ARLINGTON, Texas—Traffic and transportation are not the only concerns ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Arlington. Many North Texas residents are concerned about the possible increase in noise and crime in their neighborhoods due to the games.

At a Town Hall meeting at the Texas Rangers Golf Club on April 16, Gus Garcia, the city of Arlington’s economic development director and code compliance, said the city expects many people to apply for short term rentals.

“The city’s taking a lot of measures and steps to make sure that we’re safe out there,” Garcia said. “We’re trying to do the best we can, to make sure and maintain order and things to stay normal.”

Garcia spoke to residents about the city’s plans to regulate STRs.

The city already has STR regulations in place, including an ordinance passed in 2019. This includes an annual non-refundable, non-transferable $500 permit application fee.

Garcia said that applications within the STR rental zone were already up by 30% and that he expects the number to rise as the World Cup nears.

He said the city will use code-compliance measures already in place, such as post-compliance, where the city scrapes STR websites for applications to host STRs and checks them against hosts who have applied for their city permit. Anyone found not to have already applied will be issued a compliance violation.

“There’s a 24/7 hot fine hotline online, or you can call if you identify one, or if you see one,” Garcia told residents. “And then, of course, we’re going to be enforcing those just to make sure we don’t have a lot of neighbors that are renting out their facilities, rental homes, corporate partners, so that we can keep your neighborhood safe and quiet like you’d expect.”

Garcia said the city has been preparing for this for at least six to seven months.

“We’re gonna have citywide compliance officers, new permit inspection, no inspection complaints and proactive investigation on permanent listings,” Garcia said.

During the meeting’s question-and-answer period, Arlington resident David Schwarte, a co-founder of the Texas Neighborhood Coalition, said the 2019 ordinance saved his neighborhood.

Schwarte said the city will be “Ground Zero” for people trying to host rentals under the radar.

“If you think you have an illegal short-term rental in the neighborhood, look for cars to change constantly—that’s a dead giveaway,” Schwarte said. “If you know your neighbors already, and suddenly it’s a new set of cars, that’s a dead giveaway. If the parties still spill into the streets, you’ll know they tend not to go to bed very early, and I’ve seen soccer parties, and they’re not pretty.”

Schwarte told residents that if they see a problem, they should take a picture and send it to code compliance.

Other issues residents are concerned about include traffic, street parking and road closures due to World Cup events.

Keith Brooks, director of public works, said the city will use barriers to ensure that eventgoers do not cut through neighborhoods to get to the stadium.

Brooks said the public works department is also working on sidewalk improvements in entertainment districts and pedestrian lighting around Division Street, Cedarland Plaza Drive, Randol Mill and Slaughter.

When asked how businesses would be notified of street closures during the events, Brooks said that all closure information would be on the FIFA website.

“Another thing that when we set up road closures, we also make sure it’s all put on navigation, so it’s on Waze,” Brooks said. “So, if you’re trying to figure out how do I get to the game? Or what’s the best way to get there? Everything is in Waze, all of the road closures. So, all of the setups that we put in with Dallas Lite and Barricades, they have to run their plans through us. We review them, and once we’re good with it, we publish that out to everybody.”

Parking is another issue residents are concerned about ahead of the events, with some saying it’s already bad enough during football games at the stadium and they’re worried about even more people parking illegally.

Garcia said the city is aware of the issue and will fine those who illegally park.

“Now, one thing we are doing is we are dedicating staff to these areas and identify them as zones,” Garcia said. “So that we’re going to stay on top of it and actively, I don’t want to say policing it, but actively monitoring it, so hopefully we can control some of that.”

Jennifer Wichmann, deputy city manager for the City of Arlington, said some residents are worried about the potential for public safety staff to be stretched thin during the World Cup.

“One of the fears that we’ve heard from people is that they might not have public safety protection where they normally are in their neighborhoods and their businesses and all of that, that’s not the case,” Wichmann told the Arlington Sentinel. “We overstaff to cover the event, so all the normal public safety will be available in the neighborhoods. Fire stations will be staffed. Police will be on patrol. Ambulances will be available.”

Arlington Deputy Police Chief Steve Williams said that local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are well prepared to deal with any public safety issues.

“This has been something that we’ve been planning for years, though we’ve known about this for several years, and it has been something that we’ve been preparing for quite some time,” Williams told the Arlington Sentinel  “And I can tell you, the public safety plan is very robust, and it’s got multi-facets to it, and now it’s a matter of executing it here.”