More than 40 Park Township residents testified at a special Zoning Board of Appeals hearing on March 31 to urge members to grandfather in properties used as short-term rentals.

The nonprofit group, Park Township Neighbors, which formed in response to the Ottawa County township’s ban on short-term rentals, led the charge.

The group is asking the board to interpret the township’s zoning ordinance in a way that would grant “non-conforming use” status to homeowners. Non-conforming use means those who owned short-term rentals before the township started enforcing its ordinance can continue with the practice.

The nonprofit asserted that Park Township officials had historically allowed and even encouraged short-term rentals for decades, only reversing that stance during the COVID pandemic.

Michigan Capitol Confidential previously reported that in November 2022, the township board voted to enforce the 1974 law.

During the nearly four-hour hearing, residents delivered personal testimonies and presented legal arguments backed by sworn depositions, emails and township communications.

Jeremy Allen is the president of the Park Township Neighbors. He told CapCon in an email that Kyle Konwinski, the organization’s lawyer, pointed out at the hearing an inconsistency in the township’s argument that a 1974 zoning law has always prevented short-term rentals.

He asked if the 1974 law always banned short-term rentals, then why did the township vote in March 2024 to change the zoning ordinance to say the rentals are not allowed.

Allen argued that if the 1974 ordinance prevents short-term rentals, the township would not have changed the ordinance.

Park Township officials did not respond to an email seeking comment.

In an email to CapCon, Allen mentioned page 8 of the township’s request for a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The request reads in part:

“It has long been common throughout West Michigan (particularly on lakes) for the past century or so for families to rent out their cottages or cabins for a few weeks each year to pay the property taxes.”

The zoning board did not decide at the meeting to give it more time to look over the evidence presented, according to Allen. The next meeting will be April 21.

The nonprofit sued the municipality after it voted in November 2022 to begin enforcing, for the first time, a zoning law on the books since 1974.

Some of the homeowners involved in the lawsuit did their due diligence to ensure if they purchased the home, they could rent it out.

Screenshots of numerous emails included in the evidence residents presented to the board show emails from homebuyers asking the township if short-term rentals are allowed.

The response from the township officials at the time was that there were no regulations preventing it.

A judge issued an injunction to prevent the township from implementing the ordinance to allow the case to work its way through the courts.

The township decided to vote, in March 2024, to explicitly disallow short-term rentals.

As a result, the judge dismissed the case, citing a lack of jurisdiction.

A Michigan dentist with 40 years of experience is challenging a 2020 directive from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that requires all health care professionals to take implicit bias training to keep their professional licenses.

Kent Wildern, a dentist who practiced in Grand Rapids, was forced to surrender his license after he refused to complete the hotly debated social training.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs implemented new rules in 2022 that compel more than 400,000 health care professionals to complete two hours of implicit bias training every renewal cycle.

Michiganders licensed by the state across 26 occupations ranging from medical practice to santitary services to acupuncture must complete the training to renew their professional licenses. Veterinarians were exempted.

Michigan’s licensing agency has fined at least 132 people for not fulfilling the requirement, and it fined other health care professionals a collective $75,000 in 2024, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported in September

New applicants for a health care license must have completed two hours of implicit bias training within the previous five years. Anyone seeking a new or renewed license must complete one hour of implicit bias training for each year of the relevant license cycle.

“It is unconstitutional for Michigan to weaponize its licensing powers to force health care professionals to choose between their careers and submitting to ideological indoctrination,” Wilson Freeman, an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement. “Moreover, Michigan’s mandate for implicit bias training came from an unelected agency rather than the Legislature, sidestepping any public debate on the issue."

Some health care workers, like Wildern, have surrendered their licenses rather than comply.

About eight states require continuing implicit bias education credits for health care workers, Freeman said. But Michigan is the only state that imposed the requirement via directive instead of legislation.

Previously, Michigan lawmakers required health care workers to take human trafficking training, a requirement passed through the Legislature, Wilder said.

“The governor circumvented the Legislature entirely and mandated this training without any input from the other branch of government that she’s required to get input from,” Wilder said in a phone interview with CapCon.

If the implicit bias training requirement stands, Michigan’s next governor can mandate patriotism classes for 400,000 health care workers, Freeman said.

“In my judgment, under the theory that (the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) is putting out, there’s nothing to prevent that... LARA can create whatever training it desires, as long as they assert in their unreviewable authority that it’s beneficial for them.”

The state’s licensing agency has committed ultra vires, a Latin phrase meaning “when an administrative agency does something that is outside of the power that’s delegated to it by the Legislature,” Freeman said.