For the fifth month, a short-term rental property in Ross Township was the focal point of a contentious conversation during the recent supervisors’ meeting.

The property at 257 High Point Drive has been dubbed the “party house” because guests race dirt bikes, shoot off fireworks, play loud music and other disruptive behavior seven days a week.

Ross enacted its short-term rental ordinance in July and has sent letters to a handful of known short-term rentals in the township informing them that short-term rentals are only allowed in general commercial and village commercial. There are legal consequences if the property owners do not comply.

A couple are in the process of converting to bed-and-breakfasts, which must have an owner and operator live on site.

“When this started, we said it wouldn’t get fixed like switching off a light. It will take hours of discussion and long meetings,” Vice Chairman David Shay said.

A group of residents have been attending the monthly meetings, hoping for a quick resolution. That has not occurred.

It has burdened the residents and increased the workload of the township supervisors, office staff and zoning officer.

“I feel bad for the residents who live near short-term rentals. I wish I could make the rentals stop. But there is a process. These properties are all over the county and there are cases in the magistrates’ offices. Every municipality is struggling with them,” Ross Township Zoning Officer Maureen Minnick said last month via a phone interview.

All Pocono Rentals LLC, which had purchased the foreclosed property in spring 2020 and advertised it on the Internet as a five-bedroom vacation rental, is not stopping its profitable business. Residents said you can still go online and book a room.

Frustrations

The group of residents are not only frustrated with the property owner. They are also frustrated with Minnick.

Residents have cited many instances when Minnick did not return their calls or emails. They could not leave a message because the inbox was full, one resident told the supervisors.

“Her lack of response makes you look bad. Taxpayer money is paying her. She is not representing us,” said Dawn Galler, a resident of High Point Drive who has been voicing her concerns at the past several meetings.

Minnick works for Bureau Veritas, which the supervisors appointed during their January 2020 reorganization meeting. She has weekly office hours.

Legally, she cannot respond at this time.

“The residents were told several times by two different attorneys, myself and other people that this is a legal process. I can’t discuss anything with them until this is resolved. I have nothing to say to them. It’s a process, and again the property owners have the right to appeal a notice of violation,” Minnick said in an email Tuesday.

In September and October, Galler urged supervisors to replace Minnick. Shay made a motion to do so both times, but neither Chairwoman Tina Drake nor Supervisor James Zahoroiko seconded the motion.

He had his own reasons for making the motion. She is supposed to submit weekly reports to the supervisors but has not done so in a few months.

Instead, two of them met with Minnick and other township staff during an executive session on Oct. 19.

On Tuesday, Minnick said the meeting was productive, but she could not comment on what they discussed.

Shay thought the meeting was Oct. 20 and apologized on Monday for missing the conversation. They debriefed him afterward.

“We made an error. We recognize it. We need to move on,” he said.

Instead of appointing a zoning officer from an outside agency, he suggested that the township directly hire a part-time one. He then made it an official motion.

As the three supervisors discussed his motion, they added advertising for a planning commission solicitor and sewage enforcement officer. All three would be part-time positions.

Shay and Zahoroiko voted yes to advertising for all three job positions. Drake voted no.

“I think we’re being sucked into the bureaucracy of a big business,” said Shay.

He said they should not wait until the reorganization meeting in January 2021. He wants to advertise now and review applications in December.

“We all know short-term rentals are going to be a process. We learned a lot tonight,” Galler said.

She was referring to Township Solicitor Tim McManus’ detailed explanation of the appeal process that property owners can request. It starts at the township zoning board level, could then go to the county court level, and up to the commonwealth court level.

McManus said there is a short-term rental in Chestnuthill Township that appealed last spring and just recently had its hearing.

“One big issue across the state is could a pre-existing short-term rental stay in operation. It was legal before the zoning ordinance was enacted,” he said.