{"id":15680,"date":"2025-03-07T17:22:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T18:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=15680"},"modified":"2025-03-07T19:12:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T19:12:43","slug":"property-rights-case-in-door-county-allowed-to-proceed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=15680","title":{"rendered":"Property Rights Case in Door County Allowed to Proceed"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/property-rights-case-in-door-county-allowed-to-proceed\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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The News<\/span><\/b>: Today, the Door County Circuit Court denied the Village of Sister Bay\u2019s motion to dismiss,<\/span>\u00a0allowing the lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) to move forward. <\/span>\u00a0WILL represents four homeowners in Sister Bay who are challenging the Village\u2019s four-bedroom limit on short-term rentals.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All four homeowners were either already renting their homes, or began building them, well before the four-bedroom limit was adopted. The lawsuit argues that the limit violates the right-to-rent law, is arbitrary and irrational, and cannot be applied to pre-existing properties.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Quotes: <\/span><\/b>WILL Deputy Counsel, Luke Berg, stated, \u201cWe are pleased that the Court rejected the Village\u2019s various procedural arguments to avo<\/span>id <\/span>the merits of our lawsuit. We will now move forward toward a final resolution of our claims. The Village cannot and should not dictate where guests sleep in a private home.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional Background: <\/span><\/b>Wisconsin law gives homeowners the right to rent their home on a short-term basis. Wis. Stat. \u00a7 66.1014. Property owners also have a right under Wisconsin law to continue a non-conforming use after a change to local zoning laws, preventing municipalities from retroactively applying zoning changes to existing properties.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite these laws, Sister Bay has repeatedly taken the position that properties lose any vested non-conforming features of their property, merely by applying for a short-term-rental license. Property owners who violate the rules risk penalties from $500 to $5,000 <\/span>per day<\/span><\/i>. WILL issued a lawsuit on behalf of several property owners in Sister Bay earlier last year.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n