEAT: the ZAED enforcement statistics cited are from the 2019 calendar-year summary (published January 2020); no more recent enforcement summary was retrieved in this pass. The $20,000/$10,000 amounts are anchored to the Planning Director's official 2018 Planning Commission transmittal and the Department's confirmation that the heftier fines were in fact imposed; the enacted MCC 19.530.030 text was not directly retrieved (Municode returned 403 and elaws.us returned 503 throughout this pass).