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BATTLING BABES OF MAXWELL

There were fireworks at the Meeting of the Whole.  This meeting, one of the rare ones actually held and supported by the Lake Geneva City Council this year, was all about short term rentals (STRs).  Incidentally, the Meetings of the Whole are supposed to be held once per month but usually get cancelled by city leaders who do not necessarily want to hear complaints from the citizenry.

A feisty, tough, and very well-informed group of women from the Maxwell Street homes area and those around that area, who actually own beautiful single-family dwellings, came before the city council to complain about the simple and obvious fact that the city council, the mayor and the rest of the tattered leadership of Lake Geneva has not one clue about this coming nightmare of densely visiting humanity referred to as STRs.  This new thing, where owners, usually not from Lake Geneva at all, renovate the STR homes and make them available to large parties of people at seemingly high rates of short-term rent (in actuality, per person, the rents are usually less than that of a nearby hotel).

These short-term rental conversions are destroying neighborhoods in and around Geneva Lake, and it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better, if it ever gets better again.  The population of the United States has figured out that they can come and stay at wonderfully kept and maintained homes for little money.  Why pay a hotel and be just off the water when a house on the water can be rented cheaper and right on the water’s edge?

Alcohol is another consideration.  The renter simply goes to a local liquor store and stocks up.  The occupants of the short-term rental drink up and trouble is the result.  Common beliefs in and around Lake Geneva, including members within the leadership circle of the city, are that these rentals cannot be touched by state law, but that’s mythology.  The state has no law regulating whether short term rentals can be built, owned, or operated.  The short-term rentals are tightly controlled by agreements with the communities they are located in, however, as in and around Lake Geneva.

As these women stated, one after another, stated so succinctly and strongly, these STRs are generally abandoned during the winter months, create nightmare parking situation and are in almost constant violation of the rules put into place to regulate them in and around Lake Geneva.  Mr. Flower, the enforcement officer in charge of enforcing the STR ordinance agreements has indicated that if the citizens have a problem that they should call the police.  Calling the police is basically a waste of police officer time as well as all but useless unless the violations are parking or disorderly conduct.

The owners of many of these properties are, according to the women making that presentation at the Meeting of the Whole, are lying through their teeth about how many people are being allowed to stay at the residences, how long they are staying (minimum is supposed to be one week), the number of parking places for short term renters and more, while Mr. Flower is telling them, when they call in to complain since they all live among many of these STRs, he can only write letters of warning.  Flower works for ex-Marine Fred, however, and as the city building inspector, Fred has plenty of authority and capability to write citations for violations.  The homeowners, as represented by this group of women at the meeting, are a growing force to be contented with and are going to be fully supported by the Geneva Shore Report, now and on into the foreseeable future, as investigations and surveillance become part of the paper’s reporting on this vitally dangerous new development.  As with the saving of the ‘Jewel of Lake Geneva,’ (Hillmoor) the fight to keep Lake Geneva ambient, peaceful, beautiful, and quietly clean will continue.