New safety regulations have been put into place for homes in the Oceanfront community when it comes to using Airbnb and Vrbo. Last Tuesday, The City Council had made a vote of about 8 to 2, in order to allow property owners in the Oceanfront Resort District to apply for conditional use permits when it comes to renting to tourists for less than thirty days. Two councilwomen, Sabrina Wooten and Barbara Henley themselves had disagreed. There had also been a split between 6 and four votes. After that one, there was an approval of new requirements for current and short-term rental operators. This is to include deck inspections in order to avoid collapses. Two collapses actually occurred in Sandbridge just last year. It’s the latest in what has been an upsetting issue in the community.

Plenty of homeowners in Virginia each are used to renting out to vacationers. However, a few neighbors would go on to complain that digital platforms like those apps aforementioned, would lead to plenty of circumstances outside of their control. In some cases, overall disruption to the owner-occupied neighborhoods. In July, the city council would ban all of the short-term rentals away from Sandbridge, unless majorities of individuals would use the nieghborhood request to maintain short-term rentals in the community. There have been efforts to change the tides with a new methodology towards booking stay requests in the resort area. That would be where plenty of people are buying in areas with hotels.

Every rental would still need to receive safety approval from the city council.

Furthermore, there are those with short-term rentals operating with more safety requirements on the way. Short-term rentals would also have to be in place with the rules by the council. Which is something that the Virginia Beach Short-Term Rental Alliance could not stand.