Category: News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Park Township, Michigan – Park Township Neighbors (PTN) applauds Laketown Township’s recent handling of their new ban on freestanding short-term rentals, which allows existing stand-alone short-term rentals to continue operation.

In Park Township, the situation is markedly different. In March 2024, the township passed what their legal counsel described as a “clarifying ordinance”. That ordinance first added a definition of short-term rental, and then prohibited them from all residential zoning districts. Unlike Laketown, the 2024 Park Township ordinance also claims that with very few exceptions, existing short-term rentals were unlawful.

This attempt to retroactively apply the 2024 zoning ordinance to pre-existing STRs is the matter at issue in the now multiple lawsuits the township is facing. The lawsuits are being brought by property owners who relied on the township’s own decades-long interpretation that short-term rentals in Park Township were unregulated and allowed.

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 IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Park Township, Michigan – A group of approximately 70 homeowners have filed a federal lawsuit against Park Township. A copy of the lawsuit can be viewed online.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare that the township’s zoning ordinance in effect from 2003-2024 violated the Michigan and U.S. Constitution’s due process and unconstitutional vagueness clauses, and to prevent the township from denying the homeowners their property rights. It also asks the court to award monetary damages and attorneys’ fees to the fullest extent of the law.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Park Township, Michigan – West Michigan non-profit Park Township Neighbors (PTN) files appeal, continuing legal efforts to keep existing short-term rentals legal.

On Nov 4th, 2025, Ottawa County Circuit Court Judge Jon Hulsing wrote in his opinion how “it is undisputed that for nearly 50 years [Park] Township did not take enforcement against any homeowner who rented his property on a short-term basis. In fact, various Township employees, including former zoning administrators, regularly opined that the zoning ordinance did not prohibit STRs.”

Last updated November 5, 2025. (This post will be updated from time to time as events unfold. The latest update is at the end.) 

In November 2024, Circuit Court Judge Jon Hulsing dismissed our case. Essentially, the judge found that Park Township amending the ordinance in March of 2024 changed things.

Because the township had not issued any citations under that new zoning ordinance, the judge found that PTN had not exhausted our administrative remedies, and that he did not have jurisdiction on the remaining issues. You can read the court’s opinion here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local non-profit Park Township Neighbors (PTN) has published a sampling of emails supporting the assertions in their legal case against Park Township over its short-term rental ban.

These documents, which Park Township was required to release, strongly support the experiences of short term rental owners and PTN’s lawsuit.