Short-term rental case against Sedona on appeal1 min read

By
Christopher Fox Graham
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In reversing the lower court’s decision, Arizona Court of Appeals Judges Peters Swann, Margaret Downie and Donn Kessler stated the ordinance’s claim of health and safety exemption doesn’t apply under the Private Property Rights Protection Act. The appeals court also remanded to the lower court an evidentiary hearing to determine the primary purpose of the ordinance and whether Sedona Grand’s “options” were really short-term rentals in disguise.
Photo courtesy of Arizona Judicial Branch

A short-term rental case involving the city of Sedona may be heading to the Arizona Supreme Court.

At issue is a lawsuit filed against the city of Sedona by owners of Sedona Grand LLC, a property off Jasper Court in the Las Lomas subdivision of West Sedona.

The lawsuit doesn’t directly challenge the city’s ban on short-term rentals per se. Instead, Sedona Grand argues the city’s ordinance is not exempt from Proposition 207, which requires governments to reimburse private property owners when new land use laws reduce “the existing rights to use, divide, sell or possess private real property.”

The city of Sedona successfully defended its ban of short-term rentals in superior court. However, the appeals court recently overturned the lower court’s ruling, remanded portions of the ruling and set up a possible appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.

For the full story, see the Friday, June 22, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.

Christopher Fox Graham

Christopher Fox Graham is the managing editor of the Sedona Rock Rock News, The Camp Verde Journal and the Cottonwood Journal Extra. Hired by Larson Newspapers as a copy editor in 2004, he became assistant manager editor in October 2009 and managing editor in August 2013. Graham has won awards for editorials, investigative news reporting, headline writing, page design and community service from the Arizona Newspapers Association. Graham has also been a guest contributor in Editor & Publisher magazine and featured in the LA Times, New York Post and San Francisco Chronicle. He lectures on journalism and First Amendment law and is a nationally recognized performance aka slam poet. Retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills, former director of Cybersecurity Policy, Strategy, and International Affairs referred to him as "Mr. Slam Poet."

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