You could say it was the gasp heard ’round Sedona. Before a standing-room-only crowd of well over 100, Sedona Assistant City Manager Karen Osburn showed a graphic of all the vacation rental homes in West Sedona. 

The map was filled with hundreds of pink dots representing each home that is known to be a short-term rental. In unison the crowd let out a surprised gasp during a meeting at Sedona City Hall on Wednesday, July 24.

The event came about at the request of Arizona Rep. Bob Thorpe [R-District 6] who said he had been hearing concerns from constituents caused by the proliferation of vaca­tion rentals in and around Sedona over the last two and a half years following the implementation of Senate Bill 1350. 

This meeting is about you and gathering feedback in terms of how we can further ensure the quality of life is maintained,” he said. “When you go back to the original AirBnB bill, the way it was described to us lawmakers was, you own a home, you might have a spare bedroom or you might have a guest house and you rent out that space. 

“We never anticipated at the Capitol that someone would go into a neighbor­hood, purchase a home and basically turn it into a mini-hotel. So that’s the chal­lenge. You have a home that’s basically purchased as a business but you don’t have someone living on site, and managing it, I think you have a problem.” 

Sedona City Attorney Robert Pickels said that SB 1350 was streamlined and passed through very quickly and, in the end received, a near-unanimous vote. He said there was not the vetting process that the city would have liked to have seen. 

“That didn’t occur here, for whatever reason, and was fast-tracked and moved through the legisla­ture very quickly,” Pickels said, adding that he feels it passed unanimously because there was not a clear understanding of what was intended with the bill. “Since then we have had our hands essentially tied and have not been able to do a whole lot. There’s still some general, vague regulatory authority that exists but we’re not really sure how to implement that without running the risk of being sued and having legal problems.” 

During her presentation, Osburn showed examples of what’s being listed on vacation rental websites — and it’s far from just homes. 

Listings include travel trailers, tents, what appears to be a plastic bubble and even a cave. But with these, or normal long-term house rentals, she said the city has received very little in the way of complaints from residents in terms of noise, parking or trash resulting from the short-term vaca­tion renters. 

“What we are experi­encing is really a colossal change in character of the community,” she said. “When you have this kind of saturation and homes are converted to short-term rentals and residents are replaced with visitors, when you leave your home and go for a walk in your neighbor­hood, you don’t recognize people any more.” 

Osburn also pointed out the domino effect vaca­tion rentals are having on Sedona. Many long-term renters are having to move out because the owners are converting the homes into short-term rentals. 

The result is a lack of long-term rentals in the area and those few that are avail­able are often too costly for those in the workforce. Because of that, businesses are finding it difficult to find employees willing to commute to town. 

• Governor’s Opinion 

Many in the audience asked what Thorpe or other legislators can do to reverse SB 1350. Reversing it may be difficult. Earlier this year Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed House Bill 2672, which has been described as a watered-down version of what was originally proposed. 

In a letter to the Legislature, Ducey made it clear he feels residents have the right to do what they want with their property without undue government interference. 

“That’s why, three years ago, I signed SB 1350 to stop local government from prohibiting homeowners from renting their homes on platforms like AirBnb and VRBO,” he wrote. “That bill also narrowed the scope of permissible short-term rental regulations.” 

He went on to write that local governments may enforce rules related to building codes, traffic control, noise, zoning and other areas that ensure that neighborhoods stay safe and pleasant for those full-time residents.  “Most short-term rental homeowners are good neigh­bors,” Ducey wrote. “HB 2672 provides a straight-forward enforcement mechanism to penalize ‘party house’ operators for not upholding the laws on their properties.” 

• Pros and Cons 

Of the two dozen or so people who spoke, it was not a one-sided meeting, as often occurs at local meet­ings. While the majority who spoke were opposed, several spoke in favor of vacation rentals. 

Those opposed said it came down to quality of life and neighborhoods. Those in favor said it was a way for them to be able to live in Sedona or have an additional income, pointing out that the practice is now legal. Prior to SB 1350, short-term rentals were banned by city code. 

Randy Hawley, the president of the Sedona- Oak Creek School District Governing Board, said the district continues to lose children because younger families can’t afford to live locally. 

While not putting all the blame on vacation rentals, he did say he feels it’s one of the primary causes. 

“We hired a number of new teachers for the next school year,” he said. “We started in February to get the cream of the crop; 20% of those teachers went to look for housing, couldn’t find it and resigned before they even set foot in the classroom because they couldn’t find rentals or property to buy.” 

Hawley also said when the district was hiring Superintendent Dennis Dearden this past year, he put in bids on four homes only to be outbid on all of them. And, he was told all four became short-term vacation rentals. He added that at the end of this most recent school year, eight families had to move away after being told their rental homes were becoming short-term. 

Short-term vacation home owner Kevin Dunlap said that he wants to hear about any issues his renters may be causing but has not had the problems that were brought up by some of those opposed. And, his neighborhood has bene­fited from short-term rental owners who have improved older, dilapidated homes. 

“If these are unintended consequences as a result of [SB] 1350, then those need to be addressed,” he said. “But you’re not going to go backwards on short-term rentals in Sedona. I’m sorry, the cat’s out of the bag.  “These properties were legally established, and I underline ‘legally.’ They’re not going away and if you try and undo that, you’re going to have some serious legal problems at the state and local level from people who are trying to do this right based on [SB] 1350.” 

• Final Thoughts 

Immediately following the meeting, Thorpe said he was happy with how the meeting went. 

“It was great,” he said. “Did I agree with every single comment? No, but I appreciated the varying opinions. There are some people who are doing vacation rentals that you might think they’d be a bit timid to talk but yet they did and I appreciated that. 

“I want to hear both sides of any issue and that’s something that is lacking in society these days. Things have become so polarizing and judgemental so this was nice to see.” 

Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com