Sedona AZ (September 13, 2019) – It used to be that traffic was the number one issue that I heard about from constituents; now it is short-term rentals. As most of you know, until several years ago Sedona was able to restrict short-term rentals to 30 days. However, the state legislature decided to take away our ability to regulate short-term rentals and, after the signing of SB1350 in May 2016 by Gov. Ducey, Sedona experienced an explosion of short-term rentals.
The city has calculated the number of short-term rental properties within Sedona city limits, as of Aug. 1, 2019, at 1,093. Of those, 40 percent were traditional lodging providers, bed and breakfasts or timeshares. The source for this data is an independent company called Host Compliance, based in Seattle, Wash.
Why is this of concern? Because it is fundamentally changing the character of our beautiful city and our peaceful neighborhoods. It has also drastically reduced the amount of long-term rental housing in Sedona, forcing many of our friends and neighbors to leave the city. Just some of the issues that I have been contacted about include: no longer knowing most or any neighbors, ongoing noise disturbing the peace and quiet, trash being left out for too many days or strewn across the road, too many cars being parked on the street or in front of driveways, mini-hotels are being built, not feeling safe, party houses, significantly increased traffic on residential street or in the city and property damage.
But, that being said, there are some positives for our residents, too: being able to rent out a room(s) allows them to pay their expenses, some properties have changed from being run-down to well maintained, it has opened up business opportunities for our residents in areas such as maintenance and property management, and the extra tax revenue the city receives helps to provide services to all our residents.
The fundamental issue that I have heard from residents is that they don’t mind their neighbor participating in the sharing economy by renting out a space in their home but what they seriously object to is out-of-town/state investors who have no personal interest in or commitment to Sedona buying up properties to use as businesses. The issue is how to control this from happening.
The Sedona City Council continues to work to find ways to help mitigate the impact of short-term rentals. We will keep working with the Arizona League of Cities and Towns to try to get changes to the legislation that caused this problem. This year the league was successful in getting some small changes related to emergency contacts, tax numbers, advertising and prohibition of non-residential uses with the signing of HB 2672 in May.
We are also searching for creative ways to work within our existing regulatory structure, such as zoning ordinances, in ways that will not create a undue burden on our residents. Keep in mind that current state law requires that any rules applied to short-term rentals be applied to every resident of Sedona, but perhaps some actions may help ease some of the issues we hear about on a daily basis.
What has become clear is that the city council must get more accurate data on the depth and breadth of the impact short-term rentals in order to make our case for changes to the state legislature. Rather than receiving anecdotal reports or having residents “suffer in silence” we need to know what is happening around you, in your neighborhood. The council members recently asked the city manager to develop a mechanism for residents to report these issues, and once that mechanism is ready, it will be announced to the public.
Until then, if you don’t feel safe please call the Sedona Police Department (the non-emergency line is (928) 282-3100), and remember that the city’s code enforcement officers can help with noise, trash, parking and other complaints. Report code and nuisance problems on the city website at sedonaaz.gov/reportit.
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3 Comments
Rentals v tiny homes
I have written (email) council; published view in Red Rock News, and went and spoke at last week’s council meeting.
Councilman Scott said if tiny homes are allowed, they would not be allowed to be short-term rental status – the rest of the council did not share a view with me.
My answer is this, this council, the next council could change their mind about that and the owner of a tiny home could get a lawyer and challenge what other homeowners get to do with their properties namely rent them short-term.
We cannot control Ducey, but we (council) can legally stop tiny homes and any chance that they will become short-term rentals now or later.
Over 1000 short term rentals in a city our size is certainly a disproportionate number.
We should not add to the possibility of adding more rentals to the market place.
So Michael J, You say we should stop small homes because they might be rented out short term.
Michael, A deed restriction will follow the new units and this cannot be changed at a later date by another city council it follows the property.
Scott is correct, that being stated are you ok with new Tiny or small homes are do you just want Mc mansions as we now build?
Sedona not only lacks housing, we need work force housing, affordable housing, we also need diversity in population by age.
Sedona is now A 59 + community.
Jobs are changing we can get younger people to live and work in Sedona if we had smaller affordable housing and better internet for work from home jobs,
wok from home is one of the fastest growing segments in the job market.
We need work force housing NOW. Smaller homes on smaller lots . Duplexes and apartments.
The state of Arizona and the republicans view that they know best gave us SB 1350 Sedona local government now has the task to get 1000 “new” units to fix Ducey’s mistake.
There is a limited amount of vacant RM-3 zoned property in Sedona available for work force housing development. Until City residents are willing to support re-zoning of some of the few larger undeveloped parcels that are available and suitable for multi-family housing…there probably won’t be any substantial work force housing developed. Other zoning options that provide two or three rental units at a time will not provide an adequate number of rental units.
One developer recently proposed a 50 unit apartment complex on 2.5 acres off Andante. I’m told that the project was initially supported by the City planning staff. The developer then spent over $30,000 for preliminary design and engineering for conceptual approval. The developer withdrew the application after the neighbors objected to project citing traffic concerns. Now, the parcel may be developed into 5 or 6 residential units that could become additional short term rentals.
If the litmus test for high density employee housing is traffic concerns, it’s going to be a difficult task for a willing developer to find an available, large parcel for a workforce housing project that pleases everyone. Instead, our neighborhoods may continue to become unregulated lodging facilities.