MARQUETTE — The Marquette City Commission unanimously approved a resolution opposing House Bill 4722 and Senate Bill 446, which commissioners said would limit a local community’s ability to regulate short-term rentals, at its regular meeting Monday night.

The resolution passed 6-0 with Commissioner Cody Mayer absent.

“The Marquette City Commission passed an ordinance regulating short-term rentals in 2017. Since that time, the city has enforced local control to place reasonable regulations on short-term rentals to ensure they are balancing the needs of long-term residents and those of visitors to the community,” city documents state. “House Bill 4722 and Senate Bill 446 seek to prohibit local communities from imposing certain regulations on homeowners wishing to convert their properties into short-term vacation rentals. These bills remove control from the entities best suited to determine the needs of their communities. The city of Marquette has been asked to pass a resolution in opposition to these bills.”

Commissioner Evan Bonsall voiced his opposition of the two bills.

“We don’t often pass resolutions like this opposing specific pieces of legislation,” Commissioner Evan Bonsall said. “But sometimes, a piece of legislation comes along that is so uniquely terrible that it merits a resolution like this. These two bills are legislation like that. Just so the public knows, essentially what these bills would do if they were passed and signed into law is bar the city of Marquette and all other municipalities from limiting the number of short-term rentals in the community. We currently have a cap of 250 and we are at that cap. It would prohibit any other forms of regulation on density of short-term rentals, it would effectively bar us from even inspecting short-term rentals, and it would potentially create loopholes that could empower slumlords. Ultimately, what we know about the city of Marquette is that the vast majority of short-term rentals could potentially otherwise be long-term rentals. If we allow an unchecked proliferation of short-term rentals in Marquette, and we’ve seen this happen in many other communities both large and small, your long-term rental stock are going to get eaten up just because of the simple economic incentives that the landlords will face.

“This legislation absolutely cannot pass. It would be terrible, and I’m glad that we’re doing one small thing at least to oppose it.”

Commissioner Fred Stonehouse expressed a similar opinion as he’s worried city residents will be forced out if short-term rentals could no longer be regulated at the local level.

“In the city of Marquette, about 54 percent of all of our homes are rental homes. A great majority of that is driven by the university and their market for that, but what you’re finding happening and what you’re seeing across the state, is outside folks coming in, buying the home and then using it as a constant short-term rental throughout the year. You might argue that’s their constitutional right to do so, the courts will certainly determine whether that is or is not, but the result for the community and for the city is that all of a sudden, you don’t have any actual people. You don’t have any real residents living in the city anymore. They’re gone, they’ve been forced out by this type of a rental program. So when you ask the question of who’s living in the city, who’s a Marquette resident, who’s a Marquette voter, who is invested in the community, they’re being forced out or would be forced out under this legislation. That’s occurring across the state where communities have not had the foresight to put these types of programs into play. I think it’s extraordinary, we understand that.”

Mayor Pro Tem Jenn Hill joined Grand Rapids City Manager Mark Washington, Frankenmuth City Manager Bridget Smith and short-term rental owner in Frankenmuth Derek Lemanski in a virtual discussion hosted by the Michigan Municipal League Monday morning. The discussion was centered around proposed legislation, House Bill 4985, that 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 the MML.

Hill spoke at Monday’s commission meeting on what it was like to represent an Upper Peninsula community in the discussion of an issue that effects communities statewide.

“We had a city the size of Grand Rapids, Marquette and then Frankenmuth, which is only 5,000 people, but has millions of visitors per year,” she said. “They work hard to have a reputation for hospitality, and yet they have managed their short-term rental program.

“Not one municipality or village in Michigan is seeking to ban short-term rentals. What we do is regulate and manage it to balance this kind of travel opportunity and rental opportunity with the other kinds of rental opportunities there are. In all of our research, there’s only one township, and there are 1,200 townships in Michigan, that has a ban at this time.

“This is the state Legislature coming down on an issue that actually doesn’t exist. There are other entities who are seeing this as an opportunity for their interests to prevail over the community, wealth building and placemaking that we have here to have a thriving community, and they would take away that right.”

Hill added the city has been working on the issue of short-term rentals since 2017.

“We have been thinking about this,” she said. “The local governing body has made decisions for ourselves, and our problem with this very bad bill is that it takes all of our ability to do that.

“I was honored to be part of this group and there’s great concern across the entire state of taking away the right to manage our local housing at this very, very critical time when housing costs are just going through the roof.”

To learn more about the proposed legislation, visit the MML’s short-term rental resource page at blogs.mml.org/wp/short-term-rentals/.

To view each bill in its entirety, visit the following links:

≤ H.B. 4722: https://bit.ly/3gI6fG0

≤ S.B. 446: https://bit.ly/2TEbAX4

≤ H.B. 4985: https://bit.ly/3zrlZG9

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