Planning Commission to Consider Text for Citywide Short Term Rentals

[XLFD]

I went to my first planning commission meeting tonight, it was a spirited one.  Two controversial items were on the agenda for discussion: 

1) to consider text changes to the Ludington Zoning Ordinance to limit semi-permanent structures on the City or MDOT right-of-way.

2) to consider text changes to the Ludington Zoning Ordinance to allow short term rentals (STR) in the downtown of Ludington.  

The talk amongst commissioners and the public, numbering around 50, would take a good 90 minutes or so.  The end result would sound disappointing-- both measures would go back to the commission's Text Committee to have additional work done on them.  But the process itself and the recommendations of how the Text Committee should look at the two measures was impressive when compared with most Ludington meetings I've witnessed.  They definitely seemed more communicative and responsive.

Three commissioners had excused absences:  Ray Madsen, Kathy Winczewski and Roger Starr (who has missed all four meetings this year).  Excessive tardiness by a city officer from doing their official business should be better explained to the public rather than the secretary giving the cliché 'excused absence' answer.  If Mr. Starr is suffering a lingering illness, I'm sure the public would like to know and send their best regards for his health.  If instead he's just spending winter in warmer climes, we should know that too and consider whether we need a commissioner that would be present more than half the time.

April 3rd, 2019 Ludington Planning Committee meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

The public comment was prefaced with a warning from Commissioner Kreinbrink that there would be public hearing on both text change considerations later so save such comments for that.  Bill Brown who is in the district affected by the proposed text change for STR kind of ignored that by speaking out for downtown STR.  Diane Hawley followed by imploring the commission to consider STR for the rest of the city, as did the next person.  A woman named Barb balanced the first three a little by explaining how it sometimes is being a neighbor of a STR.  

Tim Murphy but the meeting back the other way with a well-reasoned comment for STR in all residential areas.  Ed Santorelli, who was in primarily for the other topic, said he was impressed with the turnout.  Two more spoke that lived out of the downtown, one for and one against STR.

The committee went to the first item which seemed to be the result of a pedestrian accident that happened around the piano area of "My Sister's Closet".  Commissioners were concerned that having items around the downtown area (particularly) could cause similar accidents or could be considered clutter by the MDOT and removed via their policy.  A few downtown business owners including, David Johnson, Ryan Reed, Jason Adam, and Melissa Reed, and three others supported Ed Santorelli's campaign to offer pianos for the public during the summer in public areas and/or urged the commission to consider the change more carefully.  

In the end, the commissioners debated the topic and thought some of the arbitrary elements in the text changes deserved another look by the Text Committee (Nick Krieger and Cory Rickett present).  They will review it at another meeting with the public invited and try to hash out the details before the next LPC meeting.  

Eight people got up during the discussion for STR in the downtown (Ryan Reed twice) and they were unanimously for STR about half argued for the downtown area, the other half for the downtown.  It was revealed that at the latest DDA Committee meeting they had proposed a change to the definition of Boutique Hotel to accommodate any downtown business that had any rental properties on site, rather than a minimum of four (see zoning code section 200.2:5(6b)).  Commissioner Jeff White pointed out that the other zoning law (Article 500.19 Transient Rentals) was decided back 10 years ago. 

With all commissioners getting in to the discussion for awhile, Krieger and White led the discussion into having the Text Committee rewrite the article to allow for the inclusion of all residential units in Ludington.  Commissioner Krieger going so far to say in a bit of exasperation over the perceived impasse that they seemed to have reached that if he was King of Ludington, that he would allow everybody to treat their own homes as their castles and rent them out if they wanted to do so (responsibly).  Most of the attendees clapped and also did when the motion to have the text rewritten to allow STRs was passed unanimously by the commission.

The first Ludington Planning Commission I ever seen in person was quite an interesting spectacle, with reasoned debate over issues and only a few minor issues noted with the procedure (as when the council allowed Ryan Reed to talk just about whenever he wanted to get up out of his seat, but wouldn't allow Bill Brown a second turn at the podium during the hearing-- because he was in the downtown zone for STRs).  

[Willy]

Help me out here X. What is a "text committee" and why is a text change in an ordinance not called a revision or change in the ordinance. If there is a change in an ordinance of course the wording will be different, so is a "text change" just a legal way to say a change in the wording of an ordinance?

Also, an issue as important as STR's should be put on the ballot instead of having a very few people discuss it and then an even fewer amount of  people making the actual change.

Thanks for the post and information.

[XLFD]

Planning Commissions are set up to not have a lot of power.  Their main objective is to establish a workable zoning ordinance.  Like the city council, they have subcommittees, perhaps their most important one is the text committee that recommends changes in the text of zoning law.  This gets referred to the PC as a whole, who then look over the changes and make a recommendation in sending it up to the city council.

The city council, to change the text of existing zoning law, effectively have to make an ordinance.  They have a first and second reading and vote on whether to adopt it after hearing potentially two rounds or more of public comments.  So effectively, the PC is just the early part of the process of changing such things-- it still has to get through council.  If STRs were approved and part of the city charter, changing the rules would require a vote of the people, but they're not.  The people could also initiate STR law and have a vote, but you probably won't see that happen.

I may have simplified it too much, if anybody can do any better please try.  

[Willy]

Thanks X, I appreciate the information however I still don't understand what the actual duties of the Text committee are. Is it their job to change the text, review it for accuracy or issue and interpretation? I have searched for information on it but cannot find any. It seems to me that anything that is involved with text changes to the zoning laws should be the job of an attorney. Do you know if any member of the text committee is an attorney? Do other boards involved with City codes have text committees? On face a text committee sounds like a simple entity but when dealing with codes that affect citizens personal freedoms such as property rights it's important to understand the process.

