Jenn Hill

MARQUETTE — Short-term rentals have become a hot-button topic for municipal governments across the state, including the city of Marquette.

Short-term rentals gained popularity as companies such as Airbnb began offering a platform for homeowners to offer their residences for nightly or weekly stays. The practice can encourage landlords to move into the short-term rental market, which can cause a shortage of long-term rentals and for-sale housing in return, according to research conducted by the Harvard Business Review.

Due to this, the Michigan Municipal League on Monday held a discussion regarding new legislation regarding short-term rentals that was introduced to the Michigan House of Representatives last week.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 4985, would “make clear that short-term rentals are allowed in Michigan while also giving local communities the right to implement reasonable regulations that suit their unique housing needs,” according to a news release from the MML.

The bill was introduced Thursday by Reps. John Damoose, R-Harbor Springs, and Jack O’Malley, R-Lake Ann.

However, the MML stated concerns about other proposed legislation related to short-term rentals, such as Senate Bill 446 and House Bill 4722.

House Bill 4722 would “amend the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act to provide that the short-term rental dwelling, for 30 days or less, is a permitted residential use of property that is not subject to a special use or conditional use permit or procedure,” according to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency.

However, MML officials have concerns about the H.B. 4722 and S.B. 446, saying they create “a one-size-fits-all policy that only caters to short-term rental owners.”

MML CEO Dan Gilmartin led Monday’s discussion and was joined by Marquette Mayor Pro Tem Jenn Hill, Grand Rapids City Manager Mark Washington, Frankenmuth City Manager Bridget Smith and Derek Lemanski, a short-term rental owner in Frankenmuth.

“With us (today), these individuals will be speaking about their communities and they’re all from different places,” Gilmartin said. “They all have short-term rental regulations that were created to best meet the needs of the local residents in their communities. If the current bills pass, all of this work and reasonable regulation would be tossed out, and the floodgates to short-term rentals would be open. It would be like adding lighter fluid to an already blazing hot housing market, making the demand for attainable housing even more dire here in the state of Michigan.

“Short-term rentals have been a hot topic across the state. Their growth in popularity has provided a boost in vacation options for visitors. At the same time, their explosion has brought some negative consequences: reduction of available housing, increased noise and nuisance complaints, and unequal competition with traditional hotels, just to name a few. Some communities have adopted carefully crafted policies designed to balance the needs of long-term residents with those of vacationers in short-term rentals in their communities.

“Michigan lawmakers are currently debating legislation, Senate Bill No. 446 and House Bill No. 4722, that would decerp these local regulations. If these bills passed, short-term rentals would be allowed anywhere and everywhere without any limitations in the state of Michigan.”

Hill is no stranger to the situation. The city of Marquette has been keeping a close eye on the local housing situation over the last 18 months through its soon-to-be dissolved Ad-Hoc Housing Committee. The committee was formed in January 2020 and created “to better understand the role of the city as it relates to housing affordability in the city of Marquette.” The committee’s initial findings were released in January of this year, and its final report was approved at its final meeting June 8.

“The city of Marquette actually started working on short-term rental policy in January 2017,” Hill said. “We took months at the planning commission and city commission level to develop a policy that makes sense for our community. I’m here (today) because housing is our No. 1 issue today in Marquette.

“I’m seeing posts on our community pages from folks who have gotten jobs here in Marquette, are coming here to go to school, and they are not able to find housing. I personally just last week received for the first time a letter offering to buy my house for cash, no appraisal, no one seeing the house and buying it as is, and to do all of this in as quickly as 24 hours.

“We need to slow down and think about how to balance housing, tourism and community. It’s a beautiful day here in the U.P., it’s in the mid-60s, it’s a sunny day, we absolutely welcome our tourists and love to share the best part of Michigan with all of you. And yet, we do need to take the time to think about what works for our community so that we can have that balance.

“Our ordinance has been praised for its block-by-block approach that protects neighborhoods and year-round residents while welcoming visitors to experience these neighborhoods as an option in addition to our traditional lodging options.

“After having that policy for a year, we went back and revisited that policy in 2018, and we in fact expanded it so that owners of a property that had multiple units in it, a duplex or a triplex, could in fact rent all of those as short-term rentals and not just one.

“In 2020, we actually instituted an ad-hoc housing committee in order to think about the housing situation that we’re in right now where, like Grand Rapids, we need more permanent housing. They met through COVID, we continued to get input over Zoom, so we’ve (had) years worth of thoughtful conversation about housing issues in Marquette. That report is just being released this month.

“We have taken our time and have thought about these issues carefully for a period of years here in Marquette, and we’re not the only community in the U.P. that has short-term rental policies, other communities do as well. We’re all taking a thoughtful approach and we encourage the legislature to do the same.”

Section 26-51 of the Marquette City Code states that no more than 250 approved short-term rental registrations will be issued at one time in the city. Properties may not advertise for or be used as short-term rentals without receiving a registration certificate and a certificate of compliance.

Visit t blogs.mml.org/wp/short-term-rentals/ for more information on MML’s perspective.

Ryan Spitza can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. His email address is rspitza@miningjournal.net.