Surry County board directs staff to draft short-term rental ordinance after advisory committee review

Surry County supervisors on April 3 directed county staff to begin drafting an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals after receiving a presentation on the county’s advisory-committee process and high-level recommendations.

County staff said the advisory committee—composed of residents, planning commissioners, economic-development representatives and county staff—worked for roughly a year and considered existing Virginia law, peer counties’ ordinances, and responses to a community survey. Staff and Summit Consulting summarized findings and proposed a framework that would use the state's permissive authority to establish a local registry, a reasonable annual registration fee, transient-occupancy tax collection and limited local standards for parking, trash, noise and neighborhood character.

Staff explained that Virginia law permits local registries but exempts certain situations, including owner-occupied home shares (the homeowner occupies the dwelling during rental periods) and many forms…