The South Haven City Council continues crafting a new short term rental ordinance.
At a meeting this week, the council reviewed a draft ordinance that will take effect and govern STRs in town once a moratorium on new STRs ends. Members refined issues like wording, parking requirements, and maximum occupancy. Council member George Sleeper felt there should be some flexibility on that last question.
“To me, I mean, if you have invested in a property, you modified it, built it to have a certain occupancy, and now we’re saying you can no longer have that many people in it, I would wonder if that doesn’t sound fair,” Sleeper said.
The council settled on a maximum occupancy of 12, but with some exceptions.
The parking rules will require that on-site parking be included with STRs, although council members haggled over how many spaces should be provided. They sent the matter back to zoning staff for further refinement.
The ordinance will come back to the body with members saying there’s still a lot of work to do.
