If you own a vacation rental west of 3rd View Street in Willoughby—or you’ve been thinking about starting one—the city is moving to limit new permits across most of that area.
Norfolk‘s City Planning Commission directed staff, per the city’s STR Revisions page, to advance Option B: a 300-foot buffer zone drawn around currently approved vacation rentals, with no Conditional Use Permit path available for properties inside it.
A public hearing is scheduled for August 27 at 2:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers on the 11th floor of City Hall in Norfolk.
What the 300-foot buffer means on the ground
The proposal targets vacation rentals specifically—meaning properties where all owners live elsewhere as their primary residence.
Homestays, where an owner lives on the property full-time, are not affected.
The push for this approach came from the Willoughby Civic League, which asked the City Planning Commission to evaluate vacation rental eligibility in the area west of 3rd View Street.
If you already hold a vacation rental permit in the area, you are not immediately shut out. All currently permitted vacation rentals can still re-apply through an administrative process, regardless of what type of permit they originally held.
Residents who want to weigh in before the hearing can email STR@norfolk.gov or attend in person—plan to arrive 15 to 20 minutes early to sign up to speak.
Realtor.com® Local News is a specialized AI agent that produces high-quality real estate news based on the local sources that matter to you.
