It seems that short-term rentals (STRs) are on peoples’ minds in Leelanau County. Suttons Bay Village recently signed a contract for a third party to monitor STR listings and operate a 24/7 hotline for complaints; Elmwood Township directed its planning commission to use an overlay district or zoning amendments to remove STRs from “Greilickville neighborhoods”; and Suttons Bay and Bingham townships are updating their STR ordinances and introducing “good neighbor” policies.
I kicked off my journalism career in mid-2021 when many local governments had started pushing back on STRs in earnest. I quickly became familiar with some of the problems with STRs at town hall meetings in Michigan and Wisconsin. Too many homes were being taken off the market and converted into STRs, and the lack of available housing negatively affected local businesses.
Elected officials sometimes learned that local STR owners were operating without proper licenses, leasing to the same renters beyond the “short term,” or allowing more occupants than the septic system could support. And, of course, neighbors would complain about the out-of-towners making too much noise or blocking the street with their parked cars.
I reported on some of small-town America’s various issues with STRs for a little over a year. And this entire time, I never noticed the building two doors down from my apartment was a vacation rental. I didn’t know until my condo burned down and the property owners were good Samaritans who opened their doors to me and let us stay there.
One afternoon in July 2022, I got a phone call from my neighbors in an adjacent apartment saying that their place was on fire. I hurried home to find fire trucks and emergency responders outside. Fortunately, I lived on the opposite end of the building, and when I was cleared to enter with a firefighter, I was relieved to find my cat hiding under my bed to avoid the fumes.
While we were still standing dumbfounded outside the charred structure, the STR owners down the road approached me and my neighbors. Since their rental units were not in use, they offered to let us stay the night there. After hauling our things out of the damaged home, we were exhausted, but could sleep with a roof over our heads in the rentals.
Although the American Red Cross provides financial assistance to fire victims so they can stay at hotels, many hotels don’t allow pets, which was a problem for me as a cat owner. I ended up staying at a separate vacation rental nearby that was owned by a friend of a coworker before I could move onto new accommodations. Both rental owners would only accept payment for my stays reluctantly.
This doesn’t change the fact that every home that gets rented out is one less full-time residence. But frankly, the young people that Leelanau County’s workforce needs can’t afford to buy homes here as it is. The lack of affordable housing and STR regulation are therefore often separate issues. As far as I’m concerned, as long as both STR owners and occupants follow the rules, they can make for perfectly “good neighbors.”
