Ordinance needs work

Dear editor:

I am writing to reinforce the letter written by Dr. John Bowmar concerning shortterm rentals and the lack of due process. The city was wise to implement an ordinance regulating these “house hotels” in residential zones, but the ordinance needs a lot more work.

They wrote the ordinance as a “one size fits all” treating all residential zones the same. Hot Springs is not a one-size-fits-all community. There are neighborhoods that will prosper from the renovation of old, dilapidated structures turning them into STRS. There are other neighborhoods, particularly on the lake, that will be irreparably harmed, with steep declines in property values, by having these “house hotels” present.

The board of directors just put into place a better appeals process than they originally had but it offers no real protection.

The basis for obtaining a permit for an STR is meeting a minimal number of safety requirements, having enough off-street parking, enough trash cans, etc. No consideration is given to neighborhood history. Neighbors are not informed before a permit is issued — a very small yard sign with a QR code is the only way neighbors find out something very dramatic has happened to their peaceful and tranquil street.

Many neighborhoods have bills of assurance or homeowners associations that set out conditions, covenants and restrictions regarding the use of properties within the documents. These legal documents are on file with the county clerk and are not secret documents. They are publicly available. According to the Arkansas Supreme Court, these documents can ban STRS as long as the document specifically states that. Many HOAS and BOAS were written long before STRS existed, but they can be amended to clarify the language that the Supreme Court said is necessary.

At the last city board meeting, I asked the city attorney at what point in the process can I bring a legal, properly written and filed document that bans short-term rentals in my neighborhood? The answer was, “We are not going to enforce your bill of assurance, you will have to take it to court.”

This was an alarming response. Common sense would say that a permit should never be issued if a proper document has been legally filed. Seems to me that’s issuing an illegal permit. I hired an attorney to discuss this with and he was able to pull up on his computer the legal plat and BOA for my neighborhood in 30 seconds. He read through the BOA in a couple of minutes.

I don’t understand how the permit process can be so weak that the planning director or their staff can’t look up the same information that a private attorney has at their fingertips. Are they just not willing to take an extra few minutes, or do they lack the software needed for this? Issuing an illegal permit over a properly written and filed legal document seems ludicrous. Why should the citizen in a protected neighborhood have to spend time and money suing their neighbor who obtained the illegal permit when the city should have said no to the permit application at the very beginning of the process? A couple of minutes of time to review neighborhoods that have legal protections against short-term rentals doesn’t seem too much to ask.

Please review your application and permit process to not issue permits in neighborhoods that have valid legal protections in place.

Brad Wolken

Hot Springs