Milton Township Begins STR Permit Moratorium While Reviewing and Revising Current STR Ordinance; Long Lake Township Planning Commission Votes Down ADU Ordinance Amendment; Leelanau County Looking into Adjusting Building Permit Fees to Support Affordable Housing Development
This week, we catch up on recent local housing policy updates. Starting with Milton Township’s enactment of a short-term rental permit moratorium starting on July 1st through October 31st, while they review and revise their current Vacation Rental Ordinance. After months of consideration, the Charter Township of Long Lake Planning Commission voted down an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) ordinance. The Leelanau County Building Safety Committee begins discussion of building permit fees to see if they may be able to reduce the costs of housing construction in Leelanau County.
1. Milton Township Begins STR Permit Moratorium While Reviewing and Revising Current STR Ordinance
As covered previously in the GAD Top 3 (May 12th, 2025) Milton Township held a Special Meeting on April 24th where they introduced a new draft short-term rental (STR) ordinance. Based on feedback received Milton Township, Sara Kopriva, Milton Township Zoning Administrator and attorney Matthew Vermetten provided a revised Milton Township STR Ordinance at a June 25th Special Board Meeting. Items discussed for the STR Ordinance included:
- A need for tighter enforcement and response to complaints
- Consideration of prenotification of which specific weeks STR units will be rented when permits are issued
- Whether permits should be required for any amount of time
- Whether boats should be allowed the on-site use of STRs, since boats have been utilized in some cases as overflow accommodations
- Reconsideration of capping permit (currently 30 are operational without a cap) and potentially prohibiting transfers to new owners
A motion was then made and passed by Milton Township Board members to place a moratorium starting July 1st, 2025 until October 31st, 2025 on any new STR permits while they review and revise their current Vacation (STR) Rental Ordinance.
It does not appear on the Milton Township website that they have made any drafts of a revised Milton Township Short-Term Rental Ordinance available for review. However, for additional information, you can view the an attorney memo provided to Milton Township of their review of Milton Township’s Short-Term Rental Ordinance and recommendations that they made.
2. Long Lake Township Planning Commission Votes Down ADU Ordinance Amendment
As covered in the June 2nd, 2025 GAD Top 3 the Charter Township of Long Lake Planning Commission has been considering an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Zoning Ordinance amendment (ZOA 03-25-01, on pages 12 to 30) since late spring of this year. They renewed their consideration of this ADU Zoning Ordinance Amendment at their regular June 24th Planning Commission Meeting. Unfortunately, there are no minutes available on the Charter Township of Long Lake website for this June 24th Planning Commission Meeting. However, in the Charter Township of Long Lake Board of Trustees Agenda Packet for July 8th the Planner’s Report (page 10) it was reported that Planning Commissioners voted down the Zoning Ordinance Amendment “citing the need for further analysis and revisions that would require a new zoning amendment and subsequent public hearing.”
3. Leelanau County Looking into Adjusting Building Permit Fees to Support Affordable Housing Developmen
At the June 23rd, 2025 Leelanau County Board of Commissioners Building Safety Committee Meeting, discussion was held on Affordable Housing and Permit Fees (pages 6 and 7). Discussion focused on commissioners’ request for Leelanau County staff to put together a broken-down fee chart of all building permit fees. The intention of commissioners is to bring this fee chart to the full Board of Commissioners for review to determine if there may be some adjustments or waivers they can recommend that may have an impact on lowering the cost to build affordable units.
There was also mention at the June 23rd, 2025 Building Safety Committee Meeting that the current maximum fee for the building of a 900 square foot or less house is capped at $1,000. However, there are very few homes built at this size. The Leelanau County Building Official is going to investigate the number of homes under 999 square feet that have been built, as well as the township requirements or restrictions of minimum square footage in Leelanau County that may be limiting the construction of homes below 1,000 square feet. We will continue to follow this and report any important updates in these considerations in the GAD Top 3.
