Sedona Deputy City Manager Lauren Browne and city lobbyist Kathy Senseman briefed Sedona officials March 24 about House Bill 2429 that allows for some short-term rental regulations and sponsored by Arizona Rep. Selina Bliss [R-District 1], during the city’s weekly legislation update.
HB 2429 is seeking to allow municipalities to be able to suspend licenses for STRS with three violations of permits within 24 months — the current timeframe is 12 months.
“It also establishes a statewide maximum overnight occupancy of two adults per sleeping area, plus an additional two persons, not including minors,” Senseman said. “It also expands the grounds for denying or suspending a license or local permit to include if they have unpaid fines or building code/fire code violations. It also allows municipalities to adopt an ordinance requiring a sex offender background checks on the booking guests.”
After an amendment on March 11 — changing “allows” to “requires” background checks for sex offenders and delaying the start date to Jan. 1, 2027 — HB 2429 passed out of the House on March 16 on a 37-14 vote and was assigned to the Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency Committee. Senseman surmised, however, that committee chairwoman Sen. Shawnna Bolick [R-District 2] would not bring it to a hearing, citing her ideological commitment to private property rights.
“So what we have done in the last week is get with [Bolick] and ask her if we could withdraw the bill and have it reassigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee, because that committee gets one additional meeting, or one extra week to meet,” Senseman said. “We’re trying to get the Senate Appropriations chairman to put that on his agenda for next week.”
The chairman is Sen. David Farnsworth [R-District 10].
The session has slowed in its 11th week, Browne said. Of the 2,121 legislative measures introduced, the legislature has passed 20 bills, five signed by the governor and 15 vetoed.
“Friday [March 27] marks the deadline for bills to be heard in committees in the opposite chamber of origin, otherwise they are most likely dead,” Browne said.
