In this post I’m going to give you some crucial information that you need if you intend to own a property that you will use for short-term rental.

But first, an admission.

When I was in the legislature I voted in favor of Senate Bill 1350 in 2016, which prohibited cities and towns from banning short-term rentals. It also put in place a structure to tax the services and it specified what municipalities could do to regulate them.

So, blame me if you want for how people have abused our neighborhoods with ill-managed short term rental properties. I hear you and I empathize.

I know many of my neighbors in historic neighborhoods, in particular, are very concerned about whether these homes will be treated well while being used as short-term rentals.

I stand by the vote because I think we need to be creative in the new sharing economy. However, I also remember saying at the time that we will have to re-visit this in the future.

We knew that cities and towns would confront new challenges in regulating short-term rentals and I, for one, felt it was best to see what those challenges would be and prepare to respond to them legislatively, if need be. Good government should be able to adopt new realities like the sharing economy and should be responsive as we learn how to adapt to the needs of the public.

So, I support the new law passed by the Legislature and Governor this year, which gives more teeth to cities and law enforcement. In no rational interpretation of the law, should a residential home be a hotel where massive parties are thrown and the needs of the neighborhood cast aside.

So, I hope the law works and we see the owners of short-term rentals respecting their neighborhoods.

Even given that, I’ve been shocked by how many properties are being used for short-term rentals by large corporations, which have purchased gads of properties, with little attention paid to the health of the neighborhood.

None of us saw that specific problem coming. Perhaps we should have.

My friend Tina Tamboer at the Cromford Report has specific concerns about short term rentals, as how they relate to the over-all real estate market. Here are a few:

1. They can deprive families of homes.
2. They can drive prices up because a buyer of a short-term rental home values it based on ROI, not just as an affordable place to live.
3. If we don’t track which homes are short-term rentals, we won’t be able to predict a possible flood of homes on the market if the economy drops and the owners are not seeing the income they expected.

Having laid all that groundwork (and I felt like that context is important for anybody who wants to buy a home for this purpose), I want to cover what you need to know about this new law if you are going to operate a short-term rental property.

The new law, which you can read directly here, will make the following changes to current statutes:

1. It allows municipalities to restrict the types of events that happen at these properties –think weddings and huge parties that would require a permit if planned in most other spaces.
2. If you own and market a short-term rental, you must provide a primary contact to the municipality; a person that law enforcement or neighbors can call if there is a nuisance at the property.
3. If you provide that information to the city or town, they must make a reasonable attempt to contact that person in the case of an ordinance violation.
4. If you are cited and fined, but you don’t pay, then the citation gets forwarded to the Arizona Department of Revenue for collection and possible interest-based fees.

So, in short, if you need our help to identify a short-term rental property, we are going to refer you to these laws.

We believe in being good neighbors in our personal lives, and we have turned away business if we think they are not going to be good neighbors.

In the end, I think that we need solutions to our housing crisis in Arizona. While short-term rentals might be making that harder to solve, it is here to stay. As agents, we want to get you the best information about the laws and your responsibilities.

If you have more questions, call us at 602-456-9388.

As realtors and long-time Phoenix residents, we know that light rail has helped improve neighborhoods, attract business and transport many people who would otherwise contribute to daily traffic jams.

So, it is alarming that Dark Money groups from out of state, backed by the Koch brothers, are putting money in to an effort to effectively shut down light rail growth in Phoenix.

Further, they are attempting to place arbitrary caps on the city’s ability to spend money on our priorities or recover from massive cuts made during the Great Recession.

City leaders such as Mayor Gallego, a majority of city council members and many non-profit and trade organizations have created a campaign to ask city voters to vote NO on Prop 105 and Prop 106.

See the website with information here.

Prop 105 would:

1. Create a prohibition agains further rail projects in Phoenix;
2. Redirect billions of dollars of federal support away from Phoenix infrastructure;
3. Threaten our ability to plan for population growth;
4. Increase crowding on our streets.

