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To the Editors:
On July 22, 2024 Peninsula council voted that Mr. Piekarski, of Hudson, Ohio was not permitted to run a str (short term rental), at 1715 Main Street. He had been operating an illegal str in the pole barn on that property for several years. Council gifted him a temporary certificate, until the end of 2024, so that he would not suffer financial hardship, from paying back cancellation fees. After this decision, it was made public that the non-owner-occupied strs in that category now had a total of 16 permits, rather than the 15 that was allowed at that time. The Bronson property (didn`t count) because it was Temporary. December 30, 2024 Mr. Piekarski was granted a new separate address for the pole barn. It is now 1719 Main Street. This was decided using information from the year 1859. Peninsula was a different town during the canal`s hey-day. There were many more bars, rumored bordellos, and shanty towns. The Bronson property had in fact a total of eight parcels at that time. So now the house and barn are considered to be two separate independent addresses. They are able to be sold separately, and both are eligible to be strs when open permits become available. Mayor Schneider then decided that the barn at 1719 Main Street would be grandfathered in as an str, using the temporary certificate assigned to 1715 Main Street now an entirely different property. Permits are not transferable. Besides that, the grandfather clause is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations, while a new rule will apply to all future cases. How then does anything on the Bronson property qualify? Also of note, our regulations require, that a str must have a septic system operation permit. The barn on 1719 Main Street doesn`t have one. Mr. Mayor, What is going on here? Mr. Piekarski is continually telling everyone, how much he respects the history of our town, when in fact he has manipulated a path to a whole new level of exploitation. Update, February 11, 2025 council meeting. Mr. Bryan, the town solicitor, claimed that the barn met all necessary criteria. I feel that the explanations seem a bit off, but I believe Mr. Bryan did craft the temporary certificate. When asked how many strs are now in that category, he didn`t know. There are still 16. That is now six over the new amount allowed per our regulations. When asked if the barn at 1719 Main Street had a certificate from the health department, he didn`t know. When pressed by another resident, if indeed the barn even had an occupancy permit, Mayor Schneider became agitated and abruptly shut the conversation down.
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