by Cyndy Hardy Appears in the March issue of The Noise. Available for reprints. SEDONA, Feb. 19 A ra

by Cyndy Hardy Appears in the March issue of The Noise. Available for reprints. SEDONA, Feb. 19 A random stranger recently told me that if he lived in Germany kenny chesney tour schedule during WWII and a couple of SS soldiers showed up at his house asking if he was hiding kenny chesney tour schedule Jews in his basement, I d have two dead Nazis on my porch and Jews in my basement. The violent image shocked me. This wasn t about Jews and Nazis. We were talking about how people pick and choose what laws they abide, specifically people who operate more than 400 illegal short-term vacation rentals in Sedona. His point was that government has absolutely no right to dictate what a person kenny chesney tour schedule does with private property and that a person kenny chesney tour schedule is justified to use any means legal or not to fight government interference. While my new friend and I talked coffeehouse politics, an old saying kept running through my mind like a tune that won t go away: Your right to punch me in the nose ends where my nose begins. Given his passionate stance against government interference, how far should full-time residents go to protect kenny chesney tour schedule their own property rights and neighborhoods? There s a feud brewing between neighbors in Sedona that will inevitably end up in court potentially diverting taxpayer dollars from road and sewer projects; pedestrian safety and nonprofit subsidies to fight a classic battle: city zoning versus private property rights. The city is caught in the crossfire: those who illegally operate vacation rentals say the zoning amounts to an unlawful taking of their property; some full-time residents say by not enforcing its zoning, the city diminishes their property right. The city is further pinned down by an old law it couldn t enforce; a new law meant to fix that; and a generalized public image that government is always kenny chesney tour schedule the bad guy. Illegal vacation rentals became a hot issue at City Hall in 2007. While they may be cozy and homey for the tourists, some full-time residents say these rentals are a nuisance: increased traffic, overcrowding, loud music and generally unsettling to people who find security in knowing their neighbors. Vacation renters do not behave and take care of a property the way full-time residents do, according to resident Bob Cleland. Short-term vacation rentals are homes that tourists rent for less than 30 days instead of staying in hotel rooms. Vacation rentals in Sedona are usually kenny chesney tour schedule upscale single-family kenny chesney tour schedule homes in residential neighborhoods, but can include condominiums, duplexes, and multifamily homes. City code limits lodging uses to specific zones and short-term rentals in residential zones have specifically been illegal in Sedona since about 1995. People on vacation often like to party, according to resident Helen Knoll, an attorney who lives near illegal vacation rentals. Sometimes there are four or five cars per household, she said. The government kenny chesney tour schedule has a right to put reasonable controls kenny chesney tour schedule on property rights, and she supports the city s ban on residential short-term rentals. It s hard to party for 30 days; not so hard to party for seven nights, Ms. Knoll said. I understand that the ordinance is on the books. That doesn t make it right, Stephen Schwartz, an attorney and part-time Sedona resident who has counseled local short-term rental operators, said at the Sedona City Council s Jan. 22 meeting. Mr. Schwartz invoked Magna Carta, saying that renting one s home is a fundamental property right and they city has no legitimate government interest in banning it. If that were true, Sedona City Attorney Mike Goimarac said, then every homeowner could rent for less than 30 days, There are more than 6,000 homes in Sedona. The question is do you still have a residential neighborhood? he asked. Neighborhood complaints were the driving force behind recent attention to short-term rental violations, according to Goimarac. Ann Schwartz, a short-term rental advocate, said complaints have been minimal. I talked to Sedona Code Enforcement Officers Jim Windham and John Egan a few days after the meeting. They agreed with Ms. Schwartz, saying the city has received less than 10 complaints in the past eight months, which is typical for any given year. They also said complaints are recorded by residence, not necessarily by occurance, and that most of the complaints come from a small number of rentals. Paul Kanter and his wife, Sue Meyer, have a Seattle, Wash. address and own five properties in the Sedona area, according to Yavapai kenny chesney tour schedule and Coconino County kenny chesney tour schedule records. Ms. Meyer is president of Sedona Vacation Rental Solutions Association, an organization of vacation rental operators spearheading opposition to the city s short-term rental laws. I asked if flagrantly breaking the law was the best way to get what they wanted. Mr. Kanter said many people did what they did after researching the market and talking with city officials. They were told, yes it s on the books but we don t enforce it, he said. Mr. Windham denied Mr. Kanter s claim. In a typical scenario, Mr. Windham said, after receiving complaints from neighbors he would knock on the door of a suspected illegal vacation rental