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.
The documents reveal that Park Township representatives:
- Consistently affirmed the legality of short term rentals.
- Repeatedly assured inquiring individuals that there were no regulations or restrictions on renting single-family dwellings on a short-term basis, and that no inspections or permits were required.
- Told residents who complained about short term rentals that no regulations existed.
- Never cited any short-term rental owners for operating a short-term rental prior to the ban’s effective date of October 1, 2023, despite decades of open short-term rental activity.
The emails from former zoning administrators, code enforcement officers, and community development directors are a sampling of the many supporting documents obtained as part of PTN’s case.
The names and contact information of people who emailed to inquire have been redacted by PTN. For ease of reading, emails have been placed in chronological order.
The following email from the end of 2021 is a reply to a lengthy email that contained photos and complaints about multiple properties. Regarding a short-term rental, that email asked, “Is this legal in a residential neighborhood?”
This is the response:
Three months after that, the township set revisionist history in motion with their March 31, 2022 press release. Despite decades of evidence to the contrary, that press release proclaimed that: “Short Term rentals are currently illegal in Park Township, and have been since the Zoning Ordinance was adopted on February 7, 1974.”
Naturally, the public believed what the township said, concluding that short-term rental owners must be lawbreakers, or perhaps assuming the owners did not check the ordinances themselves.
However, the property owners did contact the exact people in charge of enforcing and interpreting Park Township’s zoning laws, and what they were told matched the ordinances.
The documents demonstrate a clear pattern of township officials communicating that short-term rentals were unregulated and would be grandfathered in as a valid and lawful non-conforming use, starkly contrasting with the township’s current claims that these rentals were always illegal.
These revelations shed light on the shifting narratives and highlight the inconsistencies in Park Township’s stance, reinforcing the legitimacy of PTN’s case.
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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.