Debate continues over short-term rentals versus affordable housing needs
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LANSING - Many tourism destination communities across Michigan face short-term rental controversies, and some have imposed new regulations to limit short-term rentals.
Regulations differ from community to community.
In Traverse City, for example, those regulations include zoning districts, lodging assessments for some properties, licenses and inspections, according to the city's code of ordinances.
The debate centers on competing priorities - providing vacation accommodations for tourists whose spending bolsters the local economy and filling the need for affordable long-term housing, especially in destination communities, said Jennifer Rigterink, the Michigan Municipal League's state and federal affairs assistant director.
How to handle short-term rentals is a common issue in townships, said Tom Hickson, the executive director of the Michigan Townships Association.
"It's something we're very concerned about," Hickson said.
"Short-term rentals are a great thing for people that want to vacation and visit certain places," he said. "The question is, should a local unit of government, should a township, the local community, be able to say, 'Let's put some guardrails on this?'"
In the past, legislation has been introduced to remove townships' ability to enforce regulations.
Hickson said the association opposes legislative moves to remove guardrails.
It's also keeping an eye on pending legislation that would treat short-term rentals as permitted residential use statewide and restrict local governments' ability to ban them, he said.
Hickson said the question is balancing regulation against private property rights. That's because while local communities may want to keep short-term rentals in check, tourism is important for townships.
"Every township's different, and what works in one might not work in another," Hickson said. "So, to make sure that the township board has the ability to meet the needs of their community is critical."
Hickson said he recently visited Golden Township in Oceana County, and because it is a great location on the Lake Michigan shore, "you have a lot of big city investors come in" to buy up real estate.
"They may never intend to set one foot on this," Hickson said of those out-of-state investors. "They'll buy one [short-term rental property] and say, 'Oh, this is working out pretty well. How about I buy the next three next to it?' And they take away some of that [housing] supply."
Rigterink, from the Municipal League, said that big investors buying up strips of houses to develop into short-term rentals isn't controversial in more urbanized areas her organization represents.
However, Rigterink said cities are seeing problems with absentee owners. These may not be big investor firms but don't live within an hour of their short-term rental or live in a different state or even country.
"They're really just out of sight, out of mind," Rigterink said. "So, if there's an issue with that property, it's very important that there is somebody on the ground within, say, a 45-minute distance."
Tom Kingsford of East Bay Township rents out one property for vacation use in Traverse City, a popular destination community. His other properties are long-term rentals, and he calls laws regulating short-term rentals "so egregious."
"East Bay Township started off by allowing it with no regulation," Kingsford said.
Now the township requires an annual license, requires zoning at least 1,000 ft. between some neighboring short-term rentals owned by the same person, posting of rules and limits on guests and parking, he said.
Kingsford said those regulations are better than those in nearby Garfield Township and Traverse City, where his long-term properties are.
His short-term rental that sits on Spider Lake has always been a vacation home, even before he owned it. He sees it as a place that "gives people a taste of lake life, peace and quiet."
"The general belief the public holds is 'not in my neighborhood,'" Kingsford said of short-term rentals. "Wild parties, noise, strangers coming and going, takes away housing. That has not been my experience."
Kingsford said even his neighbors have embraced the short-term rental community and have often interacted with the guests.
Tom Rasmussen of Traverse City, an Airbnb host of a zoned hotel - not a typical Airbnb, but zoned as a high-density commercial business property - said he thinks regulations need to be in place because they are affecting other sectors of the tourism industry.
"Our business is affected by the large number of residential Airbnbs Grand Traverse County has allowed," Rasmussen said. "I absolutely don't think it's necessary for the community, as there's more than enough hotel zoned lodging available."
"It also contributes to the high costs of housing in the area - having residential properties set up as businesses instead of single-family houses," Rasmussen said.
Rigterink said the controversies aren't limited to shoreline and vacation communities, including places close to popular concert venues - "not just the traditional kind of beach vacation or ski hill."
Rigterink said the Municipal League agrees that municipalities shouldn't be "outright banning short-term vacation rentals."
"We try to make distinctions," Rigterink said. "People's behaviors are different if you are living somewhere or you're just there on a temporary visit, like somebody staying in a hotel for the weekend."
Short-term rentals are distinctly different from temporary housing, which is where distinctions in regulations are important, Rigterink said.
Temporary housing includes healthcare professionals who work somewhere for a month to three months, then move on, she said.
"They're actually living there, not just there for a week for vacation," Rigterink said. "And in destination communities that depend heavily on the service sector, there may be no place for service employees to live close to their jobs," she said.
The Municipal League would like to see a short-term rental excise tax, where visitors contribute to the costs that owners pay as service business.
The league also favors legislation to create a state-wide registry where the state would license short-term rentals.
"It's important that our local units of government maintain that ability to be able to balance short-term versus long-term housing needs when it comes to vacation rentals," Rigterink said. "We'd like to see some more guardrails around when there is a problem property."
"It goes back to the local unit of government having to walk that tightrope very carefully, making sure that they are providing the opportunity for short-term rentals" while balancing that with communities' long-term housing needs, she said.