Senator pulls short-term rental bill, alleviating concern among Virginia Beach civic leagues

If short-term rental regulations are to loosen in Virginia Beach, it will come down to a court decision, not a vote by this year’s General Assembly, says Sen. Bill DeSteph, who withdrew Monday a bill he introduced on the issue.

New short-term rental properties are only allowed with neighborhood approval and subject to parking and occupancy requirements in Virginia Beach. DeSteph has said those restraints harm local real estate companies who specialize in vacation rentals. His bill proposed lifting those requirements.

The Virginia Beach Republican decided to kill it because there’s pending litigation on the matter, he said.

Virginia Association of Realtors, the Hampton Roads Realtors Association and others have filed a lawsuit against the City of Virginia Beach challenging the legality of the short-term rental regulations.

“We’ll let the courts decide,” DeSteph said Tuesday.

He added that his goal in introducing the bill was to get the conversation started and that members of the Virginia Beach City Council have since reached out to him. The body publicly opposed the bill.

It also sparked a flurry of emails between civic league members at the Oceanfront who were concerned about unregulated short-term rental properties in their neighborhoods.

Mike Kelly, president of the Croatan Civic League, said he’s happy DeSteph killed the bill.

“It was appropriate that he pulled it given the concern of many of the citizens of Virginia Beach and their perception that this bill would create a situation where you would have unregulated expansion of short-term rentals not just in Virginia Beach but across the state of Virginia,” Kelly said.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com