The Town of Cape Charles will hold a Special Meeting on February 2nd to quack and complain about Senate Bill 1391, and its companion legislation in the House (HB 2271), which would prohibit local governments from regulating short-term rentals (STR). The Town Council will offer up a Resolution that does nothing but state that they are upset about a bit of local control slipping from their little fingers.
Editor’s Note: The title of this article is total clickbait. It is hallucinatory, illusory, and completely devoid of reality.
This is all a show, a carnival of smoke and mirrors meant to keep you from focusing on what they have been doing for many years now. Selling out the town to the realtor and business class, promoting tourism as if it were the second coming of Christ, and doing nothing to stop real estate investors from turning the town into an Airbnd port of call.
What is the town going to do about it anyway? Investors bought the homes, retrofitted them for short-term rentals, and now use them for passive income. What’s to stop them? Good on them–this is America, it’s capitalism.
While the Hootie and Blowhards down on Plum Street may feign a case of the vapors over Lewis’ bill, we all know they can’t or won’t do anything to help the locals. Besides, that cow has already left the barn. The only thing they can do now is to shoot and kill it–that is, make short-term vacation rentals illegal in Cape Charles. They will never do that.
I’ve heard others argue that the antidote is to stop Airbnb from operating in town, but that is sheer nonsense. Ask Virginia Beach. Really, what’s the difference between Airbnb and a weekly rental property? Nothing.
There are no longer any half-measures. There is only the nuclear option. Limit visitors’ options to hotels and Bed and Breakfasts. If you’re not going to do that then just shut up.
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