ASHWAUBENON - Short-term rentals are now legal throughout Ashwaubenon and the rest of Wisconsin.

The change in state law came through a last-minute provision slipped into the state budget last week. It supersedes an ordinance the village adopted a little more than a year ago that limited short-term rentals to just 22 properties in the immediate vicinity of Lambeau Field. Owners of those properties also needed to obtain a permit from the village.

The village adopted the ordinance amidst concerns that rental homes would spread throughout the village in response to demand for short-term housing for Packers games and other events would start to change the village's character.

RELATED:Ashwaubenon limits short-term rentals

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The budget addition, made in an omnibus motion approved by the Joint Finance Committee, made such efforts illegal. The budget motion does not have a lawmaker's name attached to individual provisions and was the same one that almost got a railroad crossing installed down the street from an Appleton area legislator's home.

Trustees were none too happy about it.

"This is going to wreak holy hell on this community. It’s going to be miserable to regulate," Trustee Ken Bukowski said. "It’s going to be horrendous. The governor didn’t do the right thing and the legislature didn’t do the right thing when they passed it. It’s a 999 motion, so we don’t know what elected official put that rotten piece of legislation in there. That’s terrible."

In response to the new state law, village officials on Tuesday begrudgingly adopted a quickly-written short-term rental license system in order to maintain some control.

Village President Mary Kardoskee said the village asked Gov. Scott Walker to veto the provision and is upset he did not. She gave a small audience at Tuesday's meeting a sample of a recent email to Walker.

"I told the governor 'That’s what’s wrong with Washington politics and you just brought it to Madison,'" she said.

On Wednesday, Walker was in Green Bay touting a new small business support program. He said the state budget measure ensures short-term rentals can be handled uniformly across the state.

"Municipalities asked to make sure that the tax paid on hotels was universal, so local municipalities asked for that," Walker said. "Some didn't want a standard, but I think it's pretty clear people should have the right to be able to do rentals like they do through things like Airbnb, but they should be able to have consistency in terms of if there's a tax paid on hotels. This language allowed it to happen but just made sure it was done uniformly across the state."

The Wisconsin Realtors Association supports Walker's approach to standardizing short-term rental rules," spokesman Tom Larson said.

"Short-term rentals are a fast-growing and important sector of the real estate industry, especially in traditional second-home markets. Many people are more interested in renting for 1 or 2 weeks every year, rather than owning," Larson said in an email. "The new regulations provide local governments broad authority to regulate short-term rentals and the behavior of the occupants to ensure that they don't interfere with the neighbors' use and enjoyment of their property."

Walker signed the state budget in Neenah on Thursday. Village Attorney Tony Wachewicz and Village Administrator Allison Swanson spent Friday and Monday crafting a license system that could be put in place to give the village some oversight over short-term rentals.

The license system requires a short-term rental property to have a residence agent and property manager, obtain a Brown County tourist rooming house rental license, submit to annual fire and building inspections, pay the county's hotel room tax, pay a permit fee and other provisions that mirror its former conditional use permit conditions.

"We’ve been scrambling to put this together and at least get something into place as a stopgap measure," Wachewicz said.

Other trustees wanted to press the village's luck by approving license requirements that violated the new state law and then see if someone challenges it in court.

"I’d rather over-regulate on the local level, particularly for something residents don’t want," Trustee Mark K. Williams said.

Kardoskee called the measure a first step. She said village staff will present zoning code updates that will bring the village into compliance with state law on Oct. 6.

"It is the state pretty much dictating to us what we can do," she said.