Prop 106 would make permanent any cuts that leaders will be forced to make during tough times. To put that another way, if we make cuts during an up-coming recession or economic downturn as we did in the Great Recession, those cuts would be permanent.

So, where the city has been restoring services and making the pension program stable again since the recession, Prop 106 would make those cuts permanent and would force drastic cuts to the services that our citizens and neighborhoods rely on. This is simply reckless.

IMPORTANT: This election has been forced on the ballot on August 27th, when many people are on vacation. Early ballots go out on July 29th. So, be certain to get request yours by calling 602-261-VOTE (8683). See the city website for more.

As realtors, we want all people to have roofs over their heads and we hate to see families evicted from homes, regardless of whether they purchase a home or not.

That is why you’ve seen me do some postings and videos about issues of homelessness.

There are so many destructive myths about homelessness and why people are evicted from rental homes, and why it happens.

“People are lazy and don’t pay the rent.”

“People don’t take care of the property they live in and deserve to be kicked out.”

“People are not financially responsible.”

What we are learning more and more, especially by analyzing huge amounts of data from around the country, is that there are myths about eviction, just as there are myths about poverty.

Why is it important to have a clear picture of why evictions happen? Well, because we make public policy based on these myths and those policies cost us billions of taxpayer dollars. Shouldn’t we get the causes right before we recommend a treatment?

This podcast on the topic of eviction bursts some of the myths is perfect for your summer listening list. I love podcasts as company when I’m driving or working in the garden. However, these, in particular, are very well-researched and bring out things that I’ve not thought of before.

So, these come highly recommended.

If you want another great series on poverty myths, check out this one from the same team.

We are a locally-owned business and we support locally-owned, independent businesses.

For every $100 spent at a locally-owned business, $43 stays in the local economy, versus only $13 for non-locally-owned businesses. That means more money for police, fire, schools and infrastructure.

Nobody expects you to purchase a car made in Arizona. But if you shift your spending by 20%, you can have a huge effect on our state.

So, Independents Week is a big deal for us. You can take this opportunity to shift your spending by 20% in support of our local economy.

Save 20% at your favorite local businesses during Independents Week!

Independents Week is Arizona’s week-long celebration of local businesses that lets you save money while shopping local. 

During June 29 – July 7, use your Golden Coupon to save 20% off at hundreds of participating businesses in every imaginable industry all across Arizona!

We can’t over-state the important of supporting local, independent businesses. Our legislature for years has been sending out tax dollars out of state in the form of tax credits to attract major corporations to Arizona –companies that employ far fewer people than locally-owned businesses.

As agents, we chose HomeSmart because it is locally-owned. We think that is important.

You may have seen the videos and Marshall Shore and I did, along with our videographer Chris Allen of AllenCinema.

We toured the recycling facility in North Phoenix so we could give you a clear idea of the process.

This is huge, especially since we can no longer export our recyclable materials to China for processing. See that article here.

We broke our video in to three episodes, to highlight three major stages in the process.

Hey, it’s not Game of Thrones, but we are pretty proud of it. You can watch the videos here, here and here.

Here are the big take-aways:

1. For the love of all that his holy, please don’t put plastic bags or plastic wrap, aka “2D plastic” in the recycling bin. You will see in the video just how difficult it is to get out of the machinery.
   
2. The process for separating materials is actually quite effective. The part of the process that could use improvement is the human factor. What we put in affects what is separated and what the city can earn from recycling materials.
   
3. We should not stop recycling just because China is no longer processing the materials. There is a domestic industry starting up, so it makes no sense to stop when it will be needed here.

Here are some interesting tid-bits that I learned through this process.

• The Coca-Cola bottling company is trying to make their bottles 100% recycled, but they need more plastic material. In other words, they need more consumers to properly separate their trash. They are also investing in new domestic recycling capacity.

