CADILLAC — A former downtown Cadillac Airbnb property received city council support to become a short-term rental once again if the owners choose to apply for a special use permit.
By a 3-2 vote on April 21, with council members Bryan Elenbass and Robert Engels dissenting, the owners of the house at 128 E. Pine St. cleared a hurdle with rezoning from an OS-2 to a B-2. The area of the home, a block off Mitchell Street, is mostly zoned business and multi-family residential.
The house is a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house built in 1905 that has 3,734 square feet of living space, a large pool and backyard area and a three-car garage.
The house is currently for sale and listed at $759,900, a move that followed mistakes the multiple-owner group admitted they made when the Cadillac Planning Commission approved the original rezoning request in 2023.
One of the owners, Sarah Glidewell, said that after purchase, the owners poured $250,000 into the property to make it a rental. She said the owners felt the necessary approval was granted to rent the house through the planning commission. The rezoning requires approval by the city council, which was denied. The city sued the home’s owners to shut down the Airbnb. An agreement was approved by the city for the owners to operate for two more months to satisfy reservations as long as the owners paid the city’s attorney fees.
The owners then hired local attorneys to go through the process again. After unanimous approval by the planning commission, the city held a public hearing leading to the vote with the tiebreaker approval by Mayor Tiyi Schippers.
The public hearing featured business owners and neighbors of the property in favor of the rezoning, saying the Airbnb is good for downtown business. The house as an Airbnb went for thousands for a weekend.
Glidewell and another owner, Matthew McCall-Stillman, offered presentations to the council and public before the vote. Glidewell said the house is for sale, but they may apply for the special use permit from the planning commission to again make money as a rental. It has sat for six months now without being rented.
Glidewell said that whether they continue their commitment or sell the house, it deserves the rezoning to be a revenue opportunity for the owners and the downtown district.
The owners also said they want to be respectful of bigger issues the city is going through that may have contributed to communication breakdowns that led to the lawsuit and the months of limbo.
Glidewell said the owners have looked at other options for the house, as it was zoned, which led to “dead end after dead end after dead end.” Some of the office options would require spending six figures to install an elevator, Glidewell said.
After the rezoning, the owners will decide the next move. B-2 opens options for special use permits to be granted for a venue for weddings, baby showers and graduation parties, Glidewell said. Or an Airbnb.
“We felt if we built it, people would come,” Glidewell said.
