Kitchen Remodeling Contractor in Isle of Palms, SC

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCIV) — There are less than 25 days until a big decision is made on the Isle of Palms.

Should short-term rental licenses be capped at 1,600?

"We moved here deliberately," said Billy Lempesis, a resident of IOP, "understanding that it was a beach community. I have family here. It's always been a wonderful place. It's hard to understand the necessity of restricting short-term rentals."

Isle of Palms residents to decide on capping short-term rental licenses in upcoming vote (WCIV)

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Many people say they're still unsure how they will vote.

"There's a lot more information that people need to find out if they're not clear because there's a gray area," said Debbie Strable, a resident of IOP for 22 years. "It is not what black and white, it's not quite clear to a lot of people. And it certainly isn't maybe 100% to me."

News 4 spoke with Mayor Phillip Pounds on Friday.

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He said the city already has a little over 1,600 licenses issued.

News 4 asked him if this passes, would it impact property value and property taxes.

To that, he said he didn't think there would be an immediate effect on either one.

he also made a comparison to other Lowcountry beaches.

"If you look at what's going on at Folly Beach, who put a cap in earlier this year, you know, their, their property values have gone down, you know, pretty significantly in just a few months," said Pounds.

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Mayor Pounds said it's most important to know exactly what it is you're voting for.

"I would just encourage our residents to get educated from whatever source they use, to get their facts," Pounds said. "You know, whether it's the city's website or their couple of neighborhoods sites that have popped up. You just make sure you're educated on what your choice is."

A petition was created to get this referendum on the ballot.

Right now, IOP is the only Lowcountry beach community without a short-term rental cap.

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCIV) — Currently, Isle of Palms has no limits on the amount of short-term rental licenses on the Island, which is something neighbors have been concerned about for years.

“We’re the only community in South Carolina coastal communities without limitations, and that includes all of the surrounding communities," Randy Bell, a former IOP councilmember, said. "You have 40 short-term rentals on Sullivan's island, 400 in mount pleasant, and maybe 100 in Charleston, but you have 1,800 here."

Isle of Palms residents rally for cap on short-term rentals: Referendum to hit upcoming ballot (WCIV)

Earlier in the month, Isle of Palms neighbors formed a grassroots petition to cap the number of short rentals at 1,600. The petition was signed by more than 1,100 residents. This led to the county verifying the petition forcing the city council to put a referendum on the ballot.

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"The residents put forth a petition, and that’s how democracy works, and we'll put that on the ballot," Mayor Phillip Pounds of Isle of Palms said. "So it’s to cap what they call investment short-term rentals. So non-full-time rental properties to cap that at 1,600, and that will be the simple question on the ballot: a simple yes or no."

With the decision now up to voters, former Councilman Randy Bell hopes the council learns to listen to their constituents moving forward.

“We’re the dry sponge in the middle of a puddle, and we don’t want to be the dry sponge anymore. We would like to have reasonable limitations well thought out by council. It should have avoided a referendum, but here we are," Bell continued. “I was on council, and I don’t care what every councilperson’s opinion is, but you’re there to represent the people that put you in office."

For the next upcoming election, there are four council seats open.

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ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - Isle of Palms County Park at the 14th Avenue beach access is expected to have a new emergency vehicle path by the summer of next year.

Isle of Palms City Council approved the designs and is now sending the plans for Charleston County Council approval. The city is paying for the construction and the county park is providing the land.

Fire Chief Craig Oliverius says there are a few already built in, but as more and more people are visiting the beaches each year, the safety needs to increase with the numbers. He explains that the location at 14th Street is an essential location.

“We have a very active dune system at our access on 9th Avenue,” Oliverius says. “That’s also an ADA-approved access, so we have a dune structure there that’s constantly moving and that access is not always reliable for emergency vehicles. And so the next closest access would be 25th Avenue or 5th and so this access at 14th is very important because most of our visitors tend to congregate between 10th and 28th and so this is right in the middle and a lot of people utilize Charleston County Parks.”

Isle of Palms County Park Manager, Bailey Pfeiffer, says now with city approval they are hoping to make quick work of this project. Ideally for her staff, it will be complete in the spring of 2024 ahead of the busiest beach season summer months.

“We hope this project will go out for bid in November and once that gets selected we are hoping to start the project in January and wrap up in April,” Pfeiffer says.

She says this will benefit everyone on the beaches by providing another clear path to the area, so responders can travel the smooth roads longer and pinpoint the location on the beach better by entering a little closer to any calls.

“This will provide quicker response times for the island. It will allow fire and out Isle of Palms county park lifeguards to respond quicker to medical emergencies so it’ll be a great benefit to the residents here,” Pfieffer says.

Oliverius thanked the collaboration so far between the county and city to agree to the use of the land at the 14th Avenue county park beach access. He says the design is simple, yet effective.

“We intend to have a sliding gate that our emergency responders can access from the intersection of 14th and Ocean,” Oliverius says. “We’ll be able to operate that via our radio through Charleston County dispatch with one click we’ll be able to enter the gate. It’ll open automatically and then we will travel down the distance from here to the beach access onto the beach through pavers, and have a nice clean easy pathway unobstructed to the beach where we can access the beach or anyone who needs assistance.”

The project will go to bid in the next few months and that will determine the construction costs. Isle of Palm leaders agree this is a needed addition to their beach safety standards.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Like residents on Folly Beach just a few islands down the coast, Isle of Palms residents seem to want assurances that their coastal city will strike a balance between full-time residents and homes used as short-term rentals.

