Beecher trustees direct attorney to prepare rewritten zoning ordinance, add short‑term rental rules

Trustees of the Village of Beecher voted Feb. 10 to direct the village attorney to draft an approval ordinance for a substantially rewritten zoning ordinance and an amended zoning district map.

The instruction follows a yearlong rewrite led by Teska and Associates. Keith of Teska summarized the work to trustees and staff, saying the effort aimed to update the code to reflect legal changes, integrate piecemeal amendments made over the past 20 years, and make the ordinance easier to use. “We rewrote the whole thing,” Keith said. He told the board the sign regulations were completely rewritten to reflect a Supreme Court decision that “drastically changed the way you can regulate signs,” and that the rewrite integrated recent topics such as marijuana regulations, trailers and fences.

The planning, building and zoning committee and a steering committee worked on the draft for about a year. The planning commission held a public hearing on Jan. 23 and proposed a few minor edits; the board’s motion directs the village attorney to prepare a formal approval ordinance incorporating the agreed changes.

Why it matters: the board said the rewrite is intended to reduce confusion for staff, developers and residents by consolidating rules that had been scattered across different parts of the code, and by clarifying procedures such as variances, text amendments and rezonings to reflect current practice.

Discussion highlights: Trustees and the consultant emphasized that the rewrite avoided wholesale changes to core development standards — for example, setbacks were not substantially altered — but did reclassify a few uses (moving about three or four uses between permitted and special‑use categories). Keith said the team added diagrams and charts to help residents navigate legal terminology.

Short‑term rentals: Board members asked for explicit short‑term rental language. Trustee comments and the consultant acknowledged there are currently three short‑term rental listings in town, including two described as “Airbnbs,” and at least one advertisement that states the unit lacks insurance. Keith said he had initially left a permitting path optional but could add registration and insurance requirements. “I can certainly add…that’s an easy fix if that’s the way you want to go,” Keith said. Trustees asked staff to review model ordinances and bring recommended language back to the board.

Process and next steps: The motion before the board was procedural — directing the village attorney to prepare the formal approval ordinance and an amended zoning district map for future consideration. Trustees noted the draft remains open to changes and that any specific edits found after further review can be made at a subsequent meeting. The motion passed on a roll call vote with all trustees voting yes.

Steering committee acknowledgments: At the end of the discussion trustees and staff thanked members of the steering committee for their work, naming Pete, George Trudem, Bob Heim, Mayor Binder, Bob Barber and Charity Mitchell for participating in the yearlong process.

What’s next: The village attorney will draft the approval ordinance and bring it back to the board for consideration; the board did not adopt the zoning ordinance itself on Feb. 10.