Peoria City Council adopted a new ordinance to address short-term rentals within the city, Oct 18.
This type of rental — a property rented-out by the owner for 29-days or less — has seen a meteoric rise in recent years and become a $15 billion industry in the United States with an estimated $350 million raised in Arizona tax revenue in 2020.
Such has been the case in Peoria where there are around 550 homes/rooms up for short-term rent throughout the city.
The state legislature has stepped in, creating laws regulating the industry in Arizona, and now Peoria has adopted their own law, specific to the city.
City Manager Jeff Tyne said that with recent state legislative actions, the city has new opportunities to address some of the higher profile issues that have come about due to the growth in the short-term rental industry.
“We have seen an incredible surge in short-term rentals over the last several years,” he said. “With the growth of lodging rental programs such as Airbnb and the like, we have seen a proliferation of these home rental arrangements throughout the state and also here in Peoria. With this growth does come a number of different challenges.”
The Arizona state legislature has enacted at least three laws regulating short-term rentals, most recently, earlier this year the governor signed into law SB 1168, which went into effect Sept. 24, allowing municipalities to adopt and enforce residential use and zoning ordinances, as well as limit or prohibit the use of a rental for specific purposes.
A study session on this topic was held, Sept. 13.
Neighborhood and Human Services Director Chris Hallett said the new city ordinance includes good neighbor practices and neighborhood mediation that is consistent with other Peoria neighborhood notification and community engagement practices.
With so many rentals throughout the Peoria, the city wants to make it easy for people to come into compliance as well as make it easy on the front-end with accountability on the back-end, he said.
“The law allows us to really have good opportunities for transparency on what is going on in people’s neighborhoods,” he said.
The new ordinance aligns with the state law by including civil penalties and/or registration suspension for violators.
Mayor Cathy Carlat said she wishes the state law were stricter.
“I’m in support of not charging a fee to get as many people registered as we can,” Carlat said. “We are not looking to make money off this, but we are looking to be able to know who to contact in case of an issue, and have a little more handle on this.”
Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman.
Philip Haldiman
News Editor | Peoria
@PhilipHaldiman
Philip Haldiman is a third generation Arizona native with brief residencies on the east and west coasts.
He has bachelor’s degrees in Theater and Journalism at Arizona State University, and is an award winning journalist with more than a decade’s worth of experience in reporting and editing.
Most recently, he was honored for excellence in education reporting 2020 from the Arizona School Public Relations Association.
In his free time, he produces an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
Keywords
Peoria,
Arizona,
short-term rentals,
growth,
lodging,
rental programs,
Airbnb,
VRBO