• The City of Phoenix has updated its guide to recycling. Get it at this link. This guide is much easier to follow than the last one. So, download it and share it in your household. Don’t just print the image here in this blog post. Follow the link. There are two pages.

• The rush to re-develop domestic capacity to recycle is not happening just in the US. In fact, we are behind other countries, such as Germany. According to RecyclingToday.com, “… a few years ago Germany was a net exporter of as much as 5 million metric tons per year of scrap paper, but now the nation’s mills need to import some 2 million tons of recovered fiber each year.”

• In the wake of China’s decision to stop imports of recyclable materials, many countries began shipping to Malaysia. Now Malaysia has declared that it will begin shipping materials right back where they came from. “Whoever sends their waste to Malaysia, we will send it back,” Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin told reporters on Tuesday, declaring the foreign shipments to be “garbage … traded under the pretext of recycling.”
  
• A bill working through Congress will direct the EPA to build a national recycling plan, and increases funding for domestic recycling. “The bill provides a total of $9.52 billion for the EPA, 7.6 percent over the 2019 funding level. President Trump’s budget requested $6.1 billion for the agency.” Let’s see if recycling becomes a bi-partisan issue when millions of tons of unwanted recycling comes back to our shores. Wait! Isn’t this a domestic jobs bill?

Marshall Shore, the Hip Historian, and I visited the George Washington Carver Museum recently to consider it’s unique history, as well as to consider some of the vestiges of the terrible history of segregation that plagued our state and our country.

As as Realtor, I am troubled by the role that realtors played in red-lining in US history. Yet I am proud of the role that Realtors are playing today through the Realtor Code of Ethics to create opportunities for all people.

So, it is with the same concern for history, but pride for current efforts that we considered the Carver Museum, previously a school.

It was the site of segregation in Arizona. At the only segregated school, it was the only option for many African American students, who had to travel often for hours to gain education.

Yet from the school came artists and designers who have left a lasting impression on Arizona.

Watch this first video for Marshall’s quick review of the history of the school.

The museum and its board is now working to play a role, not only for the African American community, but as a beacon for understanding and community participation.

We also took this opportunity to consider how the school funding mechanisms in Arizona continue to disadvantage poor and minority students through the use of property taxes as a substantial funding source.

You can see that in the second video that we did on the topic.

In short, schools in areas where property values are higher are taxed less as a percentage of total home value and they generate more money, not only for maintenance and operations, but for school construction.

Further, the School Facilities board, which was intended to level the playing field for school construction, has never been fully funded.

Many people don’t know the basics of how school are funded, let alone about the base-level inequities in the system.

You may have seen my blog post about how the Chinese government decided earlier this year to stop taking recyclable materials from the US and other countries. The result being that cities all over the country are scrambling to figure out what to do with our recyclable materials.

Phoenix saw the writing on the wall and jumped right in to action to find a solution. While the ideal is re-use of materials made from petroleum, Phoenix found what seems to be a temporary solution: turning low-grade plastics in to diesel fuel.

Now, before you protest, saying that burning plastics as fuel is not a great solution, consider several points.

First, the alternative is to spend all the money to collect the plastics (which we have to do), just to throw them in the landfill. I don’t like the idea of not having a fully renewable economy, but if we are going to reach a zero waste economy by 2050, we need to keep pushing forward, despite this set-back.

Second, there are benefits to transforming materials here to diesel fuel, rather than importing them.

Third, if we are lucky, perhaps the same policy makers at the state level who make it harder for us to collect recycling at the city level will change their minds once they see how we could be generating a massive supply of our own fleet fuels in Phoenix.

Aside from that issue, it is heartening to see that the Phoenix Public Works Department staff was agile enough to adapt to this massive change. This speaks volumes to the potential of this city to continue to build relationships with material recyclers through its Resource Innovation Campus (RIC).

Ultimately, what the China policy has shown us is that the US should have never given up its domestic recycling capacity. Until that returns and until we truly educate the public about the need for waste recycling, efforts like this will continue to push us forward.