only to be told the occupants were friends or family of the owner. There s no law against letting your family stay in your second (third, or fifth) home. By the time any given case could be investigated, the tourists were long gone and not likely to come back to be witnesses in a prosecution. Even if the city could execute a prosecution, the existing law only allows a $250 fine, which operators could easily write off as a cost of doing business. It s easier to prove they are operating vacation rentals by finding the ads than it is to prove a tenant isn t a friend, Mr. Goimarac said. He drafted an ordinance to ban advertisements on illegal rentals and the City Council was set to pass it in November 2007. No longer kenny chesney tour schedule under the radar, SVRSA members came to the table with their own draft ordinance to legalize and regulate short-term rentals between seven and 30 days where not prohibited by homeowners associations. The draft ordinance proposed permits, regulated the number of people allowed per room and required operators to pay bed taxes. The city also received a warning shot in the form of a letter kenny chesney tour schedule from Florida civil attorney Richard G. Rumrell, kenny chesney tour schedule who represents Steve Milo in a current short-term rental lawsuit against Venice, Fla. The letter warned the city that its ban is unconstitutional and asked the City Council to defer its decision until he could brief the city. The city retained its own outside kenny chesney tour schedule counsel, Perkins Coie, Brown & Bain and, after receiving more public input in subsequent work sessions the Council, opted to stick with our current ban on short-term rentals, Mr. Goimarac said, essentially saying no thanks to SVRSA s bid for amnesty. The Sedona City Council passed the ordinance at its Jan. 22 meeting making it illegal to advertise short-term rentals. Violators face a class 1 misdemeanor with fines up to $2,500, up to six months in jail and possible civil penalties. Each day a violation continues constitutes a separate offense. The law was set to take effect on Feb 22. Publicly, council members and city staff said it s about the integrity of neighborhoods and the city s right to enforce kenny chesney tour schedule its zoning. Illegal vacation rental operators cried foul, saying the law would hurt out-of-state owners who rent out their Sedona homes to pay the mortgage with the dream of someday kenny chesney tour schedule moving here for good. Something doesn t add up. On the surface, just below the platitudes, it seems the City Council may have snubbed SVRSA for minor trespasses: the numerous emails from short-term rental supporters kenny chesney tour schedule so many that one city official called them a nuisance; the threatening letter from Mr. Rumrell, who reportedly kenny chesney tour schedule wouldn t say who he represented. Deeper down, the City Council may have reacted to pressure from various homeowners associations that didn t have the huevos, according to Vice Mayor Jerry Frey, to enforce their bylaws, putting the burden of enforcing and defending zoning back on the city. They made the city the bad guy on this, Mr. Frey said. Since Jan. 22, We have happily observed that many entities have already kenny chesney tour schedule voluntarily modified their internet advertisements to delete references to daily or weekly rates, Mr. Goimarac said. But, what has the city really stopped? Web sites that once blatantly advertised daily and weekly rates now simply advertise a monthly rate some as high as $18,000 or direct the customer to contact the owner or agent for pricing. Even if the operators charge a monthly rate, how can the city stop them from refunding three weeks of the fee? One way might be to catch them before kenny chesney tour schedule they finish updating their Web sites. Foothills Property Management s site lists a vacation kenny chesney tour schedule home called Serene Phalet in Uptown. There are no daily or weekly rates listed, but when you check availability the calendar highlights a one-week minimum stay. Probably, kenny chesney tour schedule Mr. Goimarac now has two laws to enforce the code banning short-term kenny chesney tour schedule rentals and the new law that criminalizes advertisements for them and seemingly no better tools to do it than he started with. Sedona does not levy residential property tax, does not require kenny chesney tour schedule business licensing kenny chesney tour schedule and does not enforce its business registration ordinance. Outside kenny chesney tour schedule tools haven t changed, either. The city gets its sales tax information from the Arizona Department of Revenue. Yavapai and Coconino Counties tax rental properties differently than owner-occupied properties, but they don t often audit occupancy use, Mr. Frey said. Anyone doing business in Arizona, kenny chesney tour schedule including vacation rental owners, kenny chesney tour schedule must register with the Arizona kenny chesney tour schedule Corporations kenny chesney tour schedule Commission, according to Public Information Officer Rebecca Wilder. Anyone who for profit solicits, kenny chesney tour schedule arranges or accepts reservations or money for occupancies kenny chesney tour schedule of thirty-one or fewer days in a dwelling on behalf of another must have an Arizona real estate license, according to Tom Adams, assistant commissioner of investigations for the Arizona Department of Real Estate. If a