Town to consider short-term rental ordinance

Town of Belgium leaders — at least the town chairman and zoning administrator — have developed requirements to limit the short-term rentals that lake residents say have been ruining their peaceful neighborhoods for years.

Town Chairman Tom Winker and Zoning Administrator Charlie Parks on Monday agreed to require seven-day stays for short-term rentals — often booked through services such as Airbnb and Vrbo — and only allow these rentals to operate six months of the year.

“We’re to the point where we need to do something. Charlie and I have been talking about this for the last five years,” Winker said.

“We can’t allow short-term rentals to change the culture of our neighborhoods.”

The issue came to a head in December 2023 when a 23-year-old Sheboygan man wanted by authorities was arrested in an Airbnb on Country Club Beach Road and charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court with possessing a machine gun and child enticement, both felonies, and a misdemeanor count of sexual intercourse with a child.

Lakefront residents have complained to the board that having so many short-term rentals is ruining life in their neighborhoods, saying some renters were misbehaving during weekend parties. Resident Doug Starck told the board last summer that commercial-grade fireworks landed on his property.

Towns across the state have enacted restrictions beyond the seven-day, six-month requirements allowed by law and have been sued by the Wisconsin Realtors Association and property owners. Town of Belgium officials watched and waited, trying to avoid landing in court.

Last month, Wisconsin Towns Association attorney Joe Ruth cleared up ambiguity on restrictions. The town wanted the ability to issue conditional-use permits for short-term rentals in order to control them, but Ruth said the State Legislature wouldn’t be on board with that for likely a decade.

“That’s a long time. The potential for a lot of adverse impact on our residential neighborhoods, along the lake especially, is  substantial,” Parks said.

The state allows the seven-day stay and six-month requirements, which town officials have chosen to include in their proposed ordinance. It will also include a list of best practices for short-term rentals that residents developed.

Starck said the seven-day required stay means, “We can ban the party houses.”

The town tried to have contact information listed on its website for the owners of short-term rentals last summer. Of the eight owners listed, Starck said, six lived in Illinois or Indiana. The other two lived in Wisconsin but not in the Town of Belgium.

“I just don’t see why we’re protecting a lot of out-of-state investors at the expense of your lakefront community,” Starck said.

The ordinance would apply only to residential properties and will not affect a popular bunkhouse in the town that’s rented for hunting.

“The Dan Larges of the world with his hunting lodge will not be affected at all,” Winker said.

The ordinance will be developed by Town Attorney Paul Alexy with assistance from Parks.

“I’m going to give Charlie some authority. He understands some of this language a little bit better than I do,” Winker said.

The majority of elected town officials — supervisors Tom Bichler and Bill Janeshek — were not involved in the proposal.

“I haven’t talked to these two guys at all. They didn’t know I was going to talk about it,” Winker said.

“Charlie and I are very close. We share a lot of our thoughts, and that’s where a lot of the direction and leadership comes for this Town Board.”

No vote was taken to move forward with the proposal. Winker asked Bichler and Janeshek if they were OK spending money on attorney fees to draft the ordinance, and they agreed though no vote was taken.

The agenda only listed “recap of information” from Ruth “regarding short-term rentals.”

Winker said he did his own research on the issue.

“You couldn’t imagine the amount of meetings I went to and the thought process that I went through, and these two guys (town supervisors) didn’t know a thing about it. I know Bill’s looking a little bewildered at me, and I understand that, but you know I’m the one that’s out there gathering information every day,” he said.

“I’ve about exhausted my thought process on it. These guys didn’t hear anything about it. They need time to weigh all the pros and cons on it.”

Bichler didn’t comment on the proposal. Janeshek wondered about enforcement if the ordinance is violated.

“I definitely have sympathy for everybody who has a neighbor that’s an Airbnb,” Janeshek said.

“My biggest concern is what happens when you have somebody there and they’re there for three days or for the weekend? Who’s getting called? How is that getting policed?”

Lake resident Jill Kunsmann said, “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what I’m hearing tonight,” adding there is a reporting structure for Airbnb that makes it easy to document violations.

Parks suggested calling the Ozaukee Sheriff’s Office.

“Everybody has to be realistic about what these ordinances are going to do. They’re not going to solve all the problems. Civil issues are still going to have to be reported to the sheriff,” Parks said.

While the vocal majority may be in favor of limiting short-term rentals, some owners play by the rules and will miss renting out their property a couple of times a year.

“The problem I’m having with this entire thing is I cannot find a win-win for everybody in the town, and that really bothers me,” Winker said.

“I can tell you there’s a couple roads — the private roads — that the people don’t want anything to do with this. That really bothers me because I represent everybody in the town, all 1,500 people, and you can only imagine how difficult this is for me to at least present this to the board so we can make an intelligent decision in the next month or two.”

Who will monitor the short-term rentals, do health inspections and other tasks has yet to be determined, Winker said, “and it won’t be me.”