FOLLY BEACH — In a referendum locals viewed as a battle for the future of this barrier island, Folly Beach residents narrowly voted to limit the number of short-term rentals that can operate on one of Charleston’s most popular beach communities.

The vote for tighter restrictions is expected to slowly shrink the number of short-term rentals that can operate here.

“It looks like the citizens want to have a year-round community, not just a weekly community,” Mayor Tim Goodwin said after the results were in.

A narrow majority of voters, 53 percent, said “yes” to the only question posed by the Feb. 7 referendum. The results will be certified on Feb. 9.

Island residents were asked to decide whether short-term rental licenses on Folly Beach should be capped at 800.

According to unofficial returns from the Charleston County Board of Elections, just 77 votes separated the results.

Some 655 of the island’s registered voters agreed with the restrictions, compared to 578 who did not want to see the limit imposed.

At the heart of the one-question issue was a central concern shared by many Charleston-area beach communities: How do communities balance all that comes with being a tourist destination while still preserving what makes a place special?

Tuesday’s vote adds a fresh layer of local oversight but the impact of the decision could take years to materialize. Goodwin and city staff estimate it could take about three years for Folly Beach to drop down to that 800-mark.

Property owners have had to apply for short-term rental licenses since 2018. Currently, there are more than 1,100 active licenses on the barrier island, which accounts for some 40 percent of the island’s properties.

Under the proposed ordinance, owners with short-term rental licenses may continue to operate and keep their licenses until there’s a transfer to a new owner or family member. No new short-term licenses would be granted until the number of active permits falls below 800 — a figure based on the number of pre-pandemic licenses in 2020.

A waiting list would be established for future permits, but there are a lot of unanswered questions about further specifics or effects the limit would have.

Katherine Meader, who is one of those owners, voted “no” to the cap. As a mother of five, she said her vote was about protecting the future of her five children.

“They’re the ones who are going to carry it on. I just want them to be able to do the same thing that their mom has done without having to get in line behind someone who may have moved here a year ago,” she said. “I don’t want my kids to have to get back in line to apply for a license that might already be at its cap.”

Others saw short-term rentals and the flow of transient guests staying in them as a threat to the established community and its longtime residents who don’t want new neighbors every week.

Two advocate groups were especially vocal about the vote: Save Folly’s Future, which was pushing for the cap; and Folly United, which opposed the cap proposal.

Neither leader of the rival vote efforts could cast a ballot because they do not live on Folly Beach, but pro-cap John McFarland sat outside the polling place from 11 a.m. until polls closed at 7 p.m.

For Colleen Lamar, the vote “yes” was about preserving a place she loves.

“This will be my home until they carry me out in a box,” she said.

The referendum, at times, pitted neighbor against neighbor, with dueling yard signs along residential streets.

Folly is the latest beach community to make a decision about how to handle short-term rentals. Sullivan’s Island banned short-term rentals more than two decades ago. Isle of Palms could be next. On Feb. 6, the eve of the Folly Beach vote, a roomful of people attended a special workshop hosted by Isle of Palms City Council on short-term rentals.

Few local referendums have stirred as much passion, especially on a per-voter basis, as has Folly Beach’s upcoming vote in which city residents will decide whether short-term rental licenses should be capped at 800. We urge them to vote “yes,” because we believe every community should seek a responsible balance in its neighborhoods between full-time residents and commercial use.

While visitors from near and far have always made up a large part of Folly’s identity, many residents fear the balance is tipping permanently away from those wanting to live there full time. The island has about 2,600 properties, of which more than 1,000 — or about 40% — are now licensed and registered short-term rentals. More ominously, the city’s population has dropped sharply, from 2,617 in 2010 to only 2,071 a decade later, a 20% decline during a decade when our region saw a surge of new people moving in.

Folly residents took their concerns to City Council last summer, specifically asking it to consider this cap, and they were shut down within minutes. They then turned to a little-known and even less-used state law allowing them to put a proposed ordinance up for a binding public vote, provided they collect enough voters’ signatures. They did, and election day is Feb. 7.

Folly is far from the only municipality that has been seeking a proper balance between the economic vitality of short-term rentals and the relative stability and quietude of neighborhoods with mostly full-time, year-round residents. We have consistently urged local leaders to heed residents’ reasonable concerns about commercial encroachments along their residential streets and the problems with noise, parking and litter that some rentals bring.

