Lamont Richie recommends people concerned about the Short-Term Rental bill, SB 197, contact every member of the Arkansas House of Representatives. He has sent the following email to the 100 members of the Arkansas House:
Dear Representative:
Soon you will be asked to consider SB 197, passed by the Senate on Thursday. In short, it will allow short-term rentals in every residential neighborhood in Arkansas regardless of how that fits into a city’s master plan, and regardless of a city’s own housing needs, traffic control, and concern for the stability of its residential areas.
Jim von Tungeln, Planning consultant for the Arkansas Municipal League wrote in his 2016 Project Manual – Urban Planning for Arkansas Municipal Officials that “…cities of the first and second class and incorporated towns have the power to adopt and enforce plans for the coordinated, adjusted, and harmonious development of the municipality and its environs (Arkansas Code Annotated § 14-56-402).”
Cities are not required to but, if they decide to undertake “planning” for land use and development, they must follow the steps outlined in the state code. That involves the organizational requirements for a planning commission, its powers, and the need for any plans to be enshrined in local ordinances so that they become public knowledge.
What the state code does not do is tell the communities what to put into their plans.
That is left up to the residents… to study and evaluate the needs and wants of each community and to use that input to design a zoning code that is reflective of their community, and not of any other. In other words, no one knows what is best for a community than those who are elected or appointed to office, including planning commissioners. It must be kept in mind that no elected or appointed official has a claim to their office – they always can be removed if their actions are inconsistent with the voters’ wishes.
But SB 197 will alter that dynamic, irrevocably; and in the case of Eureka Springs, with significant negative consequences. We are a town of just over 2,000 residents. In September 2021, former City Historic Preservation Officer Kylee Hevrdejs gave a presentation to the City Council regarding the number of short-term rentals listed on such online booking sites as VRBO and Airbnb. Those listings reflected 299 unique properties, 248 of which were once single-family residences –properties that became short-term rentals and have remained so.
That fact resulted in the City Council putting a stop to any further non-owner/manager occupied short-term rentals in October 2021. Years earlier that action was taken in the historic residential zone; and in 2021 it was extended to the remaining 2 residential zones because of the continued decline of housing for full-time residents. Eureka Springs is the top economic producer in Carroll County but 3rd out of 4 communities in available housing.
With SB 197, the situation with available housing will only get worse. Monthly rentals will be converted to short-term tourist lodging, second homes with out-of-town owners will become prime candidates for Airbnb, and investment property owners will capitalize on their new-found “right” to commercial any residential property they can get their hands on.
I assure you this is not hyperbole. This is from a 31-plus year resident of Eureka Springs, someone who has served as Chair of the Planning Commission when our Vision Plan (developed in conjunction with George Wittenberg with the Donaghey Project at UALR). Short-term rentals bring to a residential neighborhood the same issues they bring to commercial districts: increased traffic, noise, parties, parking conflicts and strangers. All of these things are of concern to me should my neighbors, on my quiet dead-end street, be inspired to turn their homes into income generating properties. I am not alone. I am 75 and there are many here who are older and alone.
There will be few neighborhoods in Arkansas that may avoid being in the path of the Airbnb movement. Your own may not be so fortunate. And if you live in Eureka Springs or in any other small tourist town, chances are even higher that you too will be living next door to different people every weekend… without you having any say in it… even though you moved to what you thought was a residential area.
Please vote NO on SB 197. A one-size fits all approach to planning is not good policy because it is incompatible with any coordinated, adjusted, and harmonious development of the municipality and its environs.