Short Term Rentals
The Isle of Palms City Council will consider two or three out of four Planning Commission recommendations related to short-term rentals on the island.
At their monthly workshop Aug. 8, Council members decided that a proposal to allow property owners to rent one room in their home while they are on-site would not work for IOP. They also determined that a recommendation that would require STR listings to include their license number would be an administrative issue that doesn’t need to be codified with a city ordinance.
Two other recommendations will be discussed with members of the Planning Commission at the Council’s Sept. 12 workshop: limiting the occupancy of newly constructed and substantially reconstructed homes and those where the license has been allowed to lapse for more than a year to eight people, excluding children under the age of 2; and an apparent effort to eliminate parties by requiring stays of at least two nights in short-term rentals that aren’t hotels.
Council members also discussed what should constitute a strike against the owner of a short-term rental. According to Director of Building, Planning and Zoning Douglas Kerr, the current city law “generally says five founded complaints result in a rental license being revoked.” He pointed out that a clear definition of exactly what should count as a strike “would probably add some clarity where there currently is not clarity.”
“Let’s say we have a property that received five founded complaints related to not bringing their garbage can back at the time we require by code. Would that constitute us initiating a revocation process of a business license? There’s nothing codified,” City Administrator Desiree Fragoso added.
Among the Planning Commission’s proposed changes, limiting occupancy to eight would be “a fairly significant change,” Kerr said. The current limit is 12, but properties that had a business license in 2010 may rent to the number of occupants that were permitted in 2010. Kerr said that is the case even if the home that was on the property 23 years ago was razed and completely rebuilt. He said between 50 and 100 properties were grandfathered in at that limit.
However, Council Member Scott Pierce said 146 properties currently advertise short-term rental occupancy of more than a dozen and that 2,405 people could be staying in those homes, an average of 17 per unit.
“This recommendation is two-fold. It’s reducing from 12 to eight, and it’s making the pool that its reducing significantly larger,” Kerr said. “A compromise between the two would be to go with the expansion of the pool to include all newly constructed houses or reconstructed houses regardless of where they sat in 2010, but you can keep it at 12 and kind of split the difference.”
Council Member John Bogosian suggested that the Council discuss the issue with members of the Planning Commission.
“I think we’re missing their discussion and their thoughts and why they think this is important,” he said. “Let’s delay until our next workshop and bring the Planning Commission in and have them have a discussion around this with them and get their perspective.”
Mayor Phillip Pounds said cutting back to a limit of eight occupants “feels extremely punitive to me.” He wasn’t in favor of requiring two-night stays, either.
“Talking to some of the management companies, they don’t allow onenight rentals in single-family residences,” he commented, and Bogosian added that “I doubt very seriously those are being rented for one night. Probably most of them are three nights.”
The proposal to allow property owners to rent a room in their home received little support among Council members. Pounds said it caused him “great agita” and Rusty Streetman noted that “I don’t even think we entertain this one.”