[stump]

I myself had never heard of the text committee . It does make sense that someone other than the council would write or rewrite ordinances. To my understanding there is a lawyer on the text committee by the name of Krager ?  {SP}  

[XLFD]

That would be Nick Krieger, who from what I understand used to help appellant court judges write opinions.  He has a good understanding of the law, and doesn't appear to be one of the yes-men stooges that often populate city committees.  Or people with hidden agendas; back when Spence Riggs joined the LPC, he immediately got on the Text Committee and was able to enact 'small house/lot' ordinance and get it through council very efficiently in under two months.  I have recently found out how that happened.  It would be smart to have somebody knowledgeable about law and real estate in the Text Committee, but if they don't they can always run ideas through the city attorney, whose retainer would likely cover simple edits.

[Wonder Woman]

That's exactly why Nick Krieger should've been elected to the State House nearly 20 years ago when he ran for election, and elected as Probate Judge when he ran a few years ago. I hope Nick considers running for something else in the future. His knowledge and wisdom can be used on a much bigger stage than the Planning Commission.

[Sharon]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this information and video of the meeting. I have to say that my family thinks the pianos around town are very cool. I can't wait to see what other ideas come from that group. I am very excited for Ludington. I was happy to hear that many people also think short-term rental could be good for the entire community. I do think its sad that government regulation will likely prevent property owners another season to earn some money. I have to think through whether I agree with short-term rental creating a shortage of monthly rentals. I thought the woman that presented some facts about the monies spent by short-term renters was very compelling. Seems like these would be the visitors Ludington might like to attract more of. Every city is dealing with this issue and it is a complicated one. I feel for the committee...not an easy job.

[XLFD]

Thanks for your support Sharon.  I can envision the Planning Commission passing a recommendation onto the full Ludington City Council to have city-wide vacation rentals.  But once it gets there I see a lot of trouble ahead for it.  Several councilors will see some potential negative aspects of an ordinance that allows STRs everywhere.

Councilor Bourgette owns the Viking Arms Hotel and is on the Ludington Convention and Visitor's Bureau Board (LCVB), ergo he pays a 6% room tax for his business and he helps decide how that money is spent for area tourism.  STRs will not pay the room tax.

Councilor Brandy Henderson is chairman of the LCVB who would rather see tourists use lodgings than STRs, so even if there was a room shortage in Ludington during peak tourist times, she would rather have more inns and motels to accommodate them.  More money and influence for her.

Councilor Joe Lenius helps run Nader's Motel which his daughter manages, ran that himself for three decades, so you shouldn't see him embracing the idea.  

That bloc of three seemingly solid "No" votes will be difficult to overcome, especially with three of the four remaining councilors being loyal team players when they have no horse of their own in the race, and not overly interested in the property rights of individuals.  If the Reed family and others flex their political muscle, it may be an interesting battle, however.

[shinblind]

Don't discount the possibility of an inspection fees or an excise tax for Short Term Rentals.

Where exactly this money would end up would be speculation.

But other communities use these to fatten their coffers.

Fees @$400 and excise tax over 13%.

And substantial penalties for violators which they can then add to the property tax.  

Don't underestimate greed when it comes spending someone else's money.

[Inquiring Mind]

I would hope that all three councilors will recuse themselves from voting as they obviously have a conflict of interest. I thought that Brandy as the councilor at large was supposed to represent everyone in the City not just a specific group of people, even though she basically controls the downtown business area.   I am still hopeful that the "New Ludington Administration" will listen to what the majority of people want, not just what the elite groups and good old boys want.

If Ludington is to continue to be a tourist town then we should give them what they need to stay longer and spend their money. I contend that downtown apartments is not the place for families to vacation and short term rentals in the residential areas is the way to get guests with their families to stay longer and make memories with their families.

What most people don't understand is that every Vacation Rental produces from 2 to 5 jobs. These are not low paying jobs. A cleaning person gets paid from $75 to $125 per cleaning for a maximum of 5 hours work. Usually a house can be cleaned in under 3 hours which is a minimum of $25 per hour. A maintenance person gets $50+ each time they are called to repair something. A yard care person gets paid between $50 and $100 each time they mow and weedwack the yard.If you hire a property manager they take between 20% to 30% of the rental price. The final job STR's produce is that the Property Owners are able to earn enough to improve their properties and maintain them.

[XLFD]

Shinblind, fees and taxes for vacation rentals may become a reality if this passes, but one should ask why such government dipping wasn't used to get money from the grandfathered-in and condo STRs in the past twenty years.  I don't like flat rates, since some places may do less than a week of STR's per year while others may offer theirs for six months or more, and I think it's rational to believe that the difference between having an owner in his home or a STR customer there would not significantly alter the costs of municipal services for the community.

I like Inquiring Minds points in that STR's actually can provide jobs to the community, a lot of jobs that can be filled by industrious high school, transients, and college kids with the summer off and more skilled ones working as property managers to make sure the work is done.  If enough STRs are in the area, they can each make full time jobs of it.

[Sharon]

I corresponded with my Councilperson, Councilor Bourgette a while back. He indicated that he was not against STR as he sees it as a different tourist group. I think hotel/motel owners could be possible property managers for some of these properties. They already check keys in and out and have cleaning people. I also think making it legal will make the dilapidated vacant houses be claimed and money invested in them. I agree there will be fees or taxes associated...a shame we have designed our entire government to work this way...and they will already get the income taxes but whatever is fair to all. So interesting to learn how small towns really operate.