Couple buys short-term lake rental near Dexter, then finds out they aren’t allowed

WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI — A Pinckney-area couple toured a house on Portage Lake with a real estate agent and decided it would be a good investment. They quickly made an offer and bought it as a short-term vacation rental to list on VRBO, a popular booking website similar to Airbnb.

After a neighbor complained, Amy and Jeffery Bennett found out Dexter Township doesn’t allow short-term rentals.

But that could change. Dexter Township officials are considering creating zoning regulations to allow short-term rentals and set local rules.

Amy Bennett told township officials the real estate agent had told her and her husband short-term rentals were allowed. The previous owner had operated one for more than four years out of the home on Dexter Pinckney Road on the south side of the lake.

Then, the Bennetts were hit with a code violation filed with the township.

In response, they requested the township amend its zoning ordinance to allow short-term rentals. They proposed the township allow them in lake districts and use regulations established by neighboring Hamburg Township in Livingston County.

“My husband and I are committed to being responsible and attentive to other property owners,” Amy Bennett said during a Tuesday, Oct. 22 township Planning Commission public hearing. “I’m stuck if I can’t short-term rent it. I already have plans to redo the whole inside and change it. I don’t want to sell the home.”

The planning commission postponed voting on regulations the Bennetts proposed until a Feb. 25 meeting. Commissioners said they need more time to gather information, review other communities’ ordinances and talk to short-term rental owners, neighbors and public safety agencies first.

The planning commission also voted to request the township Board of Trustees establish a task force to study short-term rentals. Changing the township’s ordinance would ultimately be the responsibility of the board.

Township staff looked into the complaint about the Bennetts’ property and discovered an estimated 20 to 30 short-term rentals had been operating in the township in the last year, township planning consultant Megan Masson-Minock explained in a memo to the planning commission.

The complaint against the Bennetts is the only one he is aware of, Township Zoning Administrator Michael Boettcher said.

“It, to my knowledge, has not been an issue,” Boettcher said. “Code enforcement is generally reactive in the township. If we haven’t received a complaint, we’re not in a position to go looking for them.”

Some residents who live next to or near short-term rentals did speak out about problems and how they impact the surrounding neighborhood.

Their concerns included safety, theft, vacationers using their docks, disruptive parties and guests trespassing onto their properties or parking where they shouldn’t.

Several short-term rental owners made a case for why the township should allow them during the public comments portion of Tuesday’s meeting.

Kurt Weber has operated a short-term rental on the south side of Portage Lake and “never had a problem,” he said.

“I’m really counting on that income for my retirement,” Weber said, also saying he invested to fix up his property.

Others speaking in favor of allowing short-term rentals listed such benefits as how guests support local businesses and how short-term rental property owners often renovate homes to improve them.

Several residents also were in favor of the township taking more time to explore the issue.

Dave Widmann, who lives off Portage Lake, commented how the Bennetts’ proposed regulations fall short. He said using a subset of Hamburg Township‘s rules is “a short cut that we don’t want to take in the township.”

A few residents asked the township to consider allowing short-term rentals on different types of residential properties, not only in lake districts.

Planning Commissioner Gretchen Driskell made the motions to postpone a vote and ask the board to create a task force, which passed 7-0.

“There is more to it,” said Driskell, who is running for Washtenaw County Water Resources commissioner in November.

“I feel like it’s way more complicated than that one application,” she said.

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