Fitchburg, WI Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)

Fitchburg builds owner-occupancy directly into who may hold a short-term rental license. Section 10-241 defines operator as a person who is the owner or lessee of property being used as both a short-term rental and their primary residence, who personally interacts with guests and is named as the host in listings, adding that an operator may not be a LLC, trust, non-profit, or other corporate entity. The same section defines primary residence as a dwelling that serves as the individual's true, fixed and permanent home for at least 183 days in a calendar year, pointing to mail delivery, voter registration, utility bills, and state ID address as evidence, and specifying that an individual can have only one primary residence.

The license application itself must include, under § 10-284(b), a statement that the proposed short-term rental is the primary residence of the operator, and under § 10-284(g), a signed and notarized affidavit stipulating that the short-term rental is the operator's primary residence. Section 10-284(h) bars the city clerk from issuing any license unless every one of those application requirements, including the affidavit, is satisfied, which forecloses corporate or absentee-owner short-term rental operations within city limits.