KIHEI, Maui — Tuesday marked the first day the Maui County Parks and Recreation Department — technically — put into place controversial rules meant to free up more space at Maui's most crowded beaches.

However, Parks and Recreation Department Director Tamara Horcajo said parks officials won't begin enforcing the new "rules of practice and procedure" for commercial ocean recreation activity permits until the 2010-11 fiscal year begins July 1.

Those new rules include caps for the number of operators at each beach, new safety training, and fewer hours and days when the beaches are open for private operators who provide lessons and hotel and convention guest junkets for surfing, scuba diving, snorkeling, windsurfing, kitesurfing and kayaking.

Horcajo has repeatedly said the plan will lessen conflicts at beaches and their parking lots between island residents and the slew of private operators by reducing the number of beaches available for private operators to ply their trades and, ultimately, the number of those businesses.

Horcajo said the rules are in response to numerous complaints over the years from residents who feel pushed out from their favorite beach spots, as well as ordinance changes from the Maui County Council.

The delay in putting the rules fully into place is to give the operators and county officials time to adjust and prepare for the changes and to create a timeline for implementation, Horcajo said.

For instance, the plan includes limiting the number of parking spaces to each permit holder and putting their customers in dedicated parking stalls, she said. The county also needs to assign spots and make signs. The rules also call for each employee to undergo an environmental protection and cultural awareness training course, which hasn't been organized yet, Horcajo said.

The new rules also reduce the number of beaches available to ocean activities operators by nearly 35 percent, from 26 beaches to 17, as well as lessen or eliminate the number of hours available to them on Sundays and holidays.

Reducing the number of available beaches to commercial operators will only further congest the ones open to them, operators said. And weekends and holidays are often when they do their best business.

That's also when Maui families are usually free to get together and go to the beach, rule supporters said.

Even without the new rules, the ocean activities business owners said it's been their toughest year ever. They've already had to lay off employees, sometimes running their operations entirely by themselves. Some said Maui is sending a negative message to tourists and employers during an economic downturn.