This article was originally written by Debra Fitzgerald for Door County Pulse
A Sister Bay couple is suing the village, the village administrator and the individual village board trustees over their refusal to renew the couple’s license to operate their short-term rental (STR) property.
The case on behalf of Adam and Brigid White, owners of the Captain’s Cottage at 10775 N. Bay Shore Dr., went before Judge David Weber in Door County Circuit Court on Wednesday. Though the final order had not been prepared by deadline, the plaintiff’s local attorney, Bjorn Johnson, said Weber effectively granted their immediate request.
“Our clients will continue to be able to rent the property as they have in the past after July 1,” Johnson said.
Prior to Wednesday, that had not been the case. The village had refused to renew the Whites’ STR license and the couple was potentially going to lose at least $52,500 in revenue for the season after July 1 when their current license expired.
“We’re extremely happy with the way it went down,” Johnson said, who has been joined in the suit by Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, and its deputy counsel, Luke Berg.
The case outlined in the complaint filed by the plaintiff concerned the Whites’ cottage – which sleeps up to 10 people, and is located across the street from their home – that they purchased in 2020 and have been renting out since then on a short-term basis. The previous owners had also rented the property since 2018.
The village began requiring in 2021 that all STR owners receive a license, which the Whites have done each year. This year, the village denied the couple’s March 1 application through an April 23 email from Village Administrator Julie Schmelzer, according to the complaint. Schmelzer wrote in an email – attached to the complaint as an exhibit – that the primary issue was that the Whites needed at least two, but not more than four, “legal” parking stalls for the cottage, while also meeting existing setback requirements.
“Legal means each stall is 10’ x 20’, asphalt, out of the right-of-way, and at least 10 feet from the neighboring lot line,” Schmelzer wrote in the email.
The Whites’ attorneys argue in the complaint that the cottage is protected from zoning changes because it was built in 1919, before those zoning changes were initiated.
The complaint alleges that Schmelzer told the Whites, however, they were no longer “grandfathered” from zoning changes because re-applying for the STR license allegedly constituted a change of use, invalidating the Whites’ legal, nonconforming status.
“They will not be forced to tear up their yard and landscaping just to add additional parking spaces in a different area of the yard to which they are not legally required to do so when they are grandfathered from such requirements,” wrote the Whites’ local attorney, Bjorn Johnson, in a May 20 letter to the village, also attached as an exhibit to the complaint.
The attorneys argue that simply applying for an STR license does not change the property’s use. They also argue that when the Whites attempted to appeal the decision – as is allowed in the village’s STR ordinance – they discovered that there was neither an appeal form, nor an appeal fee. When they asked for a form, according to the complaint, Schmelzer never responded.
Later, the village’s attorney, Randy Nesbitt, sent a letter to the Whites’ attorney denying their request for a review of the license denial because “no appeal fee has been received by the Village of Sister Bay,” according to the letter attached to the complaint.
According to the complaint, that fee didn’t exist until the Village Board’s June 18 meeting – a fee that does not go into effect until July 1.
Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty have joined Johnson in the suit against the village, claiming the village has unlawfully denied the Whites their STR license and refused them their right to appeal the denial, according to WIL’s deputy counsel, Luke Berg.
The Whites are asking the court for injunctive relief until the case is settled to protect them from losing “substantial income until their ability to rent their property is restored.” According to the complaint, cancellation of their reservations after July 1 total, so far, $52,500.
A hearing before Door County Circuit Court Judge David Weber is scheduled for Wednesday, June 26 at 10 am. The Whites are seeking a temporary injunction allowing them to continue renting their property until the case is resolved.
They are also asking the court to grant an STR license, and to protect the Whites’ use of their property as an STR, despite the driveway/parking area not meeting current zoning code requirements.