Suing to keep Airbnbs open, Park Township owners tout value
PARK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A group of property owners in Park Township are suing for the right to continue renting out their homes on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO.
Nancy VanEenenaam and her husband have owned a cottage across from the Ottawa Beach General Store in Park Township for 12 years after inheriting it from his mom, who owned it for about two decades. They have put a lot of money into fixing the property up and VanEenenaam said she has become emotionally invested in the guests who stay there every summer.
"We also really love hosting the families, it is so much fun," she said. "We have families from all over come and stay. Most of them are repeat, so they come year after year. Their kids have grown up going to our cottage, going to the beach, heading to the General Store every morning for doughnuts."
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She also uses the cottage as a vacation spot with her husband and family, getting a chance to enjoy the lakeshore community while keeping their city farm with horses in Holland.
"It's a different lifestyle and we feel very blessed to be able to have both," she said.
But a potential ban on short-term rentals in residential zoning districts in Park Township, which is located west of Holland along the lakeshore and includes Holland State Park, could put a stop to that.
Park Township Neighbors, a nonprofit made up mostly of STR owners in the area, is suing to stop the ban. For now, a judge has put an injunction in place to allow the property owners to continue renting out the homes on a short-term basis.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Around 2021, the township began having conversations about short-term rentals, homes typically rented out on platforms like Airbnb or VRBO.
"The issue of Short-Term Rentals continues to be a topic of conversation," Township Manager Howard Fink wrote in an update posted to the website on Feb. 26, 2021. "Many residents have expressed various differing opinions and nuanced perspectives on how best to address Short Term Rentals – whether to permit and if so how to regulate them, or prohibit them entirely."
The township wasn't alone in dealing with the topic. Communities like Spring Lake, which updated its STR ordinance last year, and Saugatuck, which placed a 20% cap on STR licenses in the city's R1 residential districts in July, have had similar conversations.
There were a number of meetings on the issue, including one in September 2022 at which nearly 100 residents spoke about STRs, with some voicing concerns about things like noise, trash and parking issues. The township board ultimately made the decision in November 2022 to ban short-term rentals in residential zoning districts. The township defined short-term rentals as a place where people were staying for under 28 days.
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The Park Township Neighbors lawsuit says the township later passed a similar ban, this time as an amendment to the general code. The ban went into effect in October 2023, until a judge issued an injunction in December 2023.
In March of this year, the township passed a third iteration of the ban in order to stop new STRs from opening in residential areas while the injunction is in place.
The township argues short-term rentals have actually been illegal in residential areas since 1974, when the township adopted its current zoning ordinance.
"STRs have not been lawfully allowed within the Township (except in the C-2 commercial/business zoning district) since the current zoning regulations were enacted by the Township in 1974," language in the ordinance passed this year says. "...The STR use of such unlawful operations must cease."
It says because of the 1974 ordinance, the around 250 existing STRs in the area have been operating illegally and cannot be grandfathered in under the recent ordinance changes.
"'Grandfathering' is a term that's used to describe a use that was permitted at one time, and then regulations changed so the use is no longer permitted," the township explained on its website. "Grandfathering allows these previously permitted uses to continue under certain conditions. In the case of short-term rentals, this was never a permitted use in Park Township so grandfathering isn't applicable."
But Park Township Neighbors, a nonprofit made up mostly of STR owners in the area, argue they should be grandfathered in and that the township repeatedly told owners STRs are legal. The group posted several emails on its website that it says show township officials telling STR owners that there were no regulations in place and that if regulations were to be added, they would be grandfathered in.
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"Until 2020, (2021) they were always legal," said Park Township Neighbors Board President Jeremy Allen, who owns a STR in Park Township and also owns short- and long-term rentals in Seattle and Chicago. "We've got emails and documents from current employees that said they were legal. So where they shifted and can now say that they were always illegal ... that's a weird revision of history."
He said several property owners would never have bought the STRs if the township hadn't told them the operations were illegal and that he and his wife, who bought their STR near Mount Pisgah in 2015, would not have extensively remodeled it in 2017 if they knew the ban was coming.
The township declined to comment for this report, citing the lawsuit filed by Park Township Neighbors.
"As we are in active litigation on the subject, we have no comment," the township manager said in an email to News 8. "For clarification, using the word 'Ban' is misleading. STR are permitted in commercial zoned districts. They are not permitted in residential zoned districts."
