By James Windell
It was a packed Council Chambers at the South Haven City Council meeting on Monday night, March 3, 2025. This was not unexpected because a public hearing on the latest draft Short-Term Rental ordinance was on the Council’s agenda.
It was also no surprise that this was a vociferous crowd with members of the audience delivering passionate speeches when public comments were allowed on the proposed ordinance. Although the City Council voted to limit each speaker to three minutes, instead of the customary five minutes, most of the 32 speakers over the nearly two-hour public comment portion of the meeting were outspoken in voicing their opposition to the newly revised ordinance.
The predominant theme of the public comments was that the attempt in the ordinance to limit or reduce the number of occupants who could stay in STRs was a terrible idea.
“The City Council is proposing to introduce regulations that will severely cripple the local economy by massively reducing the rights of Short-term Rental Homeowners by drastically re-ducing occupancy levels in every registered and lawfully conforming STR,” said Rich Greene, Advocacy & Development Director of Shores Vacation Rentals, a company that represents 56 STR businesses. “The ordinance will decrease occupancy by over 34%, affecting 95% of STR Homeowners. The economic impact will be huge. In a time of financial instability in American, Michigan and South Haven, with inflation so high, including the high cost of gas and food, the current tourist season will surely take a hit. How can the City Council justify harming the econo-my in this way?”
This kind of dire forecast was echoed by several other speakers. Ashley Greer, President of Lake Michigan Linen Services, said that passing the proposed ordinance would cause a $12 million loss to the city as well as the loss of 146 jobs. One speaker predicted the ruin of the city within five years if the ordinance was passed.
STR owners who spoke said they would not be able to survive as businesses if the proposed limits on the number of occupants who could stay in their business were reduced. The newly proposed ordinance has recommended a maximum cap of 12 people based on a formula of 2 persons per bedroom with no more than 12 total occupants. Maximum occupancy under the proposed ordinance is tied to compliant bedroom size and number of full bathrooms per occu-pant. However, some STR owners say they need to continue to be able to rent to as many as 15 or 16 occupants.
Citing the unfairness of the proposed ordinance, Regan Gibson, an attorney representing the Property Rights Coalition, threatened litigation if the ordinance was passed.
After the nearly two hours of public comments, during which several speakers accused the City Council of failing to listen to their concerns, the Council, clearly weary from the five straight hours of meetings about the STR proposal, indicated that they could not support the or-dinance as written.
Council Members Joe Reeser and Mary Hosley said they were listening to citizen com-ments and agreed that they could not approve an ordinance that would reduce the number of occupants that some STRs enjoyed in past years.
City Attorney David Eberle stated that there could be a path forward if the ordinance al-lowed STRs that had previously had 12 to 16 occupants without violating any laws or policies were to continue to run their STRs without a reduction in the number of occupants.
The meeting ended with the Council agreeing to revisit the ordinance and the occupancy issue at the March 17, 2025, City Council meeting.
Following the meeting Rich Greene said he was not encouraged by the outcome. “I am afraid that words fell on several deaf ears. At least three members of the City Council continue to push misinformation about STRs. They cite safety, traffic and health – all the things that have been proven false. So, I don’t have a lot of hope at this point.”
However, Ashley Greer was more optimistic: “It was great to see so many people come out in support of shortterm rentals, tourism and the economy within South Haven,” Greer said. “Hearing concerns from local business owners and residents alongside short term rental owners and property managers was a wonderful showing of solidarity for such an important industry in South Haven. I believe the City Council heard us and were listening. I believe they heard the im-portance of maintaining aspects of the existing ordinance, such as occupancy levels, that help support our vibrant community.”
