New city law aims to crack down on nuisance parties at short-term rentals in Wichita

The city of Wichita is attempting to crack down on nuisance parties at Airbnbs and other short-term rentals.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance defining nuisance parties and establishing penalties for violators, including fines and up to a year in jail for repeat offenders.

The draft ordinance was halted last month over council members’ concerns about when the owners of short-term rentals could be cited for violations that occur at their properties.

“The ordinance has been changed so that it provides that a responsible party can only be held responsible for violations of a nuisance party if they are on the premises, if they have been made aware of the party occurring by a law enforcement officer or other city official, and they fail to do something to disburse the party,” assistant city attorney Sharon Dickgrafe said Tuesday.

The updated ordinance language specifies that property owners can only be held in violation if they know or should know that an unlawful party is being hosted there.

“My thought would be phone calls from neighbors, written notifications prior to the party,” Dickgrafe said. “If they were notified that there were activities on Facebook, there’s a number of different ways that that could be proved by evidence.”

Under the new law, a nuisance party is defined as a social gathering of five or more people where “certain nuisance-type activities occur.” Those activities include:

• Unlawful sale, furnishing, possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages
• Violations of provisions of Chapter 7.41 relating to noise
• Property damage, assault, battery or littering
• Outdoor urination or defecation in a place open to public view
• Conduct that threatens injury to persons or damage to property
• Trespassing on adjacent or adjoining property
• Indecent exposure
• Unlawful discharge of fireworks or firearms
• Illegal gambling
• Sale of sexual relations
• Hosting of minors for the consumption of alcohol

The penalty for a first offense is a $500 fine for the renter hosting the party or the property owner if they’re determined to be liable. Second and subsequent offenses will carry a fine between $1,000 and $2,500, and up to one year in jail. The ordinance approved Tuesday states that repeat violators will face “one-year imprisonment” with no qualifications, but in response to an Eagle inquiry, a city spokesperson said that was a mistake.

“It should read ‘up to’ [one year]. That will be corrected on second reading,” spokesperson Tyler Schiffelbein said in an email. Before the ordinance goes into effect, it will appear on next Tuesday’s consent agenda, where it will be finalized with no debate unless a council member pulls it for discussion.

Although the ordinance only applies to parties at short-term rentals, the Wichita Police Department can still arrest people for illicit activities that occur during parties at other properties.

“I’m going to support this today but I have concerns about a few pieces of it,” council member Brandon Johnson said. “One, if there are properties . . . where regular parties are happening, there’s really nothing that would hold a property owner or short-term rental owner accountable for multiple parties. If multiple parties are happening and they aren’t notified, it just continues to be a party house. They can say they weren’t notified.

“The other thing is, I doubt neighbors are friends with these folks on social media in these different places to see these parties being promoted,” Johnson said.

The city began reevaluating its approach to short-term rentals after 20-year-old Elijah Davis of Wichita was fatally shot while attending a party at an Airbnb in the Crown Heights neighborhood in April 2021.

“I know the folks in Crown Heights want to see more than this, but I’ll support this because it does take some steps forward,” Johnson said. “But I do believe those will be things that we hear about later because people still rent out these houses for house parties. They don’t want their house messed up.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2024 at 12:36 PM.