HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A proposal to restrict where short-term rentals can be located in Harrison Township is dividing residents.
And a recent anonymous “Stop Short Term Rentals” flyer is intensifying the debate.
The flyer, mailed to homes earlier this month, urges residents to oppose rentals such as Airbnb and VRBO in township neighborhoods.
It is titled “Stop STRs,” short-term rentals, and lists a series of bullet points warning about dangers and disruptions.
Local Airbnb owner Jackie Danckaert, who spoke to Local 4, said the flyer misrepresents the typical host and guest.
“Those residents that are not educated on the STRs, short-term rentals, may look at that kind of propaganda and rhetoric and think that that is how short-term rentals are, party houses where drugs and violence occurs,” Danckaert said. “None of which are true.”
Danckaert said the flyer has reignited tensions that surfaced late last year, when Harrison Township officials proposed a zoning ordinance covering short-term rentals.
During the Dec. 18 Planning Commission Meeting, several people spoke in favor of and against short-term rentals. The commission voted to table that conversation for the time being.
That proposal would have limited short-term rentals to four zoning districts: local commercial, general commercial, the village district, and the village downtown waterfront.
Danckaert said she believes short-term rentals should be allowed in residential areas, with oversight
Some residents, however, say short-term rentals have already harmed the character of their neighborhoods.
“I’m totally against short-term rentals,” said Craig William Bardill, who lives near one of the properties.
Bardill said some renters are disrespectful toward full-time residents, and the constant turnover of guests has changed the feel of the community he once considered a hidden gem.
“It was a little diamond in the rough,” Bardill said. “And these corporations and our own residents that are buying these and making these their homes, Airbnbs, are destroying our township.”
At a Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 15, officials told people who came to talk about short-term rentals that it would not be discussed that night, but that a workshop has been scheduled for sometime next month.
Local 4 reached out to the planning and zoning secretary to find out more details on next month’s meeting, and we’re to hear back.