Short-term rental regulations narrowly adopted by Fenton Borough Council

FENTON TWP., MI — The Fenton Borough Board of Trustees narrowly approved the borough’s first short-term rental regulations on Tuesday, Sept. 3.

Under rules approved by council on Tuesday, owners of short-term rental properties in the borough will be required to obtain special use permits if the property they are renting is located in an area of ​​the borough zoned for agricultural development.

Board members Mark Goupil and Christine Reid and board secretary Robert Krug voted against the proposed regulations.

Fenton Township Zoning Administrator Mike Deem said the new rules will go into effect in about 45 days.

“Short-term rentals in commercial and multifamily zones will be considered permitted uses,” Deem said.

Under the new rules, special property use permits will only be issued for short-term rentals in a single-family housing district if the property is owner-occupied.

“It basically means you can’t rent out an entire home in a single-family housing development,” Deem said. “It reduces the risk of nuisance and eliminates the possibility of corporations buying homes in the community solely for short-term rentals.”

One of the most controversial aspects of the regulations is the requirement for owners of short-term rental properties to be present on site at the time of the rental.

That particular requirement, included in a draft ordinance approved by council Tuesday, was not recommended by the Fenton Parish Planning Commission.

The planning commission instead recommended that the borough adopt regulations that would require a representative of a short-term rental property to be located no more than 30 miles from the rental site.

The borough has been considering short-term rental regulations for some time, but initially waited for Michigan to pass its own regulations, which could provide some guidance.

Deem said the commune is working on regulations for short-term rentals from January 2023.

“When it became clear that nothing was happening in the country, we started developing our own regulations,” he said.

Before voting against the proposed legislation, Reid expressed concerns about requiring landlords to be on site for short-term rentals.

Reid’s concerns about the requirement were shared by the other two board members, who voted against the ordinance.

“I think we solved some problems, but I feel like we created others,” Reid said.

While he admitted the regulations were not “perfect”, Fenton Borough Councillor Vince Lorraine argued that introducing some regulations on short-term rentals would be better than no regulations at all.

Fenton Borough Treasurer John Tucker made a similar argument before the vote in favor of the regulations.

“It gives us something to work with because the alternative is continuing the Wild West,” Tucker said.

While the new regulations will come into effect soon, Deem explained that the municipality will be able to modify them in the future if necessary.

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