It’s that time of the year for the Arizona Legislature to convene and a topic several cities in the state are hoping will again be addressed is short-term vacation rentals.
During the Tuesday, Jan. 26, Sedona City Council meeting, Sedona City Attorney Kurt Christianson led an update on matters dealing with the legislature. He will be updating council on issues that may impact Sedona through the legislative session, which is set to end in late April or early May.
As of last Tuesday morning, there had already been 1,091 bills introduced, with 393 of those in the Arizona Senate and 699 in the Arizona House of Representatives. The deadline to introduce senate bills was Monday, Feb. 1, and Monday, Feb. 8, for house bills. In all, nearly 1,500 bills are expected to be introduced during this year’s session.
One of the bills Christianson focused on is House Bill 2481 pertaining to short-term vacation rentals.
“This is a new bill, different from what was proposed by Rep. [John] Kavanaugh last year,” he said. “It replaces it with language that allows cities to enforce reasonable residential zoning and use in zoning ordinances.”
What this means is that it would allow cities to require short-term vacation rental owners to obtain a business licence of sorts. Currently, they are required to register with the city and provide emergency contact information in the event a complaint is received by the city.
“With the ability to license short-term rentals, the city could establish what it takes to issue the license, whether that’s annual inspections or whatever the city ends up deciding,” Christianson said. “It would be more akin to a business license and would allow the city more control and more accountability from short-term rentals.”
As of the time of the council meeting, that bill had yet to be assigned to a committee. In the meantime, he said the League of Arizona Cities & Towns is working on a few minor changes to the bill with language that would be more beneficial to the cities.
