Can we do anything to bring peace to our community? A core group has fueled stress and conflict and has divided us. There are two sides to the short-term rental issue, and the opinions of both need to be respected. These are the facts:
- Short-term rental guests as well as residents make noise and disturb nearby residents. According to the city’s records, there were 54 noise complaints from residents and 91 from rentals through Sept. 30 of this year. Bad behavior will continue if penalties aren’t strong enough to affect that behavior. Why aren’t we generating additional revenue for the city and imposing hefty and escalating fines on these properties until behavior changes?
- A moratorium on STR licenses was discussed a couple of years ago, and the number of licenses spiked from 1,500 to 1,800 currently. One side of the STR argument has promoted this sharp rise in rental licenses as the main reason caps should be implemented, but the number of active rental licenses has declined by 5% in the last 12 years and averages around 1,000.
- Major corporations and institutional investors hold their companies in a C or S corporation. LLCs are a simple way to hold properties or small businesses for liability and tax reasons.
- Renters arrive the island from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. – when the traffic leaving the island is at its worst. Renters depart between 9 a.m. and noon when the traffic coming on the island is terrible during that same time. Traffic problems are caused by day-trippers, not short-term renters.
- STRs are restricted to one car per bedroom, and renters usually park in driveways and garages. Day-trippers cause the parking issues. According to the city, in the last nine months, there have only been five short-term rental vehicle limit violations.
- Most local restaurants cannot afford to lose the business provided by short-term rental customers and could possibly go out if business without the tourism income from STRs.
- As of Sept. 30, the median sold price of Folly Beach homes has declined by 42.5%. During the same period, Charleston’s median price was up 11%, Mount Pleasant’s was up 3% and IOP’s was up 1%.
Our community and Council should work together to help those who are inconvenienced, angry, frustrated and feel disrespected without penalizing the 97% of short-term rental homeowners who aren’t causing the problem. Don’t create a larger problem by drastically impacting the value of our homes and the city’s budget.
Miles is an IOP homeowner since 1998, the owner of a vacation management company and a Realtor.
