Court to hear short-term rental dispute

A homeowners association in Park Township will have its day in court on Monday as members seek to overturn a ban on short-term rentals. They want an Ottawa County circuit court to declare that short-term rentals of single-family homes are permitted under a 1974 zoning ordinance. Township officials, meanwhile, ask the court to dismiss the association’s lawsuit and remove an injunction against enforcing the ban.

Michigan Capitol Confidential previously reported that the Park Township Board voted on Nov. 10, 2022, to enforce a long-dormant zoning ordinance. The 50-year-old law had not been used to ban short-term rentals.

After township officials indicated they would enforce the ban, homeowners who rent out their property on a short-term basis created the nonprofit organization Park Township Neighbors. They sought a compromise, they say, but township officials refused. The association then sued.

In the latest development, Park Township filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice. If the judge rules in its favor, the homeowners who brought suit must pay the township’s legal fees.

The township’s motion to dismiss acknowledges that the prohibition was not enforced for many years.

”Prior to the past half-dozen years or so, renting out cottages, houses and cabins in single-family residential or agricultural zoning districts to third parties for purely commercial or business use was relatively rare. 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 and defray costs,” reads the brief that accompanies the motion to dismiss.

Jeremy Allen, president of Park Township Neighbors, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email that the township did not dispute the facts.

Its court filing, he said, “means that all of the under-oath depositions of their current and former employees and board members (where they stated that there were no regulations against short-term rentals in the past) or the many printed documents and emails also supporting the legality of short-term rentals aren’t being disputed by them.”

The township agreed that its employees have said short-term rentals were not illegal, Allen said. Park Township Neighbors, he told CapCon, hopes the judge will see the township’s motion to dismiss as a kitchen-sink attempt.

The township’s brief acknowledges that until April 1, 2024, Park Township zoning ordinances did not mention short-term rentals but disputes the idea that this made short-term rentals permissible. “The current and past Zoning Ordinances for Park Township also do not mention circuses, commercial bungee jumping operations, castles, ice skating rinks, or many other uses or items. That silence does not indicate or even imply that those uses are allowed.”

The township approved two new ordinances in March banning short-term rentals. Even if the homeowners win the current dispute, they will also need a favorable ruling on the new ordinances.

The homeowners association asks the judge to rule that as part of the current lawsuit, short-term rental homes that existed before the new ordinances took effect will be grandfathered, meaning they would be allowed under law.