▪ Maui Sued in Federal Court for Vacation Rental Policies

The Maui Vacation Rental Association has sued the County of Maui, the county Planning Director, and the Department of Planning in federal court in Honolulu for constitutional and other violations, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.  The complaint summarizes the claims:

This is an action for injunctive and declaratory relief against defendants, and each of them, for their conduct in dealing with the owners of property being used as Transient Vacation Rentals in the County of Maui. Plaintiff alleges procedural and substantive due process and equal protection violations, equitable estoppel, breach of express and implied contract. Plaintiff also alleges municipal liability for failure to adequately train and supervise entity employees, and for the maintenance of illegal customs and policies, both of which cause and allow constitutional violations of procedural due process, substantive due process, equal protection, and deprivation of honest government services, in violation of the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The complaint is posted here (800kb pdf).  A report from the Maui News here.

The issue of short-term rental of property has been a hot-button issue on Maui recently, as reported by the Maui News here and here.  The former Mayor of the county wrote a commentary "Transient vacation rental history detailed; ban reversed county policy" with his views on the history of short-term rentals.

Update 10/25/2007: The County has moved to dismiss the complaint.