Phoenix tightening short-term rental rules

Sourced By: Ahwatukee Foothills News 

Owners of short-term rental properties in Phoenix may soon have to deal with the same kind of toughened regulations their counterparts in other Valley cities are confronting.

The city administration is scheduled today, June 21, to ask the City Council Transportation, Infrastructure and Planning Subcommittee for preliminary approval on a permitting system that will include fines for owners who maintain rentals that become sources of neighborhood disruptions.

Phoenix’s move follows similar actions in Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler and other municipalities that took the state Legislature’s decision last year to loosen its grip over how far they can go in regulating short-term rentals.

In 2016, the Legislature removed local control and required municipalities to treat short-term rentals the same way they treat traditional long-term rent al properties.

But over the following five years, officials in some municipalities – notably Scottsdale and Sedona – became frustrated with the inability to have control of local jurisdictions to reduce the nuisance factor among some short-term rental properties.

Sedona also wanted to curb their proliferation because hospitality industry workers were priced out of the rental market – a problem that remains for that municipality.

As the Phoenix report issued last week notes, the Legislature has slowly relented and gave back some local control to municipalities “due to significant negative impacts” on residents living near nuisance short-term rentals.

In January 2020, Phoenix started a registration system for short-term rentals as a result.

Now, a result of the Legislature’s passage of a bill last year, Phoenix intends to put some teeth in its three-year-old permit requirement by posing a fine of as high as $1,000 a month for short-term rental owners who don’t obtain a permit.

Owners also must maintain a $500,000 liability insurance policy, provide the city with an emergency contact, notify neighbors of their intent to operate a short-term rental, and conduct background checks of all renters,

The city will charge $250 annually for issuing a permit and must approve or deny an application in seven days after submittal.

The city also will have the power to impose fines for violations and can suspend the permit for three minor violations or one major violation at the property in one year.

The city’s 2020 ordinance regulation short-term rentals said violations can include “excessive noise or traffic, obstruction of public streets by crowds or vehicles, public drunkenness, the service of alcohol to underage persons, fights, disturbances of the peace and litter.” Fines for violations of the new rules range from $500 to $1,500.

The ordinance also requires owners of short-term rentals to respond to police calls about disturbances within an hour.

One thing missing from Phoenix’s proposed additions to its regulations that other municipalities adopted is a band on any sex offender from running a short-term rental.

Phoenix is home to nearly 7,900 short-term rentals, according to airdna.com, a site that analyzes rentals registered with Airbnb and Vrbo, the two largest online platforms for those properties.

In Ahwatukee, airdna data indicate there are 262 rentals in 85044, 19 in 85045 and 152 in 85048.