Volume 2 Issue 21

February 23 , 2007

Letter by the Publisher
Lynn Pierotti

     As the publisher of the Island Eye News, I have prided myself on our paper’s availability as an open forum for the residents of Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island, Dewees and Goat Island. For the past two years, our paper has dealt with some pretty serious issues, including the ban on smoking on Sullivan’s Island and currently, the debate over short term rentals on the Isle of Palms.
       Because of our partial status as a bi-weekly discussion board, we at the paper have made it a point to never editorialize on debated issues. When we discuss debated topics, we strive to put in all of the information given to us, without suggesting leanings toward either side. We have tried to keep our paper an open and independent ground and attempt to work more as moderators than activists. We believe this to be an important aspect of what makes our paper work. We want residents to believe that the truth, and only the truth, is told on our pages, without the veil of prejudice or opinion shrouding the written facts.
      I would like to thank everyone who has written in to the Island Eye over the years, with compliments and criticisms, and encourage all of our readers to continue using us for what we are; an open forum for the free exchange of ideas in a paper that strives to present as clearly as possible, all sides of every issue. Thank you for your support and thank you for allowing us to make these islands our home.

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

      County Council of the Isle of Palms is considering adopting policies which would regulate property rights in order to curtail island development.   This initiative in itself is admirable, however, the council is elected by the registered voters of the Isle of Palms who represent only one third of the property owners.  The other two thirds of the property owners who are non residents and pay more than two thirds of the city's property taxes could find their property rights greatly diminished.  As a non-resident property owner, I am not allowed to participate in this political process.  This sounds like "Taxation without Representation".

  Bette Mueller-Roemer
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Scott Layton's letter, "Who Are We Saving The Island From?" in your 2/9 edition, implies that IOP residents are being parochial and unreasonable in their attempts to limit the growth of rentals on the island.Apparently he believes that there is a controlled growth plan operatingon the island and that year round residents are protected. A majority of these residents disagree. If ALL properties that were rented (including seasonal) and the number of bedrooms were tracked  we would see that
there has been a dramatic increase in rental space.
      My Layton's claim that residential areas are protected from rentals is incorrect. I live on a zoned residential street that has rental property on it. Until we have full enforcement of zones and close building code loopholes on IOP the issue of residential protection will be in doubt. Sullivans Island appears to have much clearer zoning and more strict building codes which offers better long term protection and quality of life for its residents.
      The hidden agenda of those who are pro growth is that restrictions will reduce the value of their properties. That has not been the case on Sullivans Island or any planned community that controls its rate of growth. The residents that want protection are the ones that want to continue to live here. The ones that want no limits on what they can do with their property really don't care about the long term impact of uncontrolled growth. Most of them will have cashed in and left the fallout for somebody else. Who are we saving the island from? We are saving it from them!!

Paul Reddy
20 year resident
Isle of Palms
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It’s Time to Look at the Big Picture: Why a Compromise Solution is in the Best Interest of All of Us

      Most people know me as the owner of the Red and White—a business here on Isle of Palms for 22 years, so it won’t come as a surprise to you that I rely on tourism and our growing population of residents to drive my business. I know I couldn’t survive without it. But what I’m hoping your readers—my friends and neighbors—can do for just a minute is remember that I’m also a 22-year resident here, someone who cares about more than just my business. I care about our quality of life on this island now and in the future.
     Recently, there was a petition circulated suggesting that City Council make some sweeping changes and restrictions on the rental properties island-wide, and a number of people signed the petition. After talking to many of these individuals, however, I think that what they’re looking for isn’t necessarily “this” solution—they just want “a” solution to the growing noise, traffic, and trash problems we’ve all seen from time to time.
     I agree—and so do the owners of the rental properties.
     What we need, though, is a compromise solution that is thoughtful and takes into consideration the potential tax impact our actions will have. People need to know that simply capping short-term rentals or restricting construction size won’t help any of us. While they sound good, the potential impact on tourism dollars and accommodations taxes—and what that means for our island—is huge.
     Let me give you a quick example presented to us by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and their research experts. Currently, more than two-thirds of our island are second-home or rental properties. If we were to eliminate short-term rentals, they estimate that approximately 75 percent of our current tax revenues on the island—revenues we use to maintain our beach, fix our roads, staff our fire station, etc.—could disappear. We’d see a 30 percent decrease in our city’s annual budget… that’s significant.
    So, what we, a large group of rental property owners and business and community leaders, are proposing is a way to avoid these kinds of big losses, but still protect our quality of life here on IOP.
    Here’s what we’re suggesting—and as you probably have heard, support for this idea is quickly growing:

• Addressing the main concerns of residents through adoption of stronger guidelines and regulations for all rentals:
• For instance, requiring all properties to use licensed trash removal services, allowing only one car for every one bedroom in the rental property, and limiting occupancy of the rental property to two people per bedroom plus two individuals ·
• Proactively taking charge of policing ourselves:
• Promoting and communicating new rules and regulations to all renters and residents; and stepping in when we need to, to solve problems that arise
• Backing and participating in the newly created Livability Court, based on Charleston’s nationally recognized model

We spent a great deal of time thinking through the middle ground, and feel confident that these solutions will both address the noise, traffic, trash and other concerns of the residents who are most worried, as well as allow our island to thrive from a tax dollar perspective.
      I encourage you, my friends and neighbors, to give this compromise some serious consideration and to look at the bigger picture, because we all will be affected by whatever we recommend.