Earlier this year, many Folly residents believed their City Council wasn’t taking their concerns seriously and petitioned for a referendum to limit the number of short-term rentals. That effort was successful, and now Isle of Palms residents have succeeded in their own petition drive.

As a result, island voters will go to the polls Nov. 7 to decide not only four City Council races and a utility commission seat but also this question: “Shall the City of Isle of Palms limit the investment short term rental business licenses to a maximum of 1,600?” They should vote yes.

It’s important to understand what the ordinance will and won’t do. Those residents who currently live in their home (and qualify for the 4% property tax assessment rate on owner-occupied homes) still may rent out their home for up to 72 days a year, and they would not be subject to the new cap.

The cap would apply only to so-called investor-owned properties and second homes (which have 6% assessment rates). Currently, the island has about 1,600 of these types of properties with short-term rental licenses, so the cap was designed to maintain the status quo — and to ensure the number of short-term rentals doesn’t rise much more.

But no current property owner should face an immediate hardship if the referendum question is approved, and that’s important to note. All owners of rental properties who have a current license by Nov. 7 will be grandfathered in, and those who had one as of April 30, 2023 will have 60 days — through January 2024 — to apply for and receive a short-term rental license, even if the number of applications surpasses 1,600. Also, these licenses will be transferrable to family members. These responsible, equitable provisions should minimize hardships if the question were to pass.

“We have a growing number of short-term rental licenses in residential communities,” former City Councilman Randy Bell told reporter David Slade. Mr. Bell has worked with the pro-referendum group Preserve Isle of Palms Now. “We are trying to maintain the one-third, one-third, one-third split between full-time residents, second homes and rental properties.”

It might strike some as odd that the cap issue is emerging even as the island has seen a recent slowdown in short-term rentals. Visitors and residents always have made up a large part of the Isle of Palms’ identity, but the Nov. 7 referendum is yet another example of South Carolina communities, particularly those popular with tourists, seeking a better balance between the economic vitality of short-term rentals and the relative stability and quietude of neighborhoods with mostly full-time, year-round residents. State legislators should not pass any laws that would hinder the work of cities and counties on this issue.

As with Folly, even if voters approve the cap, we don’t expect the referendum to be the last word on the subject. City Council would have to implement it but could make modifications as it sees fit. As City Attorney Mac McQuillin explained, “If the ordinance is approved by voters ... council can amend or repeal following the election just like any other ordinance.” If the referendum is approved, City Council should amend it if there’s a consensus that it is not working as planned or officials find a better way to ensure the resident-visitor balance.

If voters say yes — as they should — it’s certainly fair for Isle of Palms council members to consider whether 1,600 really is the best number in the long run or whether that number should be changed to reflect the distinctly different areas of the island, such as the front beach and Wild Dunes. That’s a fair debate, but one that would take place with council members knowing full well that island residents — also known as city voters — remain concerned about the scale tipping too far away from them.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This editorial has been updated to clarify that only investor-owned properties that have a short-term rental license by Nov. 7 or ones that had such a license as of April 30, 2023 and reapply within a 60-day period after Nov. 7 would not be subject to the 1,600 cap.

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ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - A total of 1,173 people on the Isle of Palms signed a grassroots petition to cap the number of investment short-term rentals on the island at 1,600.

Petition creators, Catherine Malloy and Brian Duffy say it all started as a way to preserve the balance of people enjoying the town.

“We are absolutely in favor of short-term rentals. But we want to balance to maintain the equilibrium that we’ve had through the years. So it seemed like a good time to get involved with this,” Malloy says.

For former council member Duffy, it’s about being proactive, and he fears it’s already getting close to waiting too long to take action and be reactive.

“We’re just really asking the city to manage short-term rental licenses because you don’t know. Currently, there is no management of short-term rental licenses, there are no limits. So we could turn from the 1600 that we proposed in this ordinance to 3000 and no controls,” Duffy explains. “So that’s all that we were ever asking for. It is a little bit of management, a little bit of foresight, a little bit of planning.”

Under South Carolina Law, a petition signed by 15% of the voting population and verified by the county has to be considered by city council. The signatures on Preserve IOP’s petition represent about 27% of the island population, according to 2020 census numbers. City Council can approve the ordinance in the petition, or make amendments and put it to a city-wide citizen vote.

“The next steps really are in the hands of counsel. We as the group, Preserve IOP, have submitted this we are pretty much standing down, it’s their choice,” Duffy says.

Over the course of their work to gather signatures, Malloy and Duffy say they and the many volunteers who went door to door learned a lot about their island and their neighbors.

“They were so interesting the stories they told way before Hurricane Hugo before the connector bridge, and before even Wild Dunes when it was feature racquet club and that was all developed,” Malloy says. “So we’ve kind of really enjoyed it if you want to know the truth. Usually it’s not, it’s kind of labor. But it was a labor of love because these people were so fun, and so interesting.”

On July 11 at the Isle of Palms Recreation Center, the city council will hold a special meeting to address the petition.

On the agenda there will be public comment followed by discussion of the petition, consideration of sending petition to the Charleston County Board of Voter Registration & Elections for certification of signatures and consideration of first reading of the ordinance in the petition.

“It’s up or down vote, really it’s simple. It’s up or down. This is our wonderful gift to them because this is what residents want. And they all say when they got when they ran for office, we are for the residents. Well, the residents want this overwhelmingly so,” Malloy says.

Once the signatures are verified, council must accept the ordinance or put it to a island-wide vote. They have between 30 days and one year to schedule a public vote from the date city council takes any action on the verified ordinance.

You can read more about the roots of the petition and prior city council members’ reactions to the start of the campaign here.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.