FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Park Township, Michigan – A petition signed by 372 Park Township residents was presented to the Park Township Board of Trustees at their meeting on May 14, 2026.
The petition urges the Board of Trustees to do the right thing: find a way to allow only those short-term rentals that were operating prior to the March 2024 ban to continue.
Volunteers primarily went door to door to gather these signatures, and over 90% of the residents who were home signed.
The petition calls for a common-sense resolution to the now multiple lawsuits the township is facing as a result of retroactively applying their recent 2024 zoning ordinance which bans STRs outside of C-2 zoning.
For decades prior to the new zoning ordinance, multiple township zoning administrators, code enforcement officers, and officials had consistently and repeatedly told property owners that no permit was required for short-term rentals, and that there were no regulations or restrictions regarding short or long-term rentals at all.
A portion of these official statements are quoted here. The lawsuits are being brought by existing property owners who relied on the township’s own interpretation for decades.
“We are fighting for the right to be treated with integrity. To be able to trust that the word of the township is genuine. To be able to continue doing the thing we were told we could do,” says Park Township resident and Park Township Neighbors member Jackie Beck.
The petition points out that people trusted the word of the township and built their lives around what township officials had consistently told or emailed property owners.
Then the township changed the rules in the middle of the game, eroding the trustworthiness that good governance depends on.
The legal fight has cost taxpayers enormously — with more than $338,000 in legal fees paid by the township through October 2025 alone. Estimates are that approximately 100 short-term rentals remain, making up an extremely small number of the over 8,200 homes in the township.
The petition asks the current leadership of Park Township to put the costly and divisive dispute behind everyone, and to settle the matter with fairness and move on.
The Park Township Board of Trustees has the opportunity to bring fairness, stability, and unity back to the township, and we sincerely hope it chooses to do so.
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Media contact:
Jeremy Allen, neighbors@parktownshipneighbors.com
About PTN:
Park Township Neighbors (PTN) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit social welfare organization established by families, individuals, business owners, and community leaders working together to improve everyone’s experiences in Park Township. For more information, visit ParkTownshipNeighbors.com.