Park Township's short-term rental ban that a court took 50 years to confirm

Own a cottage along the lakeshore in Park Township and picturing weekend rental income? Read the zoning first. This township sits between Holland and the Lake Michigan dunes. It treats short-term rentals as a use that simply isn’t allowed in its homes-only neighborhoods. And it spent years in court defending that stance.

The fight started in November 2022. The township board ruled that renting a home for short stays wasn’t an allowed use in residential zones. It told existing operators to wind down by October 1, 2023. Owners formed a nonprofit, Park Township Neighbors, and sued. A circuit judge first gave them a temporary injunction in December 2023. That let rentals keep running while the case played out. In 2024 the township passed a new rule, Ordinance 2024-01. It pinned short-term rentals — stays under 28 days — to the C-2 Resort Service district and kept them out of the rest of town.

The case landed for good on November 10, 2025. Judge Jon Hulsing of the Ottawa County Circuit Court ruled for the township. Here’s the odd part. The supervisor, Steve Spoelhof, argued the use had been off-limits in residential zones since at least 1974. The judge agreed the township could enforce its own rules — even though, by his own finding, it had gone 50 years without doing so. Old wording on a permit counter, he said, didn’t override the ordinance.

The takeaway holds even as appeals and details shift. In Park Township, a short-term rental in a home-only neighborhood is the exception that needs the right zoning, not the default. The C-2 Resort Service strip is where the green light lives. A quiet street off Ottawa Beach Road is where the cease-and-desist letter waits.