After four years, first arguments heard in Tybee STVR case

Four years after lawsuits were first filed by Tybee Alliance, residents, property owners and city leadership gathered in Courtroom 4B of the Eugene H. Gadsden Courthouse to hear verbal arguments on the constitutionality of Tybee Island‘s short-term vacation rental ordinance.

Tybee Alliance, a group of property management companies and STVR owners, filed a motion for summary judgment in August 2025, seeking a decision on the claim that Tybee’s STVR ordinance is unenforceable because it violates state codes limiting municipal powers on the regulation of residential rental properties.

The motion also asked for a permanent injunction barring the enforcement of the ordinance, preventing any further enforcement of STVRs in their entirety. The City of Tybee Island also filed a motion for summary judgment in November 2025, stating that the defendants are asking for the court to curtail access to information the city is entitled to.

This case, attorney Patrick Connell said in his argument on Jan. 7, is about power.

The City of Tybee first introduced STVR regulations in May 2016 with the approval of its first ordinance, which established mandatory registration and an occupational tax certificate for STVRs. In the intervening decade, the ordinance has been amended 17 times, including most recently in June 2024, which further limited STVRs in residential areas by dissolving those permits upon sale or transfer of the properties.

The lawsuits were prompted by an amendment passed by the city in October 2022 that banned new rentals in Tybee’s residential neighborhoods, which make up 80% of the island’s 3.2 square miles.

Tybee’s regulations on STVRs include requiring registration of STVRs in areas that are not in the R-1, R-1-B or R-2 zones, renewing registrations annually, submitting an occupational tax certificate to obtain a permit, and allowing the city to revoke STVR permits if properties aren’t rented for at least 60 days at “full market value” during the previous year.

Tybee Alliance argues the city is violating two Georgia codes, O.C.G.A. § 36-74-30(b) and O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19, One code prohibits local governments from requiring registration or conducting inspections of residential rental property unless there is probable cause to believe there has been violations of applicable codes. The other code prohibits local governments from regulating rent amounts for privately owned residential properties.

Both sides also spent time contending with Dillon’s Rule, which is a legal principle that asserts local governments in the U.S. can only exercise powers explicitly granted to them by the government. Representatives for Tybee Alliance suggested that because there is no

specific rule granting the registration of short-term rental properties, that it was not something that they could do.

The basis of Tybee’s verbal argument centered on two of those provisions: hotel-motel excise taxes and zoning. Zoning is defined as a means for local governments to provide a set of regulations that govern how property can or cannot be used in specific geographic locations.

Excise taxes are taxes imposed by the government on the sale of specific goods and services, in this case hotel and motels or lodging such as short-term vacation rentals.

City of Tybee Island Attorney Bubba Hughes argued that the state grants cities the power to collect these taxes, and the storing of information is necessary or central to collecting these taxes.

Tybee’s representatives also argued that short-term rentals were more in line with commercial properties, hotels and motels with innkeepers and guests, than with residential rental properties, which they clarified as a landlord-and-tenant relationship. Thompson said the plaintiffs wanted the court to determine that residential rental properties meant something different.

They also said the city did not impose rent regulations as plaintiffs suggested.

Superior Court Judge Christopher K. Middleton heard the arguments and will make a ruling in the coming weeks.