Sedona Mayor Sandy Moriarty is hoping to at least start the discussion among other Arizona cities to allow more local control of short-term vacation rentals. Yearly, the League of Arizona Cities and Towns seeks suggestions from municipalities for legislative proposals for the following legislative session — in this case, 2019.

During the Tuesday, May 8, Sedona City Council meeting, Moriarty sought input and support from the council to approach the League about short-term rentals.

Sedona was one of a handful of communities in the state — including Tempe and Scottsdale — that banned short-term rentals, until Senate Bill 1350 went into effect on Jan. 1, 2017, allowing short-term rentals statewide. While the practice was illegal but still prevalent in Sedona, now that they are legal, the estimated figure of 1,000 local short-term rentals is often used.

Moriarty said the result has been more traffic and far fewer long-term rentals available, which has impacted the workforce.

“I don’t have any specific recommendations other than I believe we need to do something to regulate short-term rentals somehow in this state,” she said. “It will mean a change in the state law. I have a number of ideas, but it is a very complex issue.

“I’ve looked at what other states do and it’s all over the map. This is something new that’s happening all across the country and no one knows exactly what to do about it.”

Councilman Tom Lamkin said he found a blanket request to discuss the matter a bit vague and that it may be beneficial to be more specific as to what the city is seeking.

“I would recommend something on the lines of, ‘We want more control of the numbers that may exist at any one time — like permits,’” he said of shortterm rentals. “You could have a permitting process that would allow people to apply if you want to control the volume.”

Lamkin said it doesn’t appear short-term rentals have had a great impact on hotel occupancy numbers, but rather it’s allowed many, including day-trippers, an often less expensive alternative.

Moriarty said the key would be to convince Arizona Legislature to change the law to allow a separate category for transient rentals on private property, and by doing so, remove the requirement to treat all residential property the same in terms of long- or short-term rentals.

“That is the crux of the problem to me, and if we could do that, we could proceed from there,” she said. “We [as a state] are doing nothing. And if other states can regulate them and we’re not, that’s even more incentive for more of them to come here.”

City Attorney Robert Pickels said if the topic is to gain any momentum among other cities at the annual League meeting, it has to be better defined. And, it can’s appear as a Sedona-only concern or complaint.

“In order for anything to gain traction in the regulatory nature of short-term vacation rentals, it has to be very specific and has to be the result of common interest among other communities,” he said. “We can’t put the cart before the horse here. We have to find out what the commonalities are, the common interests and common impacts that we have to express to the Legislature that need to be resolved and form a coalition around those issues. We have to identify the problem before we can identify the solution.”

Moriarty added that she will be attending a state mayor’s conference in June and while there hopes to gain support on this issue.

“I don’t think we’re going to get anything done next year [in the Legislature], but I can tell you that we’re going to probably be in a world of hurt until we do something,” she said.

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