Of short-term rentals & Groundhog’s Day

By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Short-term rentals are a long-term issue in many resort communities.
Say a home or homes near yours are occupied by short-term guests who may or may not come here to celebrate Saugatuck being unruly. What effect might that have on your property value, quality of life and more?
Or you own such a property. Is it not your right to use and perhaps profit from it heeding long-established laws and customs? Must you police guests 24/7 to pull this off?
Or say you’re a renter. You’ve paid you money and want to have fun, within reason. Something wrong with that?
At a Saugatuck Planning Commission special meeting Groundhog’s Day Thursday, Feb. 2, members will revisit short-term rental concerns starting at 5 p.m.
Plans are to create an advisory committee tasked with helping the PC and city council identify and prioritize current STR concerns, opportunities and citizen objectives.
Members will gather data and insights including current and recent STR licenses, listings and occupancies; community feedback based on forums and surveys, and develop a written summary of their findings.
Should current rules be changed? If so, how? Members will be asked to consider, but not be bound by, experiences, issues, concerns, policies, practices and regulatory and zoning ordinances adopted by Douglas and Saugatuck Township.
Resident Craig Baldwin, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property and husband of council member Helen Baldwin, cast his net wider:
“I understand,” he wrote PC Chair Steven Manns Dec. 9, “that the planning commission intends to review the issue of short-term rentals in the near future to decide what, if any, changes should be made to our ordinances.
“I am writing to provide both comments from my personal experience as well as information that will hopefully be of use as you take on this topic.
“When Helen and I bought our home on Manchester Drive five years ago, part of the charm was that it was on a quiet, dead-end street with only 16 homes in the immediate neighborhood. The only short-term rental activity was from our next-door neighbors who rented their second home for a few weeks each summer to offset some of the cost of ownership. They have since made that home their permanent residence.
“But over the last two years, four of the 16 homes in our neighborhood have become active short-term rentals. The rental closest to my home has persistent issues with parking, trash and noise.
“More importantly, we have lost several great neighbors who were an active part of our little community. An abrupt 25-percent saturation rate of short-term rental properties has had a significant negative impact on our neighborhood,” Baldwin’s letter continued.
“I have researched how several comparable resort towns on Lake Michigan have handled this issue. The attached memo summarizes what I discovered from my review of the ordinances and policies in the following towns: Charlevoix, Harbor
Springs, Petoskey, Grand Haven, South Haven and Holland and Park Township. I also reviewed and summarized Saugatuck’s current ordinances regarding short term rentals and other types of lodging.
“In a nutshell, some communities have banned short-term rentals (Petoskey snf Park Township).
“Others permit property owners to rent for a few weeks per year but otherwise place restrictions on the number and/or location of investor-owned short-term rentals (Charlevoix, Grand Haven, South Haven and Holland).
“Harbor Springs is the only one on my list that does not restrict the number or location of short-term rentals, but they have very-restrictive rules regarding parking, trash and noise, and take a zero-tolerance policy toward code violations before a rental license can be revoked.
“It is clear to me,” Baldwin said, “that Saugatuck now has a class of short-term rentals that are essentially commercial-lodging operations.
“In my view, these have a comparable impact on the surrounding neighborhood as would a bed and breakfast
establishment.
“Saugatuck zoning ordinances have taken a thoughtful approach to bed and breakfasts by allowing them in some districts, designating them as a special land use in others, and determining that they are not a permitted use in the remaining districts.
“Saugatuck would benefit from a similarly careful approach to commercial-grade short-term rentals.
“I hope this legwork is useful to the Planning Commission as you review what is obviously a very important issue for Saugatuck,” Baldwin’s letter said.
Who gets named to the advisory committee? Its makeup, per Thursday’s proposed resolution, should represent different stakeholders including one city council member, two planning commission members, plus one representative each from:
• A retail or lodging business;
• A short-term rental property management group;
• Residential zone representative who holds an STR license and/or is positive about STRs;
• Commercial zone representative who is not own an STR;
• Real estate community member who does not own an STR;
• Residential homeowner who does not own an STR and feels negatively impacted by them in his or her neighborhood.
The draft resolution sets no deadline for when the committee’s report or action on it is due.