It might be the middle of December, but Garfield Township planning leaders are wrestling with an issue impacting summer life on Silver Lake.

That issue is short-term rentals – those for fewer than 30 consecutive days – of houses and cottages along and around the popular lake in Grand Traverse County. According to the township’s planning department, a number of homeowners have offered rentals “under the radar” for years – some knowing it was illegal, others not. With a few exceptions that were grandfathered in, short-term rentals have not been permitted in the lower density residential zones around Silver Lake for more than 40 years.

The township recently contacted approximately 25 short-term renters with cease and desist orders. Those individuals subsequently organized as the Silver Lake Rental Group and have requested the township consider amending the restriction.

The Garfield Township Planning Commission will discuss the issue and receive public comment at its monthly meeting tonight – Wed., Dec. 9, 7pm – at the Garfield Township Hall on Veterans Drive.

Planning Director Rob Larrea tells The Ticker short-term rentals have become a hot-button issue for the township because many properties purchased in the last few years amidst the rebounding real estate market were bought for investment purposes, changing the residential make-up.

Garfield Township is by no means alone in grappling with this issue. The City of Traverse City has experienced a rise in property owners renting their homes for short time periods during the summer high season. City officials admit they don’t enforce the ordinance prohibiting the activity unless they receive a complaint.

Garfield Township recently surveyed owners of property near Silver Lake (including 378 owners of lakefront property and 338 owners of non-lakefront homes). Preliminary responses showed 117 in support of rentals and 102 against.

Proponents of short-term rentals point to a long history of no problems; support for the tourism economy and local employment; retention of property values and the off-setting of non-homestead taxes; and an unfair intrusion on private property rights.

Those opposed express concern about protecting neighborhood character; overcrowding of homes and increased traffic; essentially turning the homes into motels or hotels; lack of respect for the lake and neighbors; and unaccountability of homeowners.

Just prior to the survey being sent out, the Silver Lake Rental Group distributed a letter in residents' newspaper boxes asking for support of their cause.

Larrea notes in a department memo prepared December 1 that the letter “contains some inaccuracies and potentially misleading statements.”

He directed The Ticker to two in particular: that property values have gone down since cease and desist orders have forced many owners to sell, causing a glut on the market; and secondly that cottage owners will be forced to sell at low prices and businesses in the area will suffer if vacation home rentals are stopped in Garfield Township.

“These are strictly opinion and I don’t know about facts to back them up,” he says.