Opinion: Phoenix forbid backyard homes from appearing on sites like Airbnb. But that won’t fix the city’s short term rental problem.
Seven years after Arizona unconditionally rolled out the welcome mat, short-term rentals still haunt the psyche of many neighborhood and housing advocates.
That was evident last week as Phoenix weighed what was otherwise a popular proposal to add housing options by legalizing so-called backyard casitas.
Multiple speakers cautioned the City Council to go slow and put up guard rails to limit the use of the guest houses as vacation rentals.
The council assuaged all by wholesale banning guest houses — officially termed “accessory dwelling units,” or ADUs — from use as short-term rentals.
It was an insignificant move.
Casitas are unlikely to flood Airbnb
By most indications, the greatest interest in ADUs came from families to build standalone homes in their backyards to house aging parents or other relatives.
I doubt there’s a pent-up demand among Airbnb or Vrbo clientele for guest accommodations in small spaces.
Phoenix’s ordinance limits the ADU to no more than 10% of the main house. On a majority of residential lots, that’s 1,000 square feet or smaller.
Besides, the short-term rental market is dominated by bigger operators, including out-of-state interests. If individual homeowners wanted an opportunity to compete by building a vacation rental in their backyard, more power to them.
In addition, most of the nightmarish problems associated with vacation rentals have involved large properties with packs of unruly guests, or sometimes bad actors who rent the place to stage large-scale events that draw scores of people and spiral out of control.
It’s difficult to envision backyard casitas causing similar grief for neighborhoods.
Cities can’t do much on short term rentals
The Phoenix City Council will take up short-term rentals head-on next week when it considers a policy requiring such properties to register and provide emergency contact information to the city.
Much of the proposal would codify what limited powers the state Legislature has granted local jurisdictions.
State law forbids cities and towns from prohibiting or restricting the use of homes as vacation rentals. Municipalities can only enforce zoning ordinances and prevent a few uses of such properties, such as for adult-themed businesses, drug-rehabilitation homes and the like.
If anything, state law favors short-term rental operators. Municipalities requiring a permit or license system must grant or deny one within seven days of a request, and can assess no more than a $250 fee.
Ask any city how much oversight and enforcement that affords them.
More than a few affected neighbors have lamented over the years that a bulk of the problems with vacation rentals and their tenants occur at night and during the weekend, when city staff aren’t readily available. Police, if they are called, respond late and can’t do much.
Can I build a guest house? Here’s a city-by-city guide
The Legislature did take steps to address continuing concerns.
In 2022, lawmakers passed a bill that permits cities to suspend property owners’ licenses for up to a year if they accrue three health, safety or noise violations within 12 months. Owners are also required to notify their neighbors before offering their property as a short-term rental.
Nonetheless, on control over short-term rentals, concerned neighbors and officials in Phoenix and elsewhere all crave more.
Will lawmakers give cities more power?
In fact, a few days before Phoenix legalized ADUs, the Arizona League of Cities and Town unanimously backed a plan to lobby the Legislature to give municipalities authority to cap the number of vacation rentals and to set density limits on and minimum spacing between such properties.
Reforms that cities and towns see as critical to reversing unintended effects.
Sedona, in particular, has seen its housing stock devastated since Gov. Doug Ducey paved the way to the unregulated short-term rental industry in 2016.
Today, 1 in 6 properties in that tourism-driven city are vacation rentals, even as workers struggle to find a place to live.
As dispearate as Sedona’s and Phoenix’s concerns are, they present a strong argument that regulations of short-term rentals are best determined at the local level.
Will state lawmakers give cities greater power to hit reset on vacation rentals?
Reach Abe Kwok at [email protected]. On X, formerly Twitter: @abekwok.