The Leighton Township Planning Commission Wednesday reviewed feedback from the Green Lake Association about a short-term rental ordinance being crafted. Most of the discussion points was about the number of people at a rental unit.
Commissioners were not comfortable setting a number of occupants per bedroom, as was suggested. Instead they opted to keep the ordinance simple by setting a maximum the number of overnight occupants at rental unit to 16.
Association members also were concerned that people would use a rental house to be host to a large wedding. Commissioners said they understood, but did not want to be too restrictive as to ban smaller gatherings such as a birthday party.
In the end, commissioners set a maximum number of people at a rental to 50 for any given time.
The new ordinance also will prohibit guests bringing water-craft trailers from parking the trailers in the street or on a neighbor’s property.
The planning commission also decided to not put a cap on the number of short-term rentals. They said they felt that limiting short-term rentals to the properties zoned lake-residential was restrictive enough.
The short-term rental ordinance will be discussed again at next planning meeting before being sent to the township’s attorney for review.
A survey requirement:
The planning commission also considered a request from the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) to require applicants seeking a zoning variance, to provide a survey the board can review. Commissioner Steve Shoemaker, who is also on the ZBA, stated that appeals have been denied because the drawings being provided by the applicants are not clear enough, and to scale of what is being requested.
Planning commissioners were concerned about adding the cost of a survey to an application process that is already cost prohibitive. The township charges $1,000 for the variance application, and requires the applicants to put $1,500 in an escrow account. The funds in the escrow account are to cover the township’s costs in processing the application.
In the end, the commission passed the buck to Professional Code Inspectors (PCI) to require the survey.
