Board of Adjustment finds applicants violated county’s zoning ordinance
By Kellen Olshefski
SLN Staff
The Walworth County Board of Adjustment voted Aug. 11 to deny 23 appeals to violations of the county’s zoning ordinance against short-term rentals.
At the board’s July 13 appeal hearings, numerous county residents showed up to voice their concern about the Walworth County zoning administrator’s interpretation that renting to the transient public on their properties for less than 30 days constitutes a violation of the county’s zoning ordinance.
Property owners argued the rental of their properties is a legal non-conforming use because of a history of renting prior to December 2014, when the county’s zoning ordinance prohibiting short-term rentals went in to effect.
Attorney Dean Richards, hired to represent the board at its Aug. 11 meeting, explained to the board that a legal non-conforming use applies to all property owners who were grandfathered under the new ordinance, meaning they had been permitted to run their properties as a rental property prior to the ordinance taking effect.
A motion to find that the 23 applicants had violated the county’s zoning ordinance against short-term rentals was made and passed unanimously.
A second motion to find that landowners did not have a permitted, non-conforming use was made and also passed unanimously.
For the full story, see this week’s edition of the Elkhorn Independent.