Most cities allow short-term rentals, but with restrictions. Some have capped such rentals at a far lower number than Folly, while others have allowed homeowners to rent out only a room or two, provided they continue to live in their home. It’s an ongoing balancing act. Meanwhile, Folly has seen an increase in whole-house rentals that are altering the feel of its residential neighborhoods and creating mini-hotels in what once were single-family homes. If the trend continues unchecked, it’s reasonable to wonder if Folly will become so popular a place to go for a week that no one will want to live there year-round.

It’s important to note what this ordinance will and will not do. Those with short-term rental licenses may continue to operate, but it could be difficult or impossible to pass their license on to a new owner unless the city’s overall number of rentals dips below 800, which may take years. It’s unclear what effect it might have on homes currently under construction with the anticipation of getting such a license. In essence, investor-owned short-term rentals will remain a huge chunk of Folly’s housing stock in the years to come; the question voters will answer is whether those rentals gradually decline or continue to climb toward 50%, 60% or 70%.

But Folly voters should understand the Feb. 7 vote is by no means the final say. Even if voters put the ordinance on the books, Folly Beach City Council could amend it or repeal it down the road. And there certainly will be legal challenges.

While very few South Carolina municipalities have used this state law to set a binding vote on a proposed ordinance, the Folly Island Residents’ Association petitioned in 1984 for referendums on setting a height limitation of 40 feet in the commercial district and on rezoning a 57-acre tract for single-family homes, although no public vote was held until the balance of power on City Council shifted a year later.

Commercial interests and some individuals who own a beach house they rent out part time to help pay its expenses are urging residents to vote “no” on Feb. 7, arguing that a new cap of 800 short-term rentals could limit how fast Folly’s home prices climb. Voters ultimately must decide what they value most: their potential financial gain or their desire to ensure that most Folly homes remain places where people live for more than 30 days at a time.

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Folly Beach has contracted a team of engineers to design a plan for more accessibility on Arctic Avenue, the beachfront road that Center Street runs into.

Published: Fri May 12 2023|Updated: 10 minutes ago

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - The city of Folly Beach has contracted a team of engineers to design a plan for more accessibility on Arctic Avenue, the beachfront road that Center Street runs into.

The engineers who were hired by the city are in the initial planning period to find ways to better accommodate all users of what the city says is a busy road.

Officials say that includes pedestrians, bicyclists, golf carts and cars.

A. Morton Thomas and Associates INC., the contracted firm, is looking to find solutions to what they have identified as a crowded area.

South Carolina Program Services Lead and Project Manager Richard Turner says the goal is to find a way to better utilize the space available so that everyone can enjoy it and do so safely.

“You think about Arctic Avenue, and you’ve got parking for the most part up and down both sides of the road, so pedestrians during the summer tend to walk in the road where your automobiles are, or your golf carts, or your bikes are, so they’re all trying to use the same space,” Turner says.

They want more separation between motor vehicles and other forms of transportation, striving to make things flow smoother on the one-way road and decrease traffic incidents.

“We do have a lot of close calls on a daily basis,” Director of Public Works for the city of Folly Beach Eric Lutz said. “We have reports very recently from residents on Arctic that said people are going the wrong way down the street.”

Lutz says it’s a project that is long overdue.

“It is actually something we’ve been talking about for probably 20 years, and it feels good to see that we’re getting close to make something happen,” he said. “It won’t happen overnight; we hope this year we get the plans figured out and get a concept that we can work toward.”

Walking inspections on Arctic Avenue with several experts will start next week to collaborate on ideas for this plan to come.

Turner says they expect to have a public meeting at the end of June to present the community with the different options for this project.

He expects there to be an additional meeting in October or November to nail down a final plan with the public.

“That’s where we will provide a number of options for the citizens to come in and look at and kind of give us feedback on what they like and what they dislike,” Turner said. “That will really help us understand what their desires, needs, or concerns are and how we can best move forward to find the best fit for Folly.”

From there, official plans will be presented to the city at the beginning of 2024.

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FOLLY BEACH — Hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022 took such a toll on the shore that the federal government has allocated funds for the emergency replacement of 90,000 dump truck loads of sand here.

The Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District announced the $97 million award this week from the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act to repair damages to South Carolina beaches after recent coastal storm events.

In addition to Folly Beach, the money will help rehabilitate beaches along the Grand Strand and Pawleys Island to their pre-storm conditions.

Each project will reduce coastal storm risk and protect the beaches that “provide far-reaching economic and recreational opportunities for the entire state of South Carolina,” Lt. Col. Drew Johannes, the district’s commanding officer, said.

