The city council in Petoskey last night voted unanimously to approve a moratorium on all short-term rental licenses.
The six-month freeze prohibits the issuing of new short-term rental licenses and bars current license holders from transferring them to someone else.
The move is the latest in a series of actions local governments have been taking to address the issue of affordable housing in the northwest region.
During its special meeting, members of the council said the moratorium provides time to consider long-term changes to short-rental policies proposed by the planning commission.
"I wanted more time to digest it," said city councilmember Brian Wagner during Monday's special meeting that latest less than 15 minutes. "I felt for those reasons the moratorium was appropriate."
Right now, Petoskey has 33 active licenses, 13 in businesses districts and 20 in residential areas.
The 20 licenses in neighborhoods were grandfathered into the city's short-term rental ordinance after it approved a ban on short-term licenses in single-family residential areas in 2014.
"What we're trying to accomplish with the moratorium," said city manager Shane Horn on a phone call with WCMU, "is to hit pause [and] allow us to work through ordinances that do protect and value the public health, safety and welfare of property owners of the city."
Full-time residents have been reporting parking violations to city officials and have filed other complaints regarding noise from travelers lodging in neighborhoods.
Horn added that full-time residents are interested in preserving neighborhood values, like knowing their neighbors on a personal level. But Horn said it’s going to be challenging to please all sides of this issue in a tourist-driven economy.
"We certainly understand and value the economic impact that a short-term rental provides," said Horn. "We just want to make sure that we are sensitive to some other concerns that we have and obviously affordable and available housing is certainly right up there."
The city's planning commission is in the middle of working with Great Lakes Capital, a housing development firm based in Cleveland, to bring a 200-unit apartment complex to the city.
Local employers have repeatedly approached the city about the lack of available housing for staff they want to hire full-time. According to Horn, Great Lakes Capital is still working through making the project financially viable and is trying to close a $13 million finical gap through state and federal grants.
City officials have said there are several people operating short-term rental properties illegally in residential areas.
Horn estimates there are over 30 people operating short-term rentals illegally. But he said the city has not clear data on that number and has relied on residential reporting.
If the city suspects a resident is operating a short-term rental, the city will issue compliance notices before taking more serious legal action or issuing fines.
Horn says the city has invested in software to track down people renting rooms or properties illegally. The city purchased the software from the company Granicus.
The technology will provide the city with properties listed from popular websites like Airbnb and Vrbo and enable them to check if the property owner has obtained a short-term rental license.
"We don't have a true cap on the number of short-term rental licenses that we allow," said Horn. "I'm assuming coming out of this moratorium, when we start working through that, we will have a true cap."
