Utah & Arizona's STR Rules in 2026: Kanab, Torrey, Heber Valley, Prescott & Flagstaff

Thomas Garner
1 day ago
13 min read

Utah and Arizona sit next to each other on the map, but on opposite ends of the short-term rental regulatory spectrum. Utah has no statewide STR law at all — every rule an operator follows is written by a city council or county commission, and it can look completely different twenty miles down the road. Arizona took the opposite path: the legislature stepped in nearly a decade ago and told cities they cannot ban vacation rentals outright, so local rules in Prescott and Flagstaff operate inside a narrower, state-defined lane than anything in Utah.

For operators weighing a purchase — or already running a property — in these five gateway markets, that difference isn't academic. It changes how far local ordinances can move against you and how much due diligence matters before closing. Below is a market-by-market breakdown of what's confirmed, sourced to the actual ordinances and statutes where we could find them, with anything we couldn't independently verify flagged as such.

The Big Picture: Utah's Local Patchwork vs. Arizona's State Preemption

Utah: No Statewide Law, Full Local Control

Utah has never passed a comprehensive statewide short-term rental statute. There's no state-issued STR license, no uniform definition of a "short-term rental," and no state ceiling on what a city or county can require. The only consistent statewide thread is taxation — operators owe state sales tax and local transient room tax (TRT) regardless of where the property sits, administered through the Utah State Tax Commission. Beyond that, Title 17 of the Utah Code (county powers) and each municipality's own land use ordinance are where the real rules live.

Practically, this means Kanab, Torrey, and Heber City can each set their own occupancy caps, licensing processes, inspection requirements, and zoning restrictions — and have; several have rewritten their STR ordinances in just the past 18 months. There's no appeal to state law if a city caps permits, imposes a moratorium, or bans STRs from a zoning district; the city council is the final word.

Arizona: State-Level Preemption Limits What Cities Can Do

Arizona is the mirror image. In 2016, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1350, signed by then-Governor Doug Ducey on May 13, 2016, effective January 1, 2017 — the first law of its kind in the country, prohibiting cities and towns from banning short-term or vacation rentals outright. That prohibition is now codified at Arizona Revised Statutes § 9-500.39 ("Limits on regulation of vacation rentals and short-term rentals; state preemption; civil penalties; transaction privilege tax license suspension; definitions").

The statute has been amended twice since, giving cities more — but still bounded — enforcement room: House Bill 2672 (2019) expanded the specific purposes cities could regulate for, and Senate Bill 1168 (2022) clarified authority to require local business licenses, a designated local emergency contact, health-and-safety enforcement, and escalating penalties for repeat violations, while still barring outright bans.

As written today, § 9-500.39 lets a city regulate — but not ban — vacation rentals, and only for specific purposes: fire and building codes, health and sanitation, traffic and parking control, and waste control, provided the city can show the rule's primary purpose is public health and safety rather than reducing STR counts. A separate 2026 bill, HB 2429, would tighten statewide occupancy limits (two adults per sleeping area plus two more) and extend the enforcement lookback window. It passed the Arizona House in March 2026 but stalled in the Senate under industry pushback — it has not been signed into law, so § 9-500.39 as amended through 2022 remains the operative statute for Prescott and Flagstaff.

Utah Gateway Towns

Kanab, UT

Kanab sits at the junction of US-89 and US-89A, the main route most visitors use to reach Zion National Park from the east — and Zion just posted its second-busiest year on record: roughly 4.98 million visits in 2025 (4,984,525), about 15,000 shy of the 5-million mark and behind only 2021's all-time high of just over 5.04 million. That's the demand engine behind Kanab's STR market.

On regulation, there are two separate questions here, and it's worth keeping them apart: is there a citywide cap or moratorium on the total number of STR permits, and is there a per-property zoning limit? The answers are different.

No citywide moratorium or permit quota. We found no evidence — in the city's STR ordinance materials, Kane County's STR guidance, or recent local reporting — of a citywide numeric cap on total STR permits or an active moratorium as of this writing. Treat that as an absence-of-evidence finding rather than an explicit city denial: an unpublished internal ceiling or a pending change wouldn't necessarily surface in the public-facing documents we could access.

But there is a confirmed per-property zoning limit. Kanab's Land Use Ordinance § 4-33 ("Short-Term Leases of Residential Properties"), adopted January 22, 2008 and amended February 11, 2025, caps short-term rentals at no more than two (2) rentals per property in Single-Family Zones, with no more than one private renter's living space shared at a time. We confirmed this by reading the ordinance text directly (Kanab City Land Use Ordinance, Chapter 4, § 4-33(C)(5), published at kanab.utah.gov). STRs in residential zones also need a business license, must meet underlying zone setback requirements, and must provide an additional off-street parking space for every four guests beyond what's already parked at the property. So: no citywide quota or moratorium, but a real, enforceable two-per-parcel density limit baked into the zoning code — an important distinction for anyone evaluating a multi-unit or subdividable Kanab property.