The announcement, in its entirety is copied below.

The City of Phoenix to Begin Turning Plastics into Fuel

The city of Phoenix Public Works Department is excited to announce a new partnership with Renew Phoenix that aims to turn plastics destined for the landfill into fuel. This innovative repurposing of what’s known as “Plastics 3-7,” or low-value plastics, is the latest venture in the city’s “Reimagine Phoenix” initiative to increase its diversion rate to 40% by the end of 2020, and ultimately reach zero waste by 2050.

 “I believe in taking bold chances to make big change. The idea of making fuel with the plastics we are throwing away is certainly an ‘out of the box’ idea that I am thrilled to say will also bring jobs and revenue to our city,” said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. “During a time when cities are giving up on recycling, Phoenix is again leading the way in setting the gold standard for innovation and creativity.”

The need to find a way to re-use these materials comes on the heels of China no longer accepting certain recycled materials from the United States. This forced city leadership to think creatively to find new solutions for its recycled materials. Thanks to the foresight of the Phoenix City Council, this new project is now ready to take shape.

“The future is all about recycling, sustainability and doing our part to ensure future generations have a healthy planet,” said Councilwoman Thelda Williams, who serves as the chair of the Water, Wastewater, Infrastructure and Sustainability (WWIS) Subcommittee. “I am certain that once others see what we are doing, they will want to be part of this movement to prevent more materials from being simply thrown away.”

The plan is for Renew Phoenix, a joint venture between Generated Materials Recovery and Renewlogy, to work together to build a facility to process the materials on the city’s Resource Innovation Campus.

“I am excited for what this partnership brings to Phoenix,” said Councilman Michael Nowakowski, whose district is home to the City’s Resource Innovation Campus. “This new, innovative venture will encourage other businesses to bring-next generation technology to the Phoenix to help us reach our diversion goal of 40% by 2020.”

Renew Phoenix was selected through a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Their plan is to use a proprietary chemical recycling process to reverse the plastic back into its basic molecular structure, which will allow them to convert the plastic waste into fuel. Renew Phoenix will also bring as many as 15 full-time jobs to the valley, after investing more than five million dollars in capital to the project.

“Renewlogy is excited about bringing our technology to Phoenix and creating a more circular economy around plastic waste locally,” said Priyanka Bakaya, Founder and CEO of Renewlogy. “Phoenix will serve as a model for cities around the country looking for local solutions for plastic waste.”

Once at full production, the project is expected to divert ten tons per day of mixed plastic waste, which equates to 60 barrels of liquid fuel. This partnership will not only help Phoenix, but the Valley altogether. Renew Phoenix will be able to scale their production to allow regional remanufacturing of Plastics 3-7 to be processed as well.

“We are proud to continue bucking the trend and pushing forward with innovation, economic development and repurposing our waste,” said Ginger Spencer, city of Phoenix Public Works Director. “We are committed to building a circular economy and achieving our Reimagine Phoenix goals. This new venture to turn plastics into fuel is eye-opening and we hope it will serve as a model for other cities to reimagine their own recycling programs.”

About Reimagine Phoenix: Reimagine Phoenix is the city’s initiative to increase the city’s waste diversion rate to 40 percent by 2020 and to better manage its solid waste resources.To achieve this, the city is conducting community and educational outreach on the five pillars–reduce, reuse, recycle, reconsider and reimagine—in hopes to increase awareness of the importance of waste diversion and management. The city is developing the Resource Innovation Campus (RIC) as a regional circular economy hub. The RIC is home to one of the city’s two transfer stations, a composting facility, Palm Silage and the future operations of Renew Phoenix. Approximately 50 acres of the RIC will be leased to innovators with market-ready technologies and manufacturing processes that reuse or repurpose trash materials including recycled plastics, recycled paper, and recycled boxes and packing materials.

