Tempe issues harshest penalty for short-term rental shooting, a first for the Valley

Tempe has suspended one of its short-term rental owners for a year as punishment for a non-fatal shooting that occurred at the property earlier this year, marking the first time in the Valley that a property's permit has been yanked after just one incident.

The Airbnb-style rental is a four-bedroom home tucked away in a cul-de-sac at 1988 East Arboles Drive. It's one of Tempe's roughly 1,400 short-term rental properties, which are typically houses where guests stay for less than a month.

The Arboles property landed in Tempe's crosshairs after guests hosted a rowdy party that ended in gunfire during the early morning hours of May 21. No one was hurt, but it was enough for city leaders to ask a Tempe Municipal Court judge to pull the property's rental license in June, which is the harshest punishment available under state law.

Tempe leaders announced that they had won that battle on Friday, about a week after the owners of the Arboles property entered a "plea of responsible" rather than fighting the suspension in court. That means the rental will be shut down until May 21, 2024, which city officials hope will restore peace of mind for the neighbors.

“Neighborhood safety is critically important,” said Deputy City Manager Tom Duensing, who added that the Arboles owners were cooperative throughout the process. “Tempe enforced our ordinance to preserve quality of life for our residents.”

Tempe's suspension was unprecedented because Arizona rules typically require three separate violations before a city can pull a license. A "one-strike" suspension like Tempe requested — which is only allowed in extreme cases — had not been tried since Arizona lawmakers began allowing local regulation of short-term rentals in September.

But while the penalty is a first for the region, the incident that prompted it is far from unique. It's at least the second shooting to take place at short-term rental in Tempe over the past few years.

And in other east Valley communities, rowdy rental guests have burnt down multi-million dollar properties, hosted out of control parties that disrupt nearby homes and recklessly fired guns in residential neighborhoods on multiple occasions in recent years.

The continuation of those issues since September has prompted officials from cities like Scottsdale to slam the Arizona Legislature's "limited" short-term rental law as ineffective. Critics point to the yearlong suspension limit that exists regardless of how egregious a violation might be.

Tempe's recent victory with the Arboles property might help show that the law can have teeth. Duensing expects the suspension will cost the rental owners "quite a bit of revenue," something that could sound alarm bells for some of the east Valley's other 8,000 rental properties.

“We acted as a council earlier this year to require city licenses for short-term rentals and we did that to hold property owners accountable to the fullest extent we could under Arizona law," Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said. "I am proud that we are again taking action to enforce our ordinance.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tempe suspends short-term rental after one strike, a Valley first