Where we stand
We think Sun Valley should be a neighborhood of residents.
That means homes here occupied by the people who own them, or rented to people who live in them. Neighbors, in the plain sense of the word. Someone who is still going to be there next month.
Short-term rentals work against that. Not because the guests are bad. Not because the owners are. It’s simpler than that. A house with a different set of strangers in it every few nights can’t be a neighbor, because nobody is there long enough to become one.
Why it matters now
Sun Valley was platted and sold as a private residential subdivision. For most of fifty years that is simply what it was, and nobody had to think about it.
That changed quickly. At least six homes here have become short-term rentals in the last five years. On one of our streets, close to half the houses no longer have anyone living in them.
You feel it before you count it. Cars nobody recognizes. Lights on in a house where nobody lives. Weekends that sound different than they used to. The quiet and the community that people moved here for are the first things to go.
Not one of those homes belongs to someone who lives here. Most are owned from out of state. Some are owned by companies. That is a matter of public record. Every short-term rental in Sun Valley belongs to someone whose own neighborhood is somewhere else, and the people who carry the cost of that are the people who live with it.
The very thing that draws short-term rental buyers to Sun Valley is the first thing they change about it.
It isn’t a crisis and we’re not going to pretend it is. But a neighborhood doesn’t disappear all at once. It goes gradually, and then one day it isn’t one anymore.
We would rather say something while saying something still matters.
If you’re considering buying in Sun Valley to operate a short-term rental, we’d rather tell you now than after you close.
Neighbors for Neighbors · Sun Valley, Elkton, Virginia
What we are not saying
We are not asking anyone to stop renting their home. An owner who rents to a family that lives here has a neighbor in that house, and that is the entire point. We are not against investment in Sun Valley and we are not against owners who hold more than one lot. Some of us do.
We are also not saying that the people who own short-term rentals here are bad people. They are doing something legal and, from their side, sensible. This is about a pattern, not about any person. You will not find anyone named on this site.
What we’re asking
If you own in Sun Valley and you agree, add your name. That’s the whole ask right now.