By James Windell
In 2025 the South Haven City Council passed a Short-Term Rental ordinance requiring all STR owners to register and have their STR approved in order to rent to visitors.
Sounds like a reasonable requirement, right?
But not so fast. The problem is that going into March, 2026, with the tourist season just weeks away only, about 20 percent of the approximately 700 STRS in the City have completed the process to receive their license. This leaves about 500 STRs in limbo for the summer of 2026 when tourists will be flooding South Haven looking for houses to rent.
This was the STR situation as presented at a South Haven City Council Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting on March 2, 2026.
The core problem, as indicated by City staff, is that since the City will not be able to meet the upcoming deadline for license renewals, those who are awaiting processing risk being penalized – even though they applied on time, paid the necessary fees, and followed staff direction.
However, at the COW, staff proposed issuing conditional STR licenses under the new ordinance to keep one uniform licensing regime. Conditional licenses would let owners continue renting (including honoring existing summer reservations) while staff completes zoning compliance determinations and inspections. Kelly Getman-Dissette, Zoning Administrator for the City, emphasized this is not intended to “skirt the process,” and that enforcement, inspections, and zoning reviews would continue. But she pointed out that conditional licensing is also intended to help stagger renewal the timing, so licenses don’t all come due at once in the future.
Both members of the public who spoke at the meeting as well as City Council members raised concerns that inspections and zoning review could jeopardize long-held STR rights, especially where prior work (for instance, adding a bedroom years ago) may not have been permitted. Staff explained that STRs are now treated as non-conforming uses, meaning owners generally can’t enlarge, extend, intensify, or expand the nonconforming use (for example, by expanding the rental areas). Maintenance work was described as generally acceptable, though remodeling work would require individualized review. City Attorney Dave Eberle explained that lawful nonconforming determinations depend on when the use was established and the ordinance in effect at that time.
With the meeting coming to a close, City Council members at the COW voted to place the item on the City Council agenda for the meeting that would follow the COW.
Spoiler alert: At the City Council meeting that followed the COW meeting, the Council voted to amend the STR ordinance to allow the granting of a conditional license to STRs who have not completed the process yet. Eberle said that the conditional license would be granted to those STRs that were already licensed as STRs, had submitted a complete licensing application, and had paid the necessary fees.
