A group of Norfolk officials, community members and short-term rental operators have recommended several changes to how the city approves short-term rental operations, taxes the rentals and enforces violations.
Proposed changes include establishing a way to certify some owners to allow them to undergo an easier approval process, establishing a city rapid response team for code violations and expediting the renewal process for conditional use permits.
However, some short-term rental operators want even more changes. They say a time-consuming and costly approval process requires months of meetings and can incur thousands of dollars in renovation costs to meet city code.
From January to June, Norfolk convened a study group with the goals of improving the application and enforcement process for short-term rentals — many of which are listed on popular services like Airbnb and Vrbo. Additional goals included promoting public education about the rentals, leveraging the rentals to increase tourism and determining the feasibility of city revenue from rentals benefitting the Ocean View and East Beach neighborhoods directly.
Norfolk Planning Director Bobby Tajan presented the group’s recommendations to City Council in November.
The group also investigated whether city revenues from short-term rentals could be proportionally directed to the Ocean View area, where the majority of the properties are located, he said.
According to the presentation, there are 196 short-term rentals registered with the city, with 113 located in Ocean View and East Beach neighborhoods — which the city calls the Coastal Character District. Hundreds more could be unregistered, though — the Airbnb website lists around 500 available properties in Norfolk.
“The Ocean View Civic League said that ‘We would sell short-term rentals better to our community if we knew that money that was being generated could be reinvested right back in the community,’” added City Council member Tommy Smigiel during the meeting, whose Ward 5 includes Ocean View.
However, some Norfolk short-term rental operators said the proposed changes don’t go far enough to save them from what they said is a costly and time-consuming process for obtaining a conditional use permit.
Related Articles
Cecilio “Rick” Ricardo is a short-term rental operator in Ocean View with triplex and single-family home properties. He’s also the organizer of a local short-term rental operator advocacy group along with wife Merlyn Gardoce-Ricardo. He said the pair have spent months in city meetings seeking permit approval and have spent around $40,000 on city asks to comply with the conditional use process, like raising his heating and air conditioning system up 11 feet and making his driveway more compliant with flooding prevention. He said the approval process took a lengthy 13 months.
“We are very responsible short-term rental owners here, too,” Ricardo said.
Audra Sambar also wanted to operate her Ocean View property as a short-term rental, but said she wasn’t able to overcome the conditional use permit process when she needed 13 approval signatures from a neighboring condominium complex, because she was unable to track down the owners, many of whom do not live in the area.
“I will never get that opportunity,” Sambar said. She currently rents the property long-term and is thinking about selling it.
Ricardo said the city needs to go further than current plans and exempt all smaller properties, including duplexes and triplexes, from the conditional use process and let them seek approval from a zoning permit only. Currently, the city lets some properties do this — according to the city website — but makes others complete the conditional use permit process, such as those located in several Ocean View zoning districts or four-bedroom and above properties in much of the Ocean View and East Beach area, among other exceptions.
Currently, around three in 10 city-registered rentals needed a conditional use permit to operate, according to the city website.
“Though the potential for easing regulations for a certain number of units was discussed, it was not part of the direction given to staff,” wrote Tajan in an email response to questions about Ricardo’s idea to exempt some multi-unit properties. “Direction was given to work on easing regulations on single family dwellings.”
Ricardo said he is tentatively supportive of the operator certification program, but wanted to hear more about requirements. Tajan said details have not been fully vetted yet, but would include some level of required training and recurring communication with the short-term rental team, among other requirements.
Tajan said further work to implement the study group proposals will eventually be presented to the Norfolk Planning Commission and City Council.
The city first put short-term rental regulations in place in early 2019. The city revised regulations in 2022, allowing greater concentration of rentals in apartment buildings but requiring things like security cameras and noise monitors.
Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com
