Lakewood Club

The Village of Lakewood Club has not adopted a short-term rental ordinance, so STR permissibility tracks the underlying zoning district shown on the village’s official Zoning District Map. Residential dwellings in residential districts (including the R-3 Manufactured Housing District) are the default starting point, but the village has not published a machine-readable use table that explicitly addresses transient or short-term lodging.^[3][4] For any property, pull the parcel’s zoning from the official map below, then confirm with the village clerk before listing on Airbnb, VRBO, or similar.^[1]

View the Official Zoning District Map (PDF)

No. There is no short-term rental permit, license, or registration program adopted by the Village of Lakewood Club. The codified Code of Ordinances effective December 6, 2025 consolidated existing village ordinances and did not add an STR framework, and the American Legal Publishing code library returns no STR-related sections for Lakewood Club.^[6][7] Operators are still subject to the village zoning ordinance and to general ordinances covering nuisance, noise, open burning, and animal control.^[2][3][5]

If a property has been physically modified to support an STR (added bedrooms, basement bedrooms, accessory structures used for sleeping, kitchenette additions, etc.), a zoning application and building permits will be required before the use begins.^[4]

STR operators making any physical changes to a property in the village must go through two permit paths. Land-use approvals (rezoning, special use, variance, base zoning permit) are submitted to Village Hall using the 2025 Zoning Application form; separate building, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing permit applications are listed on the village Forms page and must be submitted before construction begins.^[4][8] The village’s Forms page lists individual applications for: building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fence, contractor registration, commercial/industrial site plan, residential site plan, and land division.^[8]

Specific permit fees are set by the Village Council and are subject to change; the published fee schedule lives on the application form and the village’s adopted budget rather than as a standalone fee page.^[9] Always confirm the current fee before submitting an application by calling Village Hall at (231) 894-9008.^[1]

STR hosts must follow the village’s General Nuisances ordinance (Ordinance No. 101, adopted 2024), which prohibits noise that unreasonably disturbs others, accumulation of refuse, and similar quality-of-life violations as municipal civil infractions enforceable against the property owner and the occupant.^[5] The older standalone Nuisance Ordinance (No. 13) remains on the books for offenses defined there.^[10]

Open burning is regulated under Ordinance No. 46: recreational bonfires are allowed up to six feet in diameter by four feet high, must use only brush, limbs, and tree cuttings (no household waste, no construction debris), and may not be left unattended.^[11] STR hosts should explicitly prohibit fire-pit use of household waste and require attended fires in their house rules.

Lakewood Club has not adopted a standalone fireworks ordinance; consumer fireworks are governed by Michigan’s Fireworks Safety Act (Public Act 256 of 2011), which permits use only on the day before, day of, and day after federal holidays unless the village has enacted additional restrictions.^[7][12] STR hosts should explicitly prohibit fireworks in their house rules to avoid complaints from neighbors.

The Village of Lakewood Club has not published a separate STR licensing fee, transient-lodging tax, or rental-registration fee because no such program exists.^[2][6] Penalties for nuisance and ordinance violations are issued as municipal civil infractions under the general nuisance ordinance; fines, default judgments, and equitable relief are available remedies under Ord. 101.^[5]

Zoning and building permit fees are set by the Village Council and are listed on the applicable application form; for current amounts, call Village Hall at (231) 894-9008 or email the clerk before submitting.^[1][4] Sewer and water utility billing for properties served by village systems is invoiced on the schedule shown in the adopted FY 2025-2026 budget.^[9]

Many parcels in Lakewood Club are served by private on-site septic systems and private wells rather than village utilities. New construction, replacement systems, and pre-sale evaluations are permitted and inspected by Public Health Muskegon County (Environmental Health Services), not by the village.^[13][14] STR operators planning to add bedrooms, expand occupancy, or convert a single-family home into a higher-occupancy rental should pull a septic evaluation first: a system sized for a 3-bedroom owner-occupied home may be undersized for a 6-guest STR running peak weekends.^[14]

Well permits, inspections, and water-quality testing also route through Muskegon County Environmental Health at (231) 724-6208.^[15]

First call should be to Village Hall at (231) 894-9008 to identify which ordinance is being cited and which department or county agency is enforcing.^[1] Civil-infraction citations for nuisance, animal control, and burning violations are issued under the corresponding ordinance and adjudicated as municipal civil infractions; serious matters route through the Muskegon County Sheriff and the 60th District Court.^[5]

For STR-specific neighbor complaints (overnight parties, parking overflow, unattended fires), a 24-hour local contact is strongly recommended even though the village does not formally require one. Lakewood Club is small enough that a single problem weekend will reach the Village Council; investors who do not live nearby should retain a local property manager.