Virginia Beach task force recommends 20 changes to short‑term rental rules, council asks staff to draft ordinances

A citizen task force appointed by Virginia Beach City Council presented 20 recommendations Tuesday aimed at tightening enforcement and simplifying registration for short‑term rentals (STRs), and the council instructed staff to draft ordinance changes and schedule public hearings.

The Short‑Term Rental Enforcement Task Force, chaired by Andy Cohen, recommended changes ranging from revised on‑site sign requirements and streamlined renewal paperwork to changes in safety inspections, fees, parking rules for grandfathered units and stronger tools to remove repeat unpermitted listings from online platforms.

"We started the process off by using some human centered design principles so that task force members had to empathize with various people involved in the process," said Laura Gomez Nichols, the neutral facilitator hired by the city. "We outlined key issues and areas of improvement to find a shared vision and developed, refined, and finally voted on recommendations."

Why it matters: Planning staff told the task force that longstanding backlogs of unpermitted listings and limits on enforcement capacity have reduced the city’s ability to act promptly on repeat violations. The task force said the changes would free staff time for proactive enforcement and make compliance simpler for owners who follow rules.

Key recommendations and details

- Signs and contact information: The task force recommends allowing STR signs to include owner or manager contact information to help resolve complaints without staff intervention. Task force members unanimously supported the change; three members had preferred removing the sign requirement altogether.

- Structural and life‑safety inspections: The group recommended allowing licensed general contractors (A/B/C) to perform mandatory structural safety inspections required for STR permits, rather than limiting that work to a "licensed design professional," a restriction staff said has created a bottleneck. The task force also recommended reducing in‑person city life‑safety inspections from every three years to every five years, with attestations in the intervening years.

- Renewal and application process: To reduce repetitive paperwork, the task force recommended annual renewals permit applicants be allowed to attest there are no changes from the prior year and to add a modest application fee to encourage complete submissions. If an application is approved, that fee could be applied to the permit cost.

- Grandfathered properties and parking: The task force proposed that grandfathered STRs be held to the parking requirements that applied to the dwelling at time of construction, and that listings must state the number of available on‑site spaces so guests are informed in advance. Planning was asked to clarify allowed materials for additional parking and to limit impermeable surfaces in the overlay district.

- Enforcement, penalties and platforms: The group recommended restoring criminal penalties for serious or repeated STR violations to increase deterrence, or—if the council prefers to keep civil enforcement—asking the General Assembly to raise civil fines. The task force also urged the city to pursue state authority for platforms (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) to remove listings for unpermitted STRs; the task force referenced HB 1688 as the type of legislation that would allow that.

- Staffing and technology: The task force recommended funding a full‑time STR customer service representative and additional zoning inspectors so planning staff can move from processing to proactive enforcement. Planning staff said those positions would help address a backlog of unpermitted listings.

Where the data stands

Planning staff told the council that the program’s inventory has been reduced by focused work: staff identified 1,872 STR units citywide, of which 1,161 were permitted at the time of the presentation. The city counted 428 grandfathered properties (316 of which are permitted) and reported only 34 permits pending after recent enforcement pushes.

"We have raised [permitted] from 27% in February to 62%" of identified units, planning staff said during the presentation, citing recent staffing activity.

Council response and next steps

Council members praised the task force for consensus on many items while several members urged caution on changes that could have unintended safety or equity impacts. Council directed the city attorney to draft ordinance language for the recommendations and requested that staff hold public comment meetings before any vote. Council also signaled support for pursuing the task force’s recommended General Assembly items that would give platforms authority to delist unpermitted STRs.

"Direct the planning department to proceed with the recommended actions that they've already started to put some of those in place," the task force said in its wrap‑up; council agreed to move ordinances forward and to schedule public hearings so the public can weigh in.

Ending note: The task force emphasized that 13 of the 20 recommendations were unanimous and that written text amendments are included in the task force’s full report available to council and the public.