Scottsdale Needs Real Control Over Short-Term Rentals

By Raoul Zubia

I have lived in this neighborhood since the 1960s. For the past few years, I have been living in my childhood home to help my aging mother. In all those years, I had never heard gunfire on our street until early Sunday morning.

Shots were fired in the front yard, the backyard and the street of a short-term rental near Roosevelt and 74th. Nearby homes were hit. One neighbor showed reporters a bullet hole in the wall above his front window, yards from where his 6-month-old was sleeping. No one was hurt, and that was luck.

I want to be fair: our police and city staff are working on this. The city has a dedicated short-term rental team, a new Neighborhood Response Unit, and hundreds of charges filed this year. I appreciate that effort. With something close to 3,000 licensed rentals and violent occurrences at some of them — we clearly need more resources.

Residents here had complained about this particular property before. Complaints should trigger consequences before something violent happens, not after.

Cities need more control over short-term rentals. We need to be able to find the bad players and either eliminate them from being able to have an STR or fine them so heavily that they no longer want to do business in Scottsdale. Small penalties are a cost of doing business. Repeat offenders should lose their licenses.

That requires three things:

1. A prompt, public review of this property’s license, with results shared with the neighbors.
2. Penalties that escalate quickly for repeat violations.
3. Pressure on the Legislature to respect local control and give cities the authority they need.

Most rental owners follow the rules. They should not be lumped in with operators who treat our streets as a party venue. But neighbors who raise alarms deserve to be heard before the next incident, not after.

I’m running for City Council to make that happen.