BATTLE CREEK, MI (WNWN) On a 5-4 vote, the Battle Creek City Commission adopted a so-called hotel ordinance on Tuesday night.
The ordinance will take effect on October 16th and would limit stays in hotels to no more than 28 days in a 90 day consecutive period if there is not a city-approved kitchenette in the room.
It came about after numerous complaints about crime have been made at Battle Creek motels and hotels.
The ordinance also allows the city to deny a permit to a hotel or motel if police are called to a room more than once in a year. Those who opposed it fear it would lead to hotel residents becoming homeless because they have nowhere else to go.
The Battle Creek Police Department say they were called to the closed down Econo Lodge on Capital Avenue 475 times during one year span in 2018.
Battle Creek’s police chief said in 2019 that with each call costing the city around $75, the total spent on responding to the location alone cost upwards of $35,000.
During the same period between January 2018 and February 2019 officers also made 311 visits to the Rodeway Inn and 299 visits to the McCalmy Plaza Hotel.
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