Sand renourishment was needed for quite a while in Folly Beach. Broadly speaking, the entire beach is erosional at this point, City Administrator Aaron Pope said.

Spots on the east end of the beach were hit pretty hard last hurricane season, “but the whole island is eroding,” Pope said.

A $27 million allocation to Folly Beach will support the removal of 900,000 cubic yards of sand from the Folly River and replace it on shore.

Pope said the emergency funding is good for a number of reasons, including creating an elevated timeline to get the work done.

Typically, the city will do beach renourishments on a 12-year cycle and be responsible for a local cost share. The beach was due for more sand in 2024 but the next dump of sand will depend on how well the emergency work holds up, Pope said.

Pawleys Island will receive $14 million in emergency rehabilitation to include repair and replacement of damaged sand fencing and vegetation as well as about 200,000 cubic yards of sand — enough to fill 20,000 dump trucks — on a 1.2-mile portion of the island’s southern end.

The barrier island on the eastern edge of Georgetown County took a nearly direct hit when Ian made landfall south of Georgetown on the afternoon of Sept. 30 last year. Sand washed into the island’s streets and under stilted houses, docks over Pawleys Creek were destroyed and a private pier collapsed into the ocean.

An October 2022 assessment by Columbia-based engineering consultant Coastal Science and Engineering found that dunes near the island’s south end “completely eroded” during the storm. The assessment also suggested that beach renourishment undertaken on the island in 2020 limited the damage to area homes from Ian.

“Some of the property owners were able to do some rehabilitation work on their own nickel, but this will allow us to do a more comprehensive repair on the south end,” Mayor Brian Henry said. “It’s a huge help to us. We don’t have the funds in our operating budget to do that type of repair.”

Town Administrator Dan Newquist said the town will find out more details about the Corps’ rehabilitation project in the following weeks. He added that he doesn’t know of a timeline for the project just yet.

“Hearing that number, that’s more than just replacing the dune vegetation and sand fencing,” Newquist said. “That’s adding volume of sand to the dune line, and that figure, that seems like a pretty robust emergency repair package, for sure.”

Extensive beach and dune erosion along the Grand Strand will be addressed, too, with the help of $57 million.

North Myrtle Beach is estimated to receive 350,000 cubic yards of sand. Myrtle Beach could get about 650,000 cubic yards of sand, and Surfside/Garden City is estimated to have 500,000 cubic yards of sand dumped on the beach.

Funding for the projects at Myrtle Beach, Folly Beach and Pawleys Island will also allow for design, permitting and other work.

Constructions contracts should be awarded in late-summer or early-fall for Myrtle Beach and Folly Beach, and in early-winter for Pawleys Island, the Army Corps said.

Mike Woodel contributed to this report from Georgetown.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCBD)- The City of Folly Beach says they’re preparing now for a one-foot rise in sea levels by 2050.

For people who have been around the island for a while, they’ve watched the sea level rise slowly.

“I’ve been on folly about 10 years. I know we will be impacted by it, some properties more than others,” Folly Beach Relator, Kain Slowikowski said.

However, the speed at which it’s predicted to rise years down the road is a concern.

“Where does that extra water go if we have a storm surge, that sort of thing is something the city needs to look at,” Slowikowski said.

Reports from NASA and NOA, led Folly officials to predict a foot by 2050.

Those reports suggest there are several factors, like climate change and melting glaciers across the globe, adding to the ocean’s volume.

“The rates of sea level rise that we had been planning may be accelerating at a rate faster than we had been anticipating,” President of Coastal Consulting Inc., Dr. Nicole Elko said.

However, the City of Folly is jumping on the issue now, since high sea levels affect the drainage system, marsh areas, roads, and degree of storm damage.

“When we think about all of the impacts we see today with hurricanes and king tides, you can just imagine what that would be like if it was occurring with water levels a foot higher than they are today,” Dr. Elko said.

The city is now revising their sea level plan.

The plan focuses on things like water infrastructure, land management, building codes, and roadways.

The consulting director for plan, Dr. Elko, says its vital they take action on this now.

“While 2050 is a long way away, it’s an actionable time period and it’s something that residents and visitors and officials can all sort of wrap their heads around,” she said.

Residents say they’re relieved that Folly leaders are looking to the future.

“I’m not a scientist, I don’t have the solutions, but the conversation being started is definitely the right thing to be doing right now,” Slowikowski said.

Folly has released a survey where residents and business owners on the island can talk about how the sea level rising could impact them. The survey is closed right now but will reopen in several days.