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The zoning ordinance amendment walks through the problems the township has with STRs, saying they are "incompatible" with neighborhood areas. They can increase noise, traffic levels and parking scarcity in the summer, and can increase the number of vacant homes in the winter.
The township argues STRs can devalue nearby single-family homes and that two or more families often stay in the rental units, even in zoning areas that only allow single-family use.
There is "constant 'coming and going' of new renters," the zoning ordinance amendment says, and short-term renters don't take as good care of the property as an owner-occupied home. Short-term renters don't have a relationship with the neighbors, aren't familiar with the area and don't "know the local customs" or local ordinances, the document says.
Park Township doesn't have the resources to enact and enforce ordinances on concerns like noise and parking, it says, and they can drive up housing prices.
"In general, STR uses are more intensive, transitory, and problematic than conventional single-family and other residential uses," the ordinance amendment says.
It ends the list of concerns by comparing STRs to other types of housing.
"Many of the problems associated with STRs can also occur in duplex and multi-family residential areas and neighborhoods," the ordinance amendment says.
'IMMACULATE'
Short-term rental owners who News 8 talked to disagree with several of those concerns.
Vicki Rosendahl, a retired nurse who has lived in Park Township all her life, bought a property with her husband 15 years ago, renting it out on VRBO as part of their retirement plan.
"It just kind of dumbfounds us," she said of the ordinance change. "How can this be happening, that the township with a group of people can just make that decision that, 'OK, you've been able to do this for 15 years, and now you're done.' ... I don't understand how that can even happen."
People often book the Rosendahls' rental for Tulip Time, Hope College's graduation or just to enjoy the beach.
"They just absolutely love staying at our home. It creates wonderful memories for them," she said. "We have that beautiful bike path that goes all the way down to the beach... They're dumbfounded how gorgeous it is here."
The rental unit is right across the street from their home, which sits on the lakeshore.
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"It works really nice. I manage it, I rent it, I clean it," she said. "We have developed some wonderful friendships with people over the last 15 years with this rental."
She said she runs "a tight ship," keeping the property spotless and stopping by immediately if there's ever any type of problem. Rosendahl said she vets everyone who stays there, not allowing groups like bachelor or bachelorette parties.
"I want to be very respectful of my neighbors on either side," she said. "I don't want to cause any problems and I do believe that there should be some rules that are in place."
Fellow STR owner VanEenenaam said in her experience, there's less wear and tear from short-term renters than long-term renters.
"Short-term renters want to come back, they want you to let them come back for next year," she explained. "They go above and beyond. The last few renters we've had, the place was immaculate."
One woman went as far as scrubbing down the cottage's outdoor chairs, she said.
"She's like, 'We just want to come back next year. We want to make sure that you'll let us come back next year,'" VanEenenaam said.
Jeremey Allen, the Park Township Neighbors board president, and his wife bought their STR in 2015 when they were living in Seattle.
"The vision we had when we lived in Seattle is coming back, being close to family, letting the grandparents watch their grandkids grow up," he said. "And then when we're not visiting ourselves, renting it out, letting the property serve for other families."
He said a cohort from Western Theological Seminary in Holland often stays in the unit to work on theses, enjoying fellowship like a morning coffee and prayer time together while also spending time outdoors writing.
A family that has been traveling in an RV and homeschooling their kids is booked to stay there from October through April so their daughter can go to a traditional high school for her senior year, Allen said.
He and his wife loved the area so much they moved here in 2019.
"That wouldn't have happened had we not had a place to come stay and experience the beautiful West Michigan hospitality and culture and all that it has to offer here," he said.
Several other STR owners in Park Township use their properties as their own summer cottage, renting it out when they're not staying there.
Park Township Neighbors commissioned an economic impact study from the Hope College Frost Research Center. The study was paid for with a grant from the National Association of Realtors , the center told News 8. The center has done economic impact reports in the past, like a study on the impact of Tulip Time, and often works with community partners for its study.
The report found 41% of STR owners in view the property as a secondary residence and 12% say the it is their primary residence.
It found that 66% of STR owners in the township use the property for personal use, but use it for less than a quarter of the year. Fourteen percent use it for personal use between 25% to 50% of the year, while 11% don't use it for personal use at all. Nine percent use it for between 50% to 100% of the year.
