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Lauderdale Lakes BREEZE Summer 2017 • Second Edition
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Short-term renter gets victory in court County plans to appeal decision
by Vicky Wedig STAFF WRITER
A Walworth County Circuit Court judge ruled last month that a Chicago man can continue renting out his home near Lake Como despite the county’s assertion that doing so violates county ordinance. The Walworth County Land Use and Resource Management Department cited Brendan J. Hehir in September with violating the county’s ordinance that prohibits lodges in unincorporated areas. Hehir pleaded not guilty to the citation and took the matter before Judge Phil Koss, who ruled in Hehir’s favor. Koss dismissed the citation against Hehir and ruled that Hehir is grandfathered under the county’s ordinance before 2014, therefore allowed to continue renting out his home. However, the county’s Land Use and Resource Management Department argues grandfathering is not possible since the county’s ordinance never allowed short-term rentals. The county updated its ordinance in December 2014 to better define what constitutes “transients,” which are prohibited in residential zones, and began enforcing the ordinance more consistently rather than only
in response to complaints, said Shannon Haydin deputy director of the county’s Land Use and Resource Management Department. Hehir was issued a ticket for renting out his property in August, four months after the county sent letters to 100 other homeowners who were discovered to be renting, informing them they were violating county ordinance and asking them to stop. As a result of the letters, 70 of those people stopped renting, Haydin said. However, some lodge proprietors maintained they were grandfathered in – they were operating their homes as lodges before the county clarified its ordinance in 2014. Twenty-three homeowners appealed to the county’s Board of Adjustment in July, and the quasijudicial board sided with county staff, saying the homeowners must stop renting or they are in violation of county ordinance. Fifteen of those property owners are now appealing the Board of Adjustment’s decision in Walworth County Circuit Court. Only two allowed to rent Haydin said the county’s concern is whether Koss’ decision in the Hehir case will affect the outcome
of those 15 homeowners’ appeal to reverse the Board of Adjustment’s decision. Judge David Reddy heard two hours of oral arguments in that case May 17, and is scheduled to hear further arguments and likely make a decision July 18, Haydin said. Haydin said the decision in the Hehir case immediately created the perception among homeowners who want to rent that they too are allowed to do so. That is not the case, she said. Hehir reported receiving at least three phone calls within days of the April 24 decision from people who assumed they too were now allowed to rent, Haydin said. “I also had a woman who I sent a violation letter call me back and say, ‘Hehir won, I’m grandfathered,’” she said. As of now, Haydin said, Hehir is one of two people grandfathered based on Koss’ ruling, and the county plans to appeal the decision. “We’re very likely to appeal that decision to the court of appeals,” she said. Another renter, Growth Management and Vista Pointe, is also allowed to rent two singlefamily homes in the Town of Delavan as a result of a decision by Koss, which was upheld by the
Wisconsin Court of Appeals in 2015. In making a ruling in the Hehir case April 24, Koss reviewed the Growth Management case to make a decision. “I think the primary concern that we have with the way things happened in court was that the judge not only dismissed the ticket but gave him a pre-existing nonconforming (use) status with very little evidence,” Haydin said. According to online court records, the hearing was in session for 13 minutes before Koss recessed to review the Growth Management case and ruled 18 minutes later. Haydin said the county’s Executive Committee must approve seeking an appeal before the Land
Use and Resource Management Department pursues a decision from the appellate court. If renters win If the county exhausts its appeals, and judges rule in favor of renters in both cases, the county’s ordinance will still stand, Haydin said. “There’s not really a question as to whether or not this ordinance is valid,” she said. If residents win their appeals, the county will accept that they are grandfathered in, Haydin said. However, others can’t broadly apply the decision, she said. “An individual can’t just declare
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