About Renew Phoenix: Renew Phoenix is a joint venture between Generated Materials Recovery (GMR) and Renewlogy. Renewlogy has the innovative technology and operational experience while GMR has the technical, operation, and local market expertise. Renew Phoenix will draw on the expertise of both companies to build a showcase facility for handling low value plastics such as #3-#7s and serve as a model for other cities around the world to follow.

About Renewlogy: Renewlogy is a plastic to fuel technology firm with facilities in the U.S. and Canada. Renewlogy was founded at MIT in 2011 and started operating its first pilot in Salt Lake City, UT in 2013. Renewlogy has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the Top 25 Most Audacious Companies.

About Generated Materials Recovery (GMR): Generated Materials Recovery (GMR) is a $10 million waste company established in 1998. GMR provides recycling services to manufacturing and industrial facilities in AZ, UT and CO. It currently services municipalities around the Phoenix Metro area including Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Tempe, and Surprise, and has a 20-year history specializing in the plastics industry.

The State Historic Preservation office has just released the results of a “charrette”, which took place last year at this time in an effort to begin to plan the future of the State Fairgrounds.

You can get a copy of that report here.

There is a lot of history and background to cover if you want to understand what’s going on here and why it is important.

But, before we do that and for those of you who don’t know what a charrette is, here is a definition from the report:

“A charrette is an intensive planning session comprised of formal and informal meetings, held over a short period of time for the primary purpose of collaborating on a vision for the future. Public agencies, private citizens, design professionals and stakeholders are encouraged to collectively formulate a plan for development and/or revitalization of a facility, urban area or neighborhood.”

To put this in to context, it’s important to know that our State Fairgrounds is owned by the State of Arizona, even though it is in the city of Phoenix. So, the Arizona legislature and the governor have the power to decide what to do with it.

Unfortunately, for decades the legislature and governor have failed to fully fund historic the preservation of the fairgrounds.

This has been true of both Republican and Democratic governors, although we have not had a Democratic Legislature since the 1960s.

Still, this has had a huge impact over the years. Neighborhoods that surround the fair are greatly affected by the condition of the property, and that has an impact on people’s property values.

So, it has been frustrating over the years to see that the legislature has even periodically swept funds from the State Fairgrounds, which could have otherwise gone to historic preservation.

In 2014, after decades of neglect, this came to a head when the fairground board made the choice to knock down the historic WPA Building on McDowell. This structure has important ties to the reforms of the 1930s that were meant to bring the US out of the great depression through the Work Projects Administration.

Many of us rallied and were able to stop the bulldozers. Since then, it’s been a long road on which we are continuing to try to find funding to begin renovations on the building, from city, state and private sources. We still have some way to go on that.

And, that is only one of many historic buildings on the property.

However, that event sparked a renewed interest in the fairgrounds. As the city has become more dense, people are starting to look at ways that the historic buildings and the entire fairgrounds could be put to use more often throughout the year.

Those changes get us to the Charrette. After some initial calls to the public for ideas, and fears that the governor’s office was thinking of selling the fairground land, the governor’s office began working primarily with the State Historic Preservation Office to generate ideas of what could come.

It is worth a few minutes to skim the report, as some of the ideas that came out of that weekend a year ago are very inventive. There is very little money to work with, and these creative community leaders came up with some great concepts.

In the end, we are left with two major directions we could take: move the fair or keep the fair.

If we move the fair, which people have spoken about for years, then it is in the best interest of neighborhoods in Central Phoenix to have some voice about what will happen to the space. Right up front, we need to protect the historic buildings.

After that, we will want to make certain that the space is complementary to the neighborhoods. For instance, I have been told by developers that the only way they could make the space work would be to build large apartment complexes there.

This would be a non-starter for many people, especially those in the homes right next to the fair. Many apartments are over three stories and would look down on the neighbors’ back yards, which carries many privacy concerns. Furthermore, many apartment buildings tend to lose their luster in only a decade or so. This could cause problems for the neighbors.