The Frost Center conducted the study by contacting 128 STR owners in the area using a list provided by Park Township Neighbors. Eighty-four property owners responded.
There are about 248 STRs throughout Park Township, though Allen said that number is likely smaller now, as some sold their property instead of deal with the ban and lawsuit.
The study from the Frost Center found that most STR owners, 86%, have only one rental property. A total of 12% own between two to five properties, while only 1% own more than five properties.
"There are some misconceptions about Park Township short-term rental landlords as being corporations, LLCs," VanEenenaam said. "That's not us, and most of the neighborhood rentals are not LLC, not corporations. They're just family, mom-and-pop kind of things."
Most, 76%, have owned their STR for 10 years or less. The study found that 58% of STR owners are making between $10,000 to $50,000 from their rental property each year.
STR owners argue their renters help support local businesses.
"We love the fact that we can help the community financially," Rosendahl said. "The minute people come, they're like, 'Well, what restaurants do we want to go to?'"
She said her renters often visit downtown Holland and shops in surrounding areas and joked that when she empties the garbage, there's often lots of packages and shoe boxes from shops on Holland's 8th Street.
The Frost Center's study, which also sent a survey to 186 local businesses and received 38 responses, found that 66% of local business owners perceive a positive impact from local STRs.
The study surveyed a variety of businesses, including retail, services like cleaning and HVAC, and restaurants. Twenty-two percent are in Park Township, while 53% are in the city of Holland. The rest are in municipalities like Holland Township, Saugatuck and Zeeland.
A total of 41% estimated that less than 10% of their average annual sales came from tourism. Most who reported less than 10% of sales coming from tourism were service businesses, while most of the 23% of businesses that reported more than half of their sales came from tourism were in the restaurant industry.
Sixty-three percent of the business owners had concerns that a STR ban could have a negative impact on their business.
STRs can have an impact on local housing prices, the study says.
"However, the extent to which this upward pressure results in significant housing price increase depends on local housing market conditions," the study notes.
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Areas with a higher rates of owner-occupied homes will not see as big of an impact from STRs, the study says.
Park Township's zip code, 49424, has a 74.59% owner-occupancy rate, the study found. The owner-occupancy rate at four other zip codes throughout the Holland area ranged between 72.67% and 100%. That's higher than the U.S. overall rate, which is 65.20%.
This means the impact of STRs on housing and rental prices may be lower than it would on other areas, the study says. The researchers estimated that banning STRs would have a -1.7% impact on rental prices and a -2.4%
Allen estimated that STRs make up around 3% of homes in Park Township.
"It's just not an issue that is taking away affordable housing. It's not an issue where we're bringing tens of thousands of people barreling into our town and changing the dynamic or fabric of it," he said.
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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
If Park Township Neighbors loses its lawsuit, around a third of the properties would be sold, the study found.
In the survey, property owners could pick multiple options on what they would do if a ban was put in place, as some own more than one property. Around half said they would wait and see, while 40% would rent the property to long-term renters. A third would keep the property for personal use.
Rosendahl said if a ban is put into place, her and her husband would be forced to sell their STR. Because the property is so expensive, she doesn't expect it would be bought by someone planning on using it as a primary residence.
"It would probably be somebody wealthy who would do a second home and just come here when they would feel like," she said. "And then it would sit empty and there'd be no revenue for the community, because they'd only be here a short period of time."
Allen said since discussions of STRs started in Park Township, some have already been sold and turned into second homes.
"They're not turning into normal residential homes for a firefighter or a nurse or a family, because they're not starter homes," he said. "(Our STR) is walking distance to the state park. It's an expensive property. If we were forced to sell it, someone wealthy enough to buy this and then use it as their own vacation home, where they don't have to rent it out, that's what will happen to this home."
Allen said Park Township Neighbors doesn't want to see a big increase in STRs in the area.
"We don't want unfettered growth of short term rentals in Park Township. We would love to see three out of every hundred or four out of every hundred and have a cap," he said.
For now, the properties can remain STRs with the injunction put in place by a judge. A hearing on the case is set for late October, Allen said.
"We hope that we win and that we can continue to have the multiple uses of our property that we have, rather than be dictated by the local government that it has to be a long-term rental or we have to sell," he said.
