The location changes, but Derek Hoyte’s story remains the same: He finds a picturesque piece of land, strings up a few zip lines and operates nonpermitted tours until the county comes knocking.

Skamania County of Washington state threw Hoyte in jail. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington sued him. And on Tuesday, Maui County became the latest municipality to put a halt to a Hoyte business venture.

The Maui Planning Commission denied an after-the-fact permit for the Haiku zip-line business Hoyte has been running illegally since 2010, on the grounds of a former World War II-era military camp.

While Northshore Zipline Co. was presented as a historical and recreational operation, commissioners thought the commercial side did not match the purpose of an agricultural-zoned district. They questioned its safety and effect on residents, many of whom showed up to testify against the business.

“They’ve demonstrated a willful disregard for the consideration of neighbors as well as other tenants in common,” commissioner Wayne Hedani said. “They continue to operate . . . contrary to an order to cease and desist . . . and I don’t think that should be awarded with an approval.”

Hoyte did not appear at the planning commission meeting and did not respond to repeated requests for comment. His son, Chris Hoyte, manager of the business, attended the meeting and said the company’s goal was “to combine education with fun.”

“I want to be a good neighbor to everybody. I want to be pono,” Chris Hoyte said. “That’s why we’re here today.”

Run by the Hoyte family’s D&S Ventures, Northshore Zipline Co. spans seven different zip lines that soar through a canopy of giant eucalyptus trees and give riders a view of the island’s north shore, according to the company’s website. Riders can reach heights of 70 feet and speeds up to 40 mph.

Over the past two years, the place has averaged 50 visitors a day, according to the company’s permit application. Typical hours of operation are six days week, with the first tours starting at 8 a.m. and the last ones finishing around 6 p.m. The company provides full-time jobs for about 24 people, Chris Hoyte said.

Northshore Zipline Co. is located at 2065 Kauhikoa Road and occupies a 17.5-acre parcel that was once part of Camp Maui, a 1,600-acre camp where Marines once relaxed and trained between heated military campaigns.

Construction on the camp began in February 1944, according to the National Marine Sanctuaries’ maritime history of Maui. At that time, the 4th Marine Division had just suffered heavy losses in the Marshall Islands that transformed it “from an untested green unit to a combat veteran in one engagement,” according to the U.S. Marines’ history of the division.

The division turned the camp into a place where they could regroup and regain their strength. They set up living tents, mess halls, a post exchange, movie screens, chapels and a baseball field. Life at Camp Maui alternated between hula shows, boxing matches and combat training on Maui’s diverse terrain. Marines built up stamina on hikes, fought in jungles and caves, and practiced amphibious landings on beaches. Known as the “Fighting Fourth,” the division suffered more than 17,700 casualties in four major battles between 1944 and 1945, according to the 4th Marine Division Association’s website.

“Many folks are probably not aware of this history right here on Maui,” said Kimi Yuen of PBR Hawaii, the planning and landscaping firm assisting with D&S’ application. “The applicant . . . originally was planning to do a residential development, but when he heard the history, he thought the preservation of the site was more important.”

During tours, guides give a short history to riders, and zip-line platforms include black-and-white photos of what the camp once looked like, Chris Hoyte said. There’s also a small museum on the property.

However, he acknowledged that the focus of the business is “primarily” zip lining, and that’s what bothers their neighbors.

Residents testified that Derek Hoyte didn’t consult with them before he destroyed property and disturbed livestock to install the zip lines six years ago.

Resident Peter Rohrer said he came back from a day of surfing to discover that Derek Hoyte had taken down his fence, dumped boulders on his property and leveled “hundreds of mature trees.” He said he filed reports with the police but nothing came of it.

Valentine Aveiro Sr. said Derek Hoyte locked him out of his pasture, trashed his right of way and forced him to take alternate roads around the property. He added that zip line riders have flown so close to the ground that they’ve almost collided with him and his vehicle.

While Yuen said the property was tested and did not exceed county decibel limits, most residents felt otherwise. Neighbor Marian Prosser said she didn’t want to get in the way of anyone having fun but that the disruption next door had “frazzled” her and her husband, Daniel Coltart. Coltart said that their home had become “an amphitheater to uncontrollable screaming that goes on 24/7.”

Yuen said no engineers had examined the equipment’s structural integrity, prompting commissioners to question its safety, especially in light of the 2014 death of a zip-line operator at Piiholo Ranch.

Derek Hoyte’s history also worried commissioners and residents. Originally from Washington state, Derek Hoyte began as a home developer, Chris Hoyte said. However, after the housing market crashed, his dad decided to turn to zip lines.

In 2008, Derek Hoyte strung up six zip lines on his 83-acre farm in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, as part of “creative advertising” for his U-pick pine cone business, The Columbian newspaper reported. Skamania County in Washington state fined him $1,000 and jailed him for five days in August 2009.

Once released, Derek Hoyte started another zip-line tour company in Washougal, Wash., landing him in trouble with Clark County. He was again ordered to stop and threatened with fines, The Columbian said.

In 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s Office sued him for violating a U.S. Forest Service conservation easement, according to the Seattle Times. A U.S. district judge granted the federal government’s request for a temporary restraining order against Hoyte, according to court documents.

That same year, the Hoytes came to Maui to open a zip-line company on land the family had owned since around 2005, Chris Hoyte said. The county issued a warning to Northshore Zipline Co. in 2013, followed by an official notice of violation in 2014, according to the county Planning Department. The Hoytes applied for a permit last October.

Northshore Zipline Co. has since accumulated $565,000 in fines, according to Deputy Planning Director Michele McLean.

While there are no building permit requirements for zip-line poles, zip lining is not mentioned in the county’s agricultural permitted uses and thus requires a special-use permit, county officials said.

The planning commission’s decision to deny a permit was unanimous.

“When you’re disingenuous . . . this is what happens,” commissioner Keaka Robinson said. “A lot of people get special-use permits here. But they do it in a different way.”

Chris Hoyte couldn’t say Tuesday whether the poles and lines would be taken down. However, the company is trying to bring its dispute before the Board of Variances and Appeals. If the board says Northshore Zipline doesn’t need a permit, the county’s notice of violation would be void, McLean said.

However, she hoped Tuesday’s decision would push people to take the legal route.

“If we’re successful at stopping this operation, hopefully that would be a deterrent in the future,” she said.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

* Zip-line case. During a Maui Planning Commission meeting Tuesday to discuss an after-the-fact permit for Northshore Zipline Co., Kimi Yuen of PBR Hawaii & Associates said no engineers from PBR examined the zip-line structures because that was not PBR’s responsibility. However, Miller Consulting Engineers was involved in the construction of the zip-line structures.

A story published Wednesday on Page A1 that continued on Page A3 inaccurately stated Yuen’s comments.

The Maui News apologizes for the error.