Village Pres. Mary Kardoskee on Short-Term Rental Regulation

Frederica Freyberg:
In other news, here’s an eye-popping, wallet-busting number. With the NFL draft coming to Green Bay next spring, an Airbnb near Lambeau Field is going for nearly $18,000 a night according to local headlines. Turning single family homes into short-term rentals is on the rise because of that kind of payoff, or even much more modest rental income potential. In response to the growth of such rentals in hot tourist towns like Ashwaubenon near Lambeau, locals are enacting new ordinances putting restrictions in place to protect neighbors and neighborhoods. New rules are slated to go into effect July 1st in Ashwaubenon. Mary Kardoskee is the village president and she joins us now. Thanks so much for being here.

Mary Kardoskee:
Thank you for inviting me. Good to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:
So with the NFL draft coming to Green Bay next spring, how crazy has the short-term rental business become near you?

Mary Kardoskee:
Well, you know, we hear the same thing you hear. You know, the $18,000 a night, $45,000 for the week. You know, I — if people want to rent out their homes, you know, there are rules and regulations that have been put in place that they have to follow. And we, you know, are trying our best to make sure that they follow those rules to keep everybody safe, especially the visitors coming to the area. We have a lot of Airbnb-licensed people. Every Packer game, of course, is very busy. And, yeah, we do surround Lambeau Field on three sides. So there is a lot of, a lot of, rentals going on in our community.

Frederica Freyberg:
What does that look like in a single-family neighborhood when the crowds aren’t there?

Mary Kardoskee:
Well, for the 100% of the time, Airbnb rental homes, you know, your neighborhood is dark. There’s not people out and about and walking the dogs and saying hello when they’re putting their garbage out in the morning and kids running around on bicycles. And so that’s what you lose. You lose the fabric of your community as you get more and more and more.

Frederica Freyberg:
How do outside investors hike the value of single-family homes and what does that mean for people who live there or want to live there and their taxes?

Mary Kardoskee:
Well, you know, every time a home is sold and I’m just going to use this. A three-bedroom ranch with a two-stall attached garage that’s probably assessed at about $260,000. That home may sell for $400,000 $500,000. And then we have the one-offs with the $1.2 million. And, you know, $600,000 and those do change the makeup of your community. The state gives you every year the amount of what your village is worth. And then our assessor has to divvy that up. So of course, it makes the taxes go up for those homeowners around there.

Frederica Freyberg:
You’ve said you’re “trying to protect the community.” Again, how so?

Mary Kardoskee:
So when the short term rental statutes were put into effect in 2017, in the statute it states that you can have a six night minimum seven day, six night minimum for each rental. And it could be 180 consecutive days. That was not originally in our original ordinance, but we did put that in about a year and a half ago. And so we did grandfather some of the previous owners in, licensed owners in for one year. But, other than the 180 consecutive days they now will have to, as of July 1, follow the six night minimum.

Frederica Freyberg:
And how do all of those rules kind of offer this protection of which you speak?

Mary Kardoskee:
Well, it, it makes it a little less attractive because you’re not able to garner as many rentals and makes your — probably your profit margin go down a little bit. They’ll have to probably change up their business plan a bit, because they can only rent once in a six night period. So they’ll have to figure that out.

Frederica Freyberg:
And what kind of opposition are you hearing to that from the people who own these kind of investment, short term rental properties?

Mary Kardoskee:
So originally, they were upset with the six night minimum, 180 consecutive days. A lot of the ones who were licensed by June 30th of 2023 found out that the 180 consecutive days only applies to the new rentals as of July 1 of 2023. So they were opposed to the six night minimum, but our board decided last Tuesday night that they were going to hold up the six night minimum.

Frederica Freyberg:
So the village is kind of trying to thread this needle between protecting the neighborhood and allowing short term rentals, which are in such demand.

Mary Kardoskee:
Correct, correct.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Mary Kardoskee, village president of Ashwaubenon. Thanks so much.

Mary Kardoskee:
Thank you for having me.