Should the number of short-term rental licenses on the Isle of Palms be capped? Can the IOP Council vote on an ordinance during a workshop? Is the Council kicking the issue down the road or simply seeking the information necessary to make a decision? Who gets to decide whether an amendment to a motion is friendly or unfriendly and what difference does that make anyway? Does the Council need another workshop – and another parade of local residents walking up to the podium to ask when the city’s elected officials are going to something about all the problems or nonproblems caused by short-term rentals – or can they wait until their next regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 28?
The final question apparently was the only one that was answered at a Feb. 6 workshop. After nearly an hour of discussion, following a 50-minute citizens’ comments session, the Council decided to ask the city staff to collect additional information for the Feb. 28 meeting – but not before debating whether the Council can take action during a workshop and almost, but not quite, voting on the same motion three times. On the third try, Council Member Blair Hahn’s effort to get something done during the workshop was burdened by two amendments – both apparently considered to be friendly.
Council Member Jan Anderson’s efforts to tack on a second amendment to the motion drew moans and laughter from the large audience and from the Council, and a “dear God” from Mayor Phillip Pounds.
“Where you present an evaluation of the three alternatives that are shown on the plan in addition to a fourth alternative with respect to all of the data that you’re collecting,” she said. “The fourth alternative is similar to the third, with tier 1 licenses would be for permanent residents and all permanent residents would be eligible to get a license any time, without delay. Tier 2 licenses would be for nonresidents, the 6% taxpayers and that would be limited to the current number of licenses held by nonresidents as now. So that’s the big difference.”
“I have no idea what you just said,” Pounds responded.
In the end, the Council determined that a motion wasn’t necessary and directed City Administrator Desiree Fragoso and her staff to gather additional information on short-term rentals for the Feb. 28 meeting.
The meeting opened with citizens’ comments, with most, but not all, speaking in favor of putting limits on the number of short-term rental licenses on the island. City staff had prepared three alternatives for the Council and audience to consider. Alternative #1 would place a cap of 33% of all single-family dwelling units on properties taxed at the 6% rate. Alternative #2 would cap all dwelling units outside of the Front Beach commercial district. The cap would be 33% of all dwelling units outside the district. Alternative #3 would cap only 6% dwelling units outside the commercial district, with a maximum number set at 33% of all units outside the district.
City staff is expected to provide at least five alternatives at the Council’s Feb. 28 meeting, including one that includes no cap at all.
During the citizens’ comment part of the Feb. 6 workshop, Georgia Roane said “we clearly need restrictions on investor-owned short-term rentals,” while Elizabeth Campsen pointed out that “64% of our entire dwelling inventory is wide open to short-term rentals.” Bev Miller, speaking for the Barrier Island Preservation Alliance, asked the Council: “Will your footprint be the one that changed the city to a rental mecca?” Laura Lovins asked Council members not to “make a deal with the devil” and encouraged them to “save the soul of our city.”
Property manager Krista Swingle had a different opinion. She pointed out that 646 people recently signed a petition calling for the Council not to place a cap on short-term rentals and added that 98% of the vacation homes represented by a group of local property managers are owned by a single family rather than by a corporation.
“For the 1,240 families we represent, this is their home as well,” she said, adding that the number of primary homeowners on the Isle of Palms has increased by 3% since 2010.
Glenda Nemes said the Council should put a cap on short-term rental licenses for three years “and then revisit.”
Members of the audience had differing opinions, as did members of the Council. For example, Bogosian said the Council was “going around in circles” by continuing to debate how many short-term rentals there are on the island and whether the software the city is using to monitor them is accurate.
“No one can sit here and pass a sniff test that says we have 1,757 licenses and only 1,279 of them have been rented in the last year,” he said. “It’s a waste of time to sit here and talk about what exact number we want to use.”
Bogosian said he wanted to have another workshop to discuss the alternatives, while Pierce was in favor of making some sort of decision at the Feb. 6 session.
“We need to let the community have the answer once and for all. Are we capping or are we not capping? We owe it to all the constituencies to give them an answer one way or another,” he remarked.
Council Member Rusty Streetman thought it was too early to make a decision on whether to cap short-term rental licenses.
“I think we’re being way too premature in what is being looked at here. We’re looking at putting some controls in place right now without giving it the due diligence it needs,” he said. “A lot of people went out since we started talking about this and bought short-term rental licenses for fear that their investment would be penalized at some point.”
“Instead of imposing some artificial cap, we should look at what kind of approach we can use over the next several months to really give this more thought and more analysis before we do some sort of knee-jerk reaction,” he added.
“I’ve had two birthdays since we started looking at this, and I’m heading to a third. I think we should bring this to a head. I think we’re talking about cap or no cap. We can’t keep dragging the community through this,” Pierce responded.