For City of Sedona officials, it’s a bill that pretty much equates to putting a bandage on a broken arm. In May, Gov. Doug Ducey signed House Bill 2672 into law, which provides cities and towns additional — albeit limited — authority to regulate short-term rentals of residential properties. It also imposes additional legal requirements on owners and operators of short-term rentals.
As a result, the Sedona City Council had to do some housekeeping to update some of its codes pertaining to short-term vacation rentals. It will now go into effect Saturday, Sept. 14.
“It wasn’t anything near what we had hoped to gain when the bill was initially introduced,” City Attorney Robert Pickels said during the council meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 14. “But it was something that gave us some regulatory authority back and some new authorities that didn’t exist prior to that.”
Although HB 2672 still prohibits cities and towns from banning short-term rentals, a city report states that the legislation does give cities and towns the following additional, limited regulatory authority:
- Cities and towns can now require owners of short-term rentals to provide emergency contact information prior to advertising or renting their property.
- Cities and towns can impose civil penalties on owners of short-term rentals who fail to provide contact information, allow their properties to be used for nonresidential purposes, or fail to obtain a Transaction Privilege Tax license before renting their property or offering their property for rent.
- Cities and towns can impose civil penalties on operators of short-term rentals who fail to list the TPT license number on each advertisement offering the property for rent.
In regard to those civil penalties, council spent quite a bit of time talking about dollar amount, litigation and what homeowners can be fined for in relation to the emergency contact person in the event a complaint is filed with police.
“At the end of the day do we have an opportunity to put a little more teeth in operations here as to what HB 2672 is giving us?” Councilman Bill Chisholm asked.
“Yes but we’re still left with the limits of the authority of what they [state] have given us,” Pickels said.
In essence, the city can’t be more restrictive than what the bill currently allows.
“House Bill 2672 is not particularly helpful for cities and towns,” Assistant City Attorney Shelley Cutts said. “Most everything cities and towns wanted was taken out of the bill. I wish we weren’t rowing in that boat but that’s the boat we’re rowing in.”
Understanding the frustration by the council, Cutts said she’s trying to include everything from the bill into the city’s ordinance.
“I think there’s a misconception by a lot of people out there that 2672 was some kind of a silver bullet with respect to short-terms rentals,” Pickels said. “It’s barely even a blunt object.”
Governor’s thoughts
Senate Bill 1350, which Ducey signed, went into effect more than two and a half years ago preventing cities from banning the practice of short-term vacation rentals. While this practice was ongoing in Sedona — despite it being against city code — the number of rentals has increased to an estimated 1,100 in the city, as well as the Village of Oak Creek and Oak Creek Canyon.
In a letter from Ducey following the signing of HB 2672, he quickly pointed out that 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.”
Ducey concluded his letter by stating that now that this enforcement component has been addressed, “I am hopeful additional legislation regulating short-term rentals will not be needed.”
Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com