Torrey, UT

Torrey is the small gateway town on Highway 24 outside Capitol Reef National Park, and Capitol Reef just had its best year ever: 1,422,490 visits in 2024, a new record beating the park's previous high (2021) and roughly 80% above 2014 visitation.

Torrey's regulatory story in 2025 is a genuine moratorium-to-ordinance arc. The town council held a public hearing on March 13, 2025 on a resolution to suspend new STR license issuance for six months while it rewrote its ordinance — confirmed via the town's own public notices and council minutes. Six months later, the council approved a revised STR ordinance (Torrey Town Code Chapter 4) at its September 11, 2025 meeting. The revised code now requires annual inspection of every STR by the Wayne County Fire Marshal, and — for any building not previously operated as a short-term rental — full compliance with the current International Building Code (IBC) before a license application is even accepted. That's a materially higher bar than a simple license-and-tax process, and it applies to new-to-STR conversions, not units already grandfathered under prior inspections.

Heber City, UT

Heber City, the commercial hub of Heber Valley just south of Park City, rewrote its short-term rental code with Ordinance 2025-12, passed and signed by the Heber City Council on June 17, 2025 (Mayor Heidi Franco). The ordinance amends Heber City Municipal

Code Chapter 5.26 and confirms several specific new requirements:

Local contact requirement: every STR must have a rental manager who resides within a 10-mile radius of the property and is available at all times the unit is occupied as a rental. The owner can serve as the manager, but contact information for both owner and manager must be on file with the city's Business Licensing Department and the Heber City Police Department.
Occupancy cap: overnight occupancy is capped at 1 lodger per 200 square feet of livable area or 16 lodgers, whichever is lower — and total people present on the property at any time (including daytime visitors) cannot exceed 16.
Parking restrictions: all STR-associated vehicles, including visitors', must park on approved, paved onsite parking; street parking is prohibited.
Mandatory inspections: STRs must pass inspection by both the Wasatch County Health Department and the Wasatch County Fire District.
Zoning: STRs are restricted to detached single-family dwellings, except in areas specifically approved for STR use under a development agreement.

We confirmed all of the above directly from the ordinance text. We could not independently confirm a distinct "floor plan" submission requirement inside Ordinance 2025-12 itself — the parking-plan/paved-surface requirement is explicit, but a separate architectural floor plan may be part of Heber City's standard business license application rather than the STR ordinance proper. Treat that detail as likely-but-unconfirmed.

Heber Valley is also the one market here with a confirmed institutional property manager presence: Vacasa completed its acquisition by Casago in a roughly $130 million deal that closed April 30, 2025, and the combined company (Vacasa brand retained, Casago as parent) now manages STRs across multiple Utah mountain markets. We haven't independently re-verified their current Heber Valley-specific unit count, but the underlying merger is confirmed and dated.

Arizona Gateway Cities

Because both Prescott and Flagstaff sit inside Arizona's preemption framework, neither city can ban short-term rentals or zone them out of existence. Local rules in both cities are narrower than what Utah towns can impose — generally licensing, a local emergency contact, and health/safety/noise standards — because anything broader risks running into § 9-500.39.

Prescott, AZ

Prescott's STR market runs on individual owners and small operators rather than one dominant management company. AirDNA counts roughly 1,196 active listings, with an average daily rate around $207 in the most recent snapshot (the brief's original $183 figure likely reflects an earlier data pull — treat exact ADR as a moving target). Gathering Places, one of the more visible local vacation rental companies, manages roughly 50 properties across 30-plus owners — about 4% of total listings. No single manager or brand controls a meaningful share, consistent with a fragmented, owner-operator-heavy market rather than one locked up by an institutional player.

Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff is the larger Arizona market by listing count: roughly 2,741 active listings per AirDNA, with an average daily rate of $270/night (AirDNA MarketMinder) — the same source and methodology used for Prescott's $207 figure above, so the two numbers are directly comparable. A different provider (Rabbu) pulled a smaller listing count with an ADR closer to $226; we're standardizing on the AirDNA figure here since it's the apples-to-apples pairing with Prescott's AirDNA number rather than mixing sources. Either way, the directional point — Flagstaff commands a materially higher rate than Prescott — holds regardless of which provider's snapshot you use.

The claim that Flagstaff, despite its scale, has little organized host community on Facebook is plausible given how larger, more transient markets typically behave, but we could not independently verify it through search. Flag it as a field observation, not a confirmed fact.

