Louisa County has spent the last 18 months crafting short-term rental regulations. A working group recently reported a revised version of an ordinance to the Planning Commission. This draft is the least restrictive of all that’s come out of these discussions. This version would allow short-term rentals by-right with some restrictions in nearly every area of the lake. The Planning Commission laid that version aside and put forth an alternative that would require an onerous Conditional Use Permit be secured for every residentially zoned parcel in the County that wants to operate a short-term rental.
That would mean that all of the hundreds of property owners who rent at the lake would be required to go through a lengthy review process at both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. This process involves notifying adjacent property owners and hosting a public hearing where anyone can comment on whether that Conditional Use Permit should be issued to the property owner. This requirement would be not be dependent on whether there have been any complaints in the past so responsible property owners would be swept up into this as well.
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors is set to hear presentations on both the working group proposal and the Planning Commission alternative on Monday, October 2, 2023 at 6:00pm in the Board of Supervisors Chambers located at 1 Woolfolk Avenue, Louisa. Concerned parties can also send their comments via email to the Board at info@louisa.org.
The Louisa County website dedicated to short-term rentals is linked in the button below. You will find the full text of both proposals. The staff will be recommending the working group draft and it is important that the Board hears strongly from residents and agents alike that they should REJECT the restrictive Planning Commission alternative.
Also linked below is a letter sent from FAAR President Carol Sondrini in opposition to the Planning Commission alternative. Feel free to copy that language and use it in your own email to the Board. Let your voice be heard!
10/03/2023 UPDATE We won!!! The Board of Supervisors did not event take up the Planning Commission alternative requiring a CUP for every STR.
Staff is working on incorporating the amendments that were passed last night so once we have a clean copy of the ordinance, we will share it. Thanks for everyone’s engagement on this issue!!