Short-Term Rentals in the City of Alpena: A New Registration Freeze

What the March 2026 moratorium actually does

The Alpena City Council approved Ordinance No. 26-517 at its March 19, 2026 meeting, imposing a one-year moratorium on new short-term rental registrations within city limits. The moratorium doesn't touch existing operators: the 56 short-term rental units registered with the city as of that date can continue operating and renewing their registrations throughout the freeze. What it stops is any new property from registering as a short-term rental in the city for the duration of the moratorium -- meaning a property you're evaluating specifically for STR income, if it isn't already one of those 56 registered units, cannot become one right now.

The city's own stated reasoning ties directly to housing supply: both rental and for-sale housing vacancy rates in Alpena were described as far below healthy levels at the time of the vote, and the moratorium is explicitly framed as a pause to let the city study short-term rentals' role in that shortage before deciding on a permanent policy.

What happens during the moratorium year

A nine-member subcommittee -- two city council members, three Planning Commission members, two city staff, and a representative from the Downtown Development Authority -- is using the moratorium period to research short-term rental policy options, review the city's 2025 Master Plan survey results, examine other Michigan communities' ordinances, and study recent case law before recommending a permanent approach. That survey found real, specific resident sentiment worth knowing if you're evaluating the city's long-term direction on this: 42% of respondents connected to Alpena identified short-term rentals as a problem in residential areas, 55% said STRs should be limited to a certain number, 57% supported a local business permit process, and 69% backed recurring inspections.

That combination of numbers suggests the city is likely to land on some form of permanent cap, permit, or inspection regime rather than simply lifting the moratorium unchanged -- worth factoring into a longer-term investment plan rather than assuming today's 56-unit registered pool is a temporary anomaly that will reopen freely in a year.

Outside city limits: a different, less-documented picture

Alpena Township, the unincorporated area surrounding the city, operates under its own separate zoning as confirmed in this site's Alpena County hub -- but this research pass did not find evidence of a short-term-rental-specific ordinance for the township comparable to the city's registration program. That doesn't necessarily mean short-term rentals are unregulated there; it means the specific rule (if any) needs to be confirmed directly with the township rather than assumed from the city's much more publicly documented moratorium.