An organization representing short-term rental owners continues to urge officials in Park Township to grant grandfather status to rentals in operation before a significant change in 2023.
In the group’s most recent effort, Park Township Neighbors presented a petition — reportedly signed by 372 residents — seeking reconsideration before the Park Township Board of Trustees on May 14.
PTN represents owners currently appealing a decision from Judge Jon Hulsing of Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court, who ruled in favor of Park Township in November 2025. The group is also involved in a federal lawsuit filed in January 2026.
What’s the deal with short-term rentals in Park Township?
Park Township officials didn’t choose to enforce a ban on short-term rentals in residential districts until 2022 — and, admittedly, weren’t aware of the ban themselves until a legal opinion was issued in 2021.
In the opinion, the municipality’s attorney advised officials that short-term rentals were illegal by default because they weren’t expressly listed as authorized. The finding came after many single-family homes were snapped up for cash during the housing boom that followed the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Park Township, in response, agreed to research and potentially develop a new ordinance that would allow for the licensing and proper regulation of rentals, rather than shutting existing ones down.
Commissioners drafted an ordinance, hinged on a short-term rental cap and lottery system — but during a joint meeting in October 2022, consensus between commissioners and trustees seemed to veer toward elimination.
Trustees voted in November 2022 to lift an ongoing moratorium on enforcement and require all short-term rentals operating in residential zones to cease by October 2023.
Park Township now has a full-time code enforcer to review complaints and investigate properties that appear to have uses inconsistent with the ordinance.
What are opponents trying to argue in court?
The argument from rental owners and operators opposing the change is twofold:
Park Township, however, has argued (1) that zoning ordinance has disallowed short-term rentals since at least 1974, leaving those who opened afterward without the option of grandfather status, and (2) misunderstandings by staffers don’t change municipal ordinance.
That interpretation was backed by Hulsing in response to a lawsuit filed in January 2025. The case is currently before the Michigan Court of Appeals.
In a separate filing, a federal lawsuit now asks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan to declare that the municipality’s zoning ordinance was unconstitutionally vague from at least 2003 to 2024, and that the plaintiffs’ due process rights have been violated by recent enforcement actions.
The lawsuit also seeks monetary damages and attorney’s fees.
— Cassidey Kavathas is the politics and court reporter at The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at ckavathas@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on X @cassideykava.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: PTN urges officials to reconsider grandfather status for rentals
Reporting by Cassidey Kavathas, Holland Sentinel / The Holland Sentinel
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