By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published December 15, 2025
PLEASANT RIDGE — Pleasant Ridge’s discussion of short-term rentals in the city will continue.
The topic of short-term rentals, such as Airbnb and Vrbo, has been ongoing in Pleasant Ridge over the course of the year. At its Dec. 9 meeting, the City Commission heard potential ideas on how to regulate short-term rentals through an ordinance.
City Manager James Breuckman said that a proposed ordinance would aim to “balance the ability of property owners to rent their homes with the need to preserve the residential character of neighborhoods and mitigate adverse impacts such as noise, parking congestion, and safety concerns,” a city document states.
Residents who would want a short-term rental would have to apply for a license, which would be granted by the City Commission and be renewed each year. The occupancy limits would be two adults per bedroom and a total overnight occupancy of eight people. There would be a city cap of 12 licenses that could be distributed.
Quiet hours would be enforced from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., and there would be a ban on fireworks, open burning such as fire pits, subletting and commercial events such as yard sales. The owner of the short-term rental also must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Civil infractions would range from $250 to $500 and escalate to a misdemeanor for repeat offenses and the possible revocation of a license.
“People currently operating a short-term rental would have a 90-day window following the effective date to apply for a license, and existing units that would be within that window would have some protections from the density limitations,” Breuckman said. “The biggest question in all of this, whether we license and limit or some other approach, the biggest question and challenge is enforcement, because this is, by and large, from an administrative standpoint, a slippery subject just in terms of where they’re advertised, how people operate them.”
Resident Tom Wilkinson felt the proposed regulations as written were thorough and addressed any concerns he had, though he would prefer if Pleasant Ridge had no short-term rentals at all.
Wilkinson wanted the city to have any short-term rental listings to be listed and advertised as residential and a placard that lists the quiet hours, parking restrictions and contact numbers for the owner on call and emergency and non-emergency numbers.
“Just so people can’t claim they didn’t know,” he said. “I know most people are pretty good. They put it in a notebook, but it’s on the back of the door. I think it could just make it a lot easier, and if something does happen, they don’t have to wonder, ‘Who do I call?’ Otherwise, I thought it’s very well done.”
While Pleasant Ridge had no action required at the meeting, Commissioner Chris Budnik wanted to push back on the ordinance and, based on what he said he’s heard from residents, have the city look at allowing no short-term rentals.
“Their perspective have been overwhelmingly consistent that short-term rentals do not align with what the community wants or what they value,” he said. “We’re a small, tight-knit community. People choose PR for stability, predictability, neighborhood character, all those things we love, and I don’t see how short-term rentals fit within that value system.”
Budnik added that regulating short-term rentals is an operational burden with very little return and would be onerous on city staff. He felt that if there was strong community support and a clear upside, short-term rentals might be worth it, but he doesn’t see it in this case.
“The benefits of (not) allowing short-term rentals are … a little more substantial,” he said. “Maintaining a potential ban on them would strengthen the foundation of our neighborhoods. Those benefits include, but are not limited to, long-term residential stability rather than constant turnover of transient guests, noise, traffic, all the things we’ve talked about. Most importantly, maybe the neighborhood character is one of the reasons people come here. It’s why they buy a house here, why they put down roots here, raise a family. So, short-term rentals are, in my opinion, fundamentally at odds with who we are.”
The City Commission directed city staff to look at the option of banning short-term rentals, including looking at cities that have recently banned them, such as Dearborn Heights.
Mayor Bret Scott didn’t feel as strongly about eliminating short-term rentals, as he said he’s spoken to mayors who have them where it works, and he’s spoken to mayors who have had them and they were horrible.
“I’ve seen ordinances written for and against and sort of in the middle to try to regulate it in some fashion, and it’s a difficult thing because for a lot of communities, it is a new thing,” he said. “We are unusual in that we are so small that we don’t have a code enforcement office. So the notion of regulating some or none still requires work. None still requires a regulatory effort. We’ve had these conversations in the City Commission about other things where people have come in and asked for zero of something, and it’s a difficult conversation to have one way or the other.”