What This Means for Independent Operators

The practical takeaway: Utah operators need to track city-level ordinance activity directly, because there's no state floor or ceiling protecting them from a six-month moratorium like Torrey's or a mid-year rewrite like Heber City's. Arizona operators have more structural protection against an outright ban, but still need to watch Phoenix for statewide bills like HB 2429 that could tighten occupancy or enforcement rules across every city at once, including Prescott and Flagstaff, next time it comes up for a vote.

None of this is static — Torrey revised its ordinance within the year, Heber City replaced its occupancy cap mid-2025, and Arizona's legislature has taken a run at HB 2429-style reform in back-to-back sessions. Whatever's true in July 2026 is a snapshot, not a guarantee — confirm current requirements directly with each city's licensing office before relying on any of this for a purchase or compliance decision.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Utah and Northern Arizona's gateway towns — Kanab, Torrey, Heber Valley, Prescott, and Flagstaff — are exactly the kind of independent-operator markets we build direct-booking strategies for: high park-driven demand, fragmented ownership, and regulatory environments that reward operators who stay current instead of guessing. If you're running an STR in one of these corridors and want a marketing partner who tracks the local rules as closely as the local demand, start with a free audit at crestcove.co, email info@crestcove.co, or call (256) 998-7502.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Utah have a statewide short-term rental law? No. Utah has no comprehensive statewide STR statute, no state-issued STR license, and no uniform definition of a short-term rental. Every city and county writes and enforces its own ordinance. The only consistent statewide requirement is tax registration and remittance (state sales tax plus local transient room tax).

Does Arizona preempt local short-term rental bans? Yes. Arizona Revised Statutes § 9-500.39, originally enacted as Senate Bill 1350 in 2016, prohibits cities and towns from banning short-term or vacation rentals outright. Cities can still regulate STRs for specific health-and-safety purposes — fire and building codes, sanitation, traffic and parking, waste control — under amendments made by House Bill 2672 (2019) and Senate Bill 1168 (2022), but they cannot zone STRs out of existence or cap them to zero.

Is there a permit cap or moratorium on short-term rentals in Kanab, Utah? There's no citywide numeric cap on total STR permits and no active moratorium, based on the city's published STR licensing materials and Kane County guidance. But there is a confirmed per-property zoning limit: Kanab's Land Use Ordinance § 4-33 (adopted 2008, amended February 11, 2025) caps short-term rentals at no more than two (2) rentals per property in Single-Family Zones, verified by reading the ordinance text directly. Kanab also requires a business license, site plan, and parking compliance for any STR in a residential zone.

What changed in Torrey, Utah's short-term rental ordinance in 2025? Torrey's town council proposed a six-month moratorium on new STR licenses at a March 13, 2025 public hearing to allow time to rewrite its ordinance. The council then adopted a revised ordinance on September 11, 2025 that added annual Wayne County Fire Marshal inspections and, for buildings not previously used as STRs, full International Building Code (IBC) compliance before a license application is accepted.

What does Heber City's Ordinance 2025-12 require? Adopted June 17, 2025, Ordinance 2025-12 amended Heber City's short-term rental code (Chapter 5.26) to require a rental manager within a 10-mile radius of the property, cap overnight occupancy at 1 lodger per 200 square feet or 16 lodgers (whichever is lower, with a hard 16-person cap including visitors), mandate Wasatch County health and fire district inspections, and require all STR parking to be onsite on a paved surface — no street parking.

How many short-term rental listings does Prescott, Arizona have, and who manages them? AirDNA data puts Prescott's active STR listing count at roughly 1,196. The market is fragmented: no single management company controls a significant share. Gathering Places, a locally visible operator, manages roughly 50 properties — about 4% of total listings — making it one of the larger local players without being dominant.

How does Flagstaff's short-term rental market compare to Prescott's? Flagstaff is larger by listing count, with roughly 2,741 active listings versus Prescott's ~1,196, and commands a higher average daily rate: $270/night (AirDNA MarketMinder) versus Prescott's $207/night, using the same source for both so the comparison is apples-to-apples. A different provider (Rabbu) shows a lower Flagstaff ADR near $226, so treat $270 as the AirDNA-consistent figure rather than the only number in circulation. Both markets operate under Arizona's state preemption law, so neither city can ban STRs outright.

Could Arizona's short-term rental rules get stricter statewide? Possibly. House Bill 2429, which would tighten statewide overnight occupancy limits and extend the lookback window for repeat-violation enforcement, passed the Arizona House in March 2026 but stalled in the Senate amid industry opposition. It has not been enacted as of this writing, so the current operative statute remains A.R.S. § 9-500.39 as amended through 2022. Operators in Prescott and Flagstaff should watch future legislative sessions for another attempt.

About the Authors

Crest & Cove Creative is a short-term rental marketing agency founded by Thomas Garner and Jacob Mishalanie. We build direct-booking brands, listing optimization systems, and market-specific content strategies for independent STR operators nationwide, including emerging corridors like Utah and Northern Arizona's independent gateway towns.