GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY — A northern Michigan community is now taking action to make sure people don’t break their rules against short-term rentals.
Peninsula township on Old Mission Peninsula does not allow short-term rentals. Leaders there want to hold people more accountable if they defy the ordinance.
Peninsula Township does not allow short-term rentals for less than 30 days. The township used to take violators to court, but they wanted to have a faster way to hold people accountable.
Peninsula Township Supervisor, Maura Sanders, said they hope the fines they would impose will deter violators.
“I think having the fine schedule in place will hold residents more accountable,” Sanders said. “It can be a long, drawn-out process to get into the court system. So, to have something in place here at the township at the ready, where we’re able to track and monitor and then associate fines, and then hopefully word will spread so that we can limit any of the zoning violations in the future.”
The township amended its ordinance to include fines on March 26th, and each day a renter violates the ordinance is separate from the last. The 1st violation is a $500 fine and climbs to $5,000 after a fourth violation.
Sanders said she is hoping word spreads for people to stop breaking the rules.
“I would like people to know about this is that this has been a part of our ordinance for a very long time, and now having the fines associated with it will help deter anybody from breaking the rules,” she said. “As part of our survey results and in our master plan, the township and the residents here have repeatedly said that we do not want short-term rentals in Peninsula Township.”
Sanders said she wants people who live in Peninsula Township to know they are working to preserve their way of life on the Old Mission Peninsula.
“We’re a beautiful place,” she said. “We have 42 miles of shoreline. We do want to keep it protected here, and we do want to be responsible to our residents and our taxpayers to enforce the rules that we’ve had in place for decades.”