While we need more owner-occupied and affordable housing downtown, we would not be likely to get both, were this land to go to developers of condos.

They would likely be higher priced condos, packed on to the acreage of the old fairground, which would exclude many people who need affordable housing the most.

And, none of that addresses what would happen to the colosseum.

The best approach would be to prepare for the exit of the fair with an empowered working group of thinkers from the city, the state, the county, ASU, the historic coalition, developers, historic preservation experts and housing experts.

This is a decision that deserves visionary thinking.

Were the fair to stay in place, then many of these same interests should still convene to consider what that looks like, while improving and re-purposing some of the buildings.

Under this scenario –and perhaps even the first one– the many historic buildings could be re-purposed in a way that re-invigorates the state fairgrounds as a point of community pride.

One developer made a suggestion that I thought was powerful: turn the fairgrounds in to a Phoenix version of Millennial Park. This would require taking over the west 9 holes of the Encanto Golf course.

Regardless, the charrette report will give you a great insight in to the various challenges and opportunities of the fairgrounds.

It’s worth a read while you are waiting for the next episode of Game of Thrones to come on.

 Parking

Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about what came before us. We use her services when we list properties of historic significance to help us tell the stories behind the homes.

We are happy that Donna is allowing us to re-publish some of her articles on a monthly basis. If you or your business ever needs a historian, let Donna know at laydeescholar@hotmail.com.

Phoenicians are in love with their cars until……they have to find a parking spot. Is there a free place? Do I have enough coins for the meter or will it take a credit card? Where’s the nearest parking garage or lot and will I have to walk far to my destination? And during the hot summer months, if I have to use a lot or street, is there any shade? All of these questions take serious consideration when Phoenicians begin the parking spot patrol.

While these are modern day “worries,” what was it like back in the day?  First there were not as many cars, and many people went downtown by trolley and later by bus. Believe it or not, parking meters “sprouted” along Phoenix downtown streets as early as September 1937 with a one-hour limit (for a nickel). And yes, Phoenicians were not too happy about this new fangled device. It certainly spoiled the pleasure of parking downtown all day for free.

But after the end of World War II, things began to change. More families had cars and disposable money. Women liked to browse and shop. And kids wanted to go to the movies or hang out at one of the many places that had soda fountains. And eventually we had shopping centers.

A few old buildings had rather small parking areas in their basements, but they simply could not meet the new demands of the car driving public. And then, one business owner stepped up.

George Luhrs decided to build a garage on 1^st Avenue and Madison to accommodate the tenants in his various buildings, but also to provide some public parking. Opening in late November 1957, the Luhrs Parking Center provided space for over 400 cars PLUS a two-pump Texaco Gas Station. Several other small lots opened around the same time and the downtown merchants touted the simplicity to find a parking spot during their January Park and Shop Plan. This turned out to be only a small relief to growing parking issues.

Most people have driven in downtown Phoenix today. The streets are still narrow and have limited parking. And not much has changed over the years. Much of the parking before was parallel. Now it’s a mix of parallel and diagonal, but still not much to go around (and trying to figure out the number of allowable hours one can use on the meter is another issue). Parking at a mall especially during seasonal shopping days can be more of a question as to “Where did I park?” after you complete your spending spree. An app to show available spots can be helpful, but will it save that spot before you get there?

Donna Reiner is the co-author of three books on Phoenix history.

Have you noticed the increase in homelessness in Phoenix over the last few years?

There are some very clear reasons for it –and it’s not just that the price of housing has gone up.

It is just as much about poor planning and poor funding, which has caught up with us.

Have a look at this video to learn more about why we’ve seen such a drastic increase in recent years, and what you can do about it.

This video was shot as part of an experiment with me and Marshall Shore. We are shooting videos about things you may not know about downtown, as well as public interest issues, like Homelessness.

You can see these videos pop up about every week on Facebook, “Get Your PHX” on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.