Jonesboro, AR – Jonesboro Right Now – Residents of Jonesboro neighborhoods voiced their concerns about troublesome Airbnb rentals at a recent city council meeting.

During the public comment period of Tuesday’s city council meeting, residents of the West End and Bridger Place neighborhoods spoke about a May incident in which an Airbnb house in Bridger Place was rented for a party. The issue was also discussed at the Public Safety Council Committee meeting beforehand.

“This caused a lot of havoc and fear. Drugs, beer bottles being thrown into other people’s houses, people blocking the street – the police had to be called. One policeman came out; he could not handle it because these people refused to move their cars from blocking the street. So, more people were called. There was three or four dispatchers working on this call,” said Karen Slicer, homeowner’s association (HOA) board president for the Bridger Place neighborhood.

Slicer noted that ever since the homeowners relocated to Northwest Arkansas and turned it into a rental, the neighborhood has “had trouble ever since.”

The residents said they’d met two weeks ago with City Attorney Carol Duncan, Jonesboro Police Department Chief Rick Elliott and the city’s Chief Administrative Officer Brian Richardson, to discuss the matter. Duncan said the city’s short-term rental ordinances already “have teeth,” but changes would need to be made to the city’s privilege licenses, which she said were being worked on.

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According to the city’s short-term rentals ordinance, short-term rentals must be operated with a privilege license. If the property owner is not a Craighead County resident, they must have a local contact to handle any correspondence regarding it. The privilege license can be revoked if the property is “deemed a nuisance,” which can include noise complaints, criminal activity, trash/debris, and additional factors.

Duncan said the issue with making changes came down to tracking the number of short-term rentals in the city.

“We don’t even have a way to know where they are, if they don’t come in and get their privilege license, because if you booked on Airbnb, you don’t find out the address until you put your credit card in,” Duncan said. “If they’re not honest and following our ordinance and coming in and applying for a privilege license, number one, until there’s a problem, then we know [the address].”

Duncan added that she had spoken with the city attorneys of cities with significant amounts of short-term rentals, such as Hot Springs and Bella Vista, and those cities use an outside company to track these properties. That costs somewhere around $80,000 for those cities, she said, and it had not been determined if Jonesboro had enough properties to make that expense worth it.

Other considerations included ensuring long-term rental properties were not affected by any new rules put in place, as these are in the same business, Duncan said. Airbnb properties were not the only places that needed to be considered, as rentals available on other short-term rental sites like Vrbo would need to be tracked as well.

Elliott told council members that an arrest was made in connection with the party, several vehicles were towed, and it was disbanded, but it “took a lot of resources to handle.” He said parties have historically been hosted in abandoned or empty buildings that were rented out, which police had worked to curb.

“Now, the end result is, they resorted to Airbnbs and hosting a party until they get shut down,” Elliott said. “That’s at the expense of these homeowners losing their sleep and destruction of property in the neighborhood. We are currently looking at it.”

Slicer added that the HOA has met with an attorney to strengthen its bylaws and wants to work with the city to solve the issue.

“We need respect, we need peace, and we won’t be a peace or placated, so we expect a solution, but we will help you work in that solution,” she said.

CORRECTION: This article has been corrected to clarify when a meeting between neighborhood representatives and city leaders occurred, and to clarify the neighborhood in which the party took place.

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