LANSING, Mich. — Michigan's House of Representatives says cities can't block short-term rentals in their communities. The bill passed just after 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, and it could mean more people will use the platforms like Airbnb and VRBO to rent out their homes in West Michigan neighborhoods.
"It has a one-size fits all answer, which really doesn't work for us," Grand Haven Mayor Bob Monetza says.
It's the off-season right now for short-term rentals in the lakeshore community, and Mayor Monetza says the current legislation would oversaturate neighborhoods with too many expensive and unavailable homes.
"A lot of them bring with them nuisances and problems, but you also just have a constant turnover of people in them," he says.
The city's current zoning laws keep rentals like Airbnb and VRBO in Old Town and on the south side.
"Nobody here is to try to say we shouldn't have short term rentals," Mayor Monetza says. "We're saying we want to help say where they may be."
House Bill 4722 says municipalities will still be able to regulate things like noise, traffic, advertising, capacity and quantity in each town.
"One of the changes that recently occurred to this bill was the ability for a local community to limit the number of short term rentals to 30 percent of all of the housing stock of that area," State Representative Mary Whiteford says.
She says it's unfair to keep homeowners from renting out their properties.
"If a local community is taking away personal property rights, then sometimes the state needs to step in," she says.
It's something Whiteford says encourages tourism in West Michigan by offering more options for those looking to visit.
"I think it's just a real good thing to foster entrepreneurs, and people who want to start businesses and do this type of thing," she says.
Justin Winslow, the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association President and CEO, issued a statement saying:
"Michigan’s hotel industry remains in a weakened state from a pandemic that is still presenting very real challenges to its survival 18 months later. It was disappointing, then, to see the House of Representatives work through the night to pass legislation that will make the hotel industry’s recovery that much harder. Bill 4722 is not a thoughtful solution to a complicated issue that needs to balance residential safety, fair competition and property rights – it is a tone-deaf handout to mostly out-of-state corporations that will erode neighborhoods, increase crime and cost jobs. Michiganders intuitively know this, which is why 70 percent of voters oppose legislation seeking to take away the power of local governments to control short-term rentals and 79 percent believe they should be taxed the same as hotels. We all deserve better than this and that opportunity still exists in the Senate.”
There's a similar bill in the state Senate right now that has not yet been voted on.
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