Short-term rental ordinances tabled

Two proposed ordinances designed to regulate short-term rentals in the city of Bella Vista were tabled by the Bella Vista City Council during its regular session held Monday night at the District Court Building.

The items will now receive more examination during the Council's Oct. 17 work session before being placed on the Oct. 24 agenda for a vote during that regular session.

Both motions to table were made by Councilman Jim Wozniak and came after a lengthy Citizen Input Session at the meeting's outset in which 17 individuals voiced their opinions on the two ordinances, with almost every one of them taking advantage of all of the three minutes allotted to them. Even though both sides of the coin were represented in the comments, more people spoke out against the regulatory ordinances.

The first of the two ordinances on the agenda was Councilman Doug Fowler's updated version of his original ordinance. The second ordinance was authored by Steven Bourke.

Both included the requirement of a permit to operate a short-term rental, occupancy limits for short-term rentals, a process for revocation of a short-term rental permit and penalties for violations.

Fowler's proposal also asked to provide safety and on-site septic inspection requirements while Bourke's asked to provide for a maximum number of short-term rental permits to be issued.

When the first ordinance listed on the agenda, Fowler's updated version, came up for discussion and a vote, Wozniak got the ball rolling with the first of his two motions to table.

"I'm going to ask that we table the ordinances until the next work session," he said. "We just talked a long time about the septic, and if we're going to be fair to everybody, the short-terms and long-terms and permanents all need to be under one ordinance. You can't go singling people out. There would be a way to make it fair for everyone regardless of the situation."

His reason for tabling the ordinances, he said, was because "some of us, I believe, want to run this through pretty quick." He added, "If we mess with it tonight, we won't know for sure what it will look like until next month. If we let it sit, and work on it on the 17th, get the septic part right, then maybe we can actually work on it and have something to hang onto instead of everything being up in the air. I feel we need to push it back, as far as making the first reading, until at least October and work on it on the 17th of October to get the wording in the ballpark."

Fowler's updated version was tabled by a 5-1 vote, with Fowler voicing the lone vote in opposition, while Bourke's proposal was tabled by a 6-0 vote.

In other business the City Council passed a resolution authorizing and levying the millage rate of ad valorem real and personal property tax for the city of Bella Vista for the year 2022 to be collected in 2023.

"This is something we have to do every year," said Mayor Peter Christie. "The due date is Oct. 20, which would not give us enough time to respond, so we moved it up to this meeting."

A second resolution that was passed called for the repeal of resolution No. R2022-37 and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into a contract with Blue Guys I.T., through the interlocal purchasing system program, in the total amount of $108,442.00 for the purchase of Todyl Security solution to enhance city cybersecurity efforts.

The Council then voted down a resolution that would have amended the 2022 city budget to appropriate $27,000.00 in otherwise unappropriated and undesignated funds to the police department to fund one-time $1,500 stipends for all qualified city police and fire dispatchers.

The voted ended in a 3-3 deadlock with Councilmen Jerry Snow, John Flynn and Wozniak voting for the resolution and Bourke, Fowler and Larry Wilms casting "no" votes. The resolution failed when Christie chose not to vote, leaving the final vote deadlocked at 3-3.

Also during the session the Council approved a resolution renaming a portion of St. Andrews circle to St. Andrews Drive.