Technically now in the “slow” season, Tyler Newman, zoning administrator, gave his report from code enforcement at the Nov. 15 Seabrook Island Town Council meeting. Newman reported that from Oct. 25 to Nov. 14, there were 31 occurrences of a stop work order issued due to a company working on the island without a Town business license. Newman also said that during that same time period, there were 11 instances of a stop work order for working without a Town zoning permit, and that there were five occurrences of cars parked on the grass or in landscaping at a short-term rental property.
He said that the contacts for these properties were notified, and the issues were resolved. Newman said that there were zero occurrences on the beach during this time period, but that there was a total of 117 warnings given for not having a valid 2022 business license decal on a vehicle conducting work on the island. Newman went on to explain that most issues with business license decals come from companies that get a business license, but just get the singular decal for their car.
“They don’t think about the 20 guys that work for them. We have consistently had people coming in and asking for about 20 decals because they didn’t realize they needed one for every car under their umbrella.”
The charge is $1 per additional decals. As for working without a business license, Newman’s prediction is that most of those are issued to miscellaneous workers, like cleaners for example, who just didn’t know they needed one. He said that sometimes subcontractors will not have a business license either because they didn’t realize they need one since they don’t need to get a permit from the Town.
“Anyone who gets a standard zoning permit from us, also has to have a business license,” Newman reiterated. “So, it is mostly subcontractors and miscellaneous businesses that will come into the island without the business license.”
Newman explained that they do not issue a ticket on the first warning. “We will just ask that they obtain the business license and if they don’t, they will get a ticket.”
Newman added, “We will give everyone until the end of the week to get squared away. We keep a list of who will need to come in that week. If by Friday, we haven’t seen the particular business we had told to come in, then we will proceed with a summons.” As a reference, from the July 9 to August 23 time period, Newman reported at the Town Council meeting in August, which is technically the “busy” season, that there were 17 incidents. He said that there were only two cases at that time that needed a zoning permit, six cases with cars parked in landscaping at a short-term rental property and nine cases of workers caught without a business license. Since the summertime is very busy with short-term rentals, he reported back in August that there were 539 short term rental permits issued and there were only about five or six properties that needed to gain a current and valid short-term rental permit.
For the most up-to-date information on obtaining a business license, including the tax rates, visit townofseabrookisland.org/businesslicenses.html