Last week, one of Sedona’s three state legislators, Arizona Rep. Bob Thorpe [R-District 6] came to listen to residents voice their concerns about short-term rentals, which have exploded in the city since Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law Senate Bill 1350 back in May 2016.
The event was held at Sedona City Hall, but run by Thorpe and his staff, not the city of Sedona. The standing-room-only meeting left a lot of residents outside the building for the length of the meeting, but those inside more or less summed up support and opposition to vacation rentals in the city. To those Sedona residents fundamentally opposed to vacation rentals, a repeal of the bill is not likely. SB 1350 was passed overwhelmingly by both the Arizona House and Senate in 2016, 52-6 in the House, 25-3 in the Senate on a bipartisan basis. Of Arizona’s 90 legislative lawmakers from both parties, only nine, all Republicans, opposed the bill. Thorpe, Arizona Sen. Sylvia Allen [R-District 6] and then-Arizona Rep. Brenda Barton [R-District 6] all voted for the bill.
Ducey made it clear in a letter to the legislature this year, after a bill imposing some restrictions on vacation rentals used as “party houses,” that he hopes the legislature will not send any more bills regulating vacation rentals to his desk.
While the legislature could ignore Ducey and write whatever bills they want to regulate vacation rentals, they may have to deal with a possible veto and then override it, which seems unlikely.
Without overturning SB 1350, lawmakers could also restore the ability of towns, cities and counties in Arizona to regulate vacation rentals in their jurisdictions, but small towns like Sedona would likely not want to reimpose the same ban as they had before 2016 because they would likely face scores of lawsuits from homeowners who have invested thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, into properties to make them into profitable vacation rentals.
Yet the fact remains that SB 1350 and its changes to state law has deprived towns, cities and counties of their ability to determine how their jurisdictions are governed by zoning laws.
A city implements particular zoning regulations so that commercial properties are confined to commercial areas and residential neighborhoods stay residential.
Most Sedona residents seem to have little problem with a next-door neighbor renting out a bedroom or guest house to a tourist — after all, it’s really not that different than having a neighbor’s out-of-town child or grandchild visiting for a few days. The problem brought to our attention by residents across the city is that out-of-town developers are now seeing the financial benefits of buying a Sedona home or open parcel and building a “home” specifically to be used as a vacation rental. These units are de facto commercial hotels opening in residentially-zoned neighborhoods.
The only thing really surprising about this development is that it took three years for these types of commercial vacation rentals to start appearing in the Sedona area.
Unlike the smaller, more palatable vacation rentals at homeowner-inhabited properties these commercial property owners do not live on site and, in many cases, don’t even live in the Verde Valley.
While counties, cities and towns can’t prohibit vacations rentals, homeowners associations can place restrictions in their bylaws, but the catch is that HOAs would have to sue properties owners who violate their bylaws to prevent them.
It’s not certain where we go from here. Vacation rentals offer means for local homeowners to offset their mortgage renting out a space a few days a month, but huge for-profit rentals threaten to turn our residentially-zoned neighborhoods into a hodgepodge of commercial and residential properties.
We’d like to hear your thoughts. Email your letters to editor@larsonnewspapers.com.
Christopher Fox Graham Managing Editor
