By James Windell
One sure fire way of generating discussion – and sometimes division – on the South Haven City Council is to place an item related to Short Term Rental (STR) on the agenda for a City Council meeting.
That guarantees that citizens will have impassioned and sometimes caustic comments, while City Council members will debate the minute details of the issue.
That’s exactly what happened at the City Council meeting held on January 21, 2025.
Item #12 on the agenda was about STRs. On the surface it seemed innocuous enough: “The City Council will be asked to consider the following regarding Short-Term Rentals: Accept the 2025 Short Term Rental Snapshot Report.”
This annual staff report, which is described in Section 2130 of the City’s Zoning Ordinance, is required per Ordinance No. 1045, and sets the number of short-term rental business permits that could be allowed in 2025. The staff report is required to be presented to the City Council in January each year.
In the STR Snapshot Report, it was indicated that as of January 6, 2025, there were 794 registered STR units in the City of South Haven, which is a 2.7% increase from the 773 STRs registered on January 4, 2024. Based on calculations, there are 500 “Non-Exempt Business” STRs allowed in 2025. There were 465 “Non-Exempt Business” STRs as of January 6, 2025, which comprises 18.6% of the non-exempt housing units in the City of South Haven.
The report stated that there are 35 new “Non-Exempt Business” short-term rental certificates available in 2025. A STR unit classified as “Business Non-Exempt” typically refers to rental properties that are operated for commercial purposes and are not eligible for certain exemptions under local laws or regulations. However, due to the City Council-enacted moratorium preventing the issuance of additional non-exempt business rental registrations, City staff did not conduct the annual allocation process described in Section 2130, Subsection 4 of the Zoning Ordinance in 2024 and no applications were accepted for 2025.
Because the moratorium is still in place, and efforts to amend the STR regulations are ongoing, it is understood by staff that there will be no annual allocation in 2025.
The report also stated that the Southwest Downtown area has the largest concentration of STR units. This is an area bordered by Water St. and the Black River to the north, Elkenburg St. to the south, Center St. to the east, and Lake Michigan to the west. Almost 30 % of all STRs are in this area. There are 785 residential units within this area and 236 (30.1%) of these are registered STRs.
Council member Mary Hosley, representing Ward 3, raised questions about the accuracy of the calculations in the report. She disputed the number of STRs indicated in the report, stating that her calculations were different. That led to discussion between the Council members and Kate Hosier, City Manager.
“I would be remiss if I allowed this STR report to be accepted when I believe the number of STRs is 10 greater than it should be,” Hosley said. “I would recommend that this report be put on hold and recalculated.”
Another Council member asked Hosier if she thought the report was accurate. She responded: “I believe the report is accurate.”
Council Woman Hosley repeated that she was reluctant to accept the report because it would allow 10 more STR permits.
Hosier said that she thought it was a moot issue because the City Council was not planning on issuing more STR permits. Hosier added: “You can accept the report or not, but the report has been provided to you.”
A motion to accept the report failed, but Mayor Annie Brown asked Hosier before the vote whether failure to accept the report would impede progress. Hosier said that it would not.
