Short-term rental owners seeking permission to continue operations in Park Township are fighting to keep their case in federal court after the municipality filed a motion to dismiss.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court Western District of Michigan in January 2026, and carries many of the same plaintiffs currently appealing a decision from Judge Jon Hulsing of Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court — who ruled in favor of Park Township in November.
The motion to dismiss, filed March 16, argues short-term rental owners “cannot now relitigate these issues in federal court simply by reframing their claims as federal due process violations.” In a response dated June 8, the plaintiffs called the motion “an attempt to evade constitutional scrutiny.”
If the motion to dismiss fails, the case will move into discovery and depositions.
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’s the argument in the federal lawsuit?
Short-term rental owners hope the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan will find the municipality’s zoning ordinance was unconstitutionally vague from at least 2003 to 2024, and that their due process rights have been violated by recent enforcement actions.
What’s the argument in the local lawsuit?
The local argument from rental owners and operators opposing the change is twofold:
Park Township has argued that (1) 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.
— 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: Park Township hopes to see federal lawsuit from STR owners dismissed
Reporting by Cassidey Kavathas, Holland Sentinel / The Holland Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Cassidey Kavathas, Holland Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