Thank you.
By Wayne Moseley
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Dear Leaders,

I am not a full-time resident, so I have no legal status in this discussion.  Nonetheless, I have an emotional and social participant: we live at our home on Palm Blvd every moment we can (we do not and will not rent it) and have sadly watched our island become more and more commercialized, and less and less residential or "neighborhood," over the past four years. This is in stark contrast to the gains led by the leadership on Sullivan's, who over the same time have increasingly helped the community assert itself as a resident-controlled (in contrast to realtor- or absentee-landlord controlled) community. The mini-hotels passing as residences on IOP are but one example. "Sleeps 39"!  Unless the Council acts wisely to curb the bad growth and the consequential bad behavior we're seeing and apparently presently accepting, it seems to me we are on the verge of losing any sense of community or of good growth. All IOP renters pay high fees and a very large number of "visitors" seem to have a sense that with those fees they've purchased the entitlement to disrupt the community: fireworks, all night parties, fast driving, littering, public drunkenness, unfettered dogs, and all sorts of thoughtless asocial behavior. They "rent" opportunities to misbehave and degrade.  As long as the rents roll in more or less regularly, no one seems to much mind except the residents. I fear the day when a child is smooshed by a drunken driver or a death occurs because we haven't provided a conflict-free Palm Blvd through a paid parking lot for 100% of the visitors to get them off of Palm Blvd and off of our side streets. (By the way, at $5.00 per entry at a mandatory central parking area, I calculate a back-of-the envelope annual income for the city of over $2.5M.)
The opponents of good growth and the opponents of the preservation of a sense of community resist reasonable measures to save our community for what appear to be very selfish reasons. Those supporting the continued selling of the island to transients and their agents oppose advancing good growth ordinances because such ordinances would "severely impact" their "ability to rent your home or villa in the future," have a "negative effect on rental income" and cause the loss of "between 25% to 40% of our potential income." Once the sense of community is lost-and it is lost with dominance by exclusively moneyed interests-the kinds and quality of visitors we want will stop coming. If taxes go up because bad growth is stopped, so be it.
Anything you could do, even given the immense power of the realtors, property rental businesses, and absentee landlords, to return the community to the interests of the residents of the community, our children, and our grandchildren would be the right thing to do in both the long term and in the shorter term.
Rarely, very rarely, does the right thing to do present as clearly as it does now; please support the good growth pleas to save our community.


Thank you.
Very respectfully,
Dick Szafranski
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Dear Save IOP Neighborhoods Supporters,
      Michael Long, CMCA, Director of Lodging, Wild Dunes Resorts, in his email to Real Estate Business on the Island and others dtd [dated] 2-15-07, forwarded the following Sample letter. [Who it was] to be forwarded to [was] not indicated. I imagine to business, community and rental property managers and I suspect rental property owners. Isle of Palms Compromise Proposal Time to Look at the Big Picture: Why a Compromise Solution is in the Best Interest of All of Us.
      The Sample letter is to be signed by Wayne Mosley, Owner, Red and White Grocery; Buddy Thomas, Owner, Long Island Cafe; and Michael Long, Director of Lodging, Wild Dunes Resort. His email starts out Good Evening Team.
      At no time that I am aware of has Wild Dunes been brought into this dispute. He has organized a Team to resist the desires of the majority of the Island residents. He stated being a holiday weekend but we will meet with all member of Council by Wednesday. In his email dtd [dated] 2-15-07, Mr. Long stated their Team had scheduled a meeting on Saturday, three on Monday and one on Tuesday, and will meet with members of Council by Wednesday. Their Team meeting does not bother me but what really ticks me off, is they have a personal meeting with Council and we do not have a voice at the Special Council meeting on the February 22.
       At the Council Meeting on January 23, I recommended that the Mayor hold a TOWN MEETING at the Recreation Center and all Council Members be present. The purpose of the [meeting was] hearing residents concerns and to answer questions posed to them. That a local Radio or TV personality be asked to moderate the meeting. That this meeting be held prior to the SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING scheduled for February 22. Nothing has been heard from Mayor or Council, not even a grunt to acknowledge the request. The nascent Rental Advisory Committee, as stated by the Post and Courier on February 7, stated the Rental Advisory Committee was the major force in asking for [the] Livability Court. Without any time wasted, the Court was established and $120,000 appropriated without the public’s input.
      NOW WILD DUNES AND OTHER REAL ESTATE INTERESTS REQUESTED A MEETING PRIOR TO THE SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING WHICH WAS GRANTED. NOW THIS SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING, IF YOU ARE IN THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS ON THE ISLAND, YOU HAVE THE EAR OF THE MAYOR AND THE MAJORITY OF THE COUNCIL.
      Now for Mr. Mosley, Red and White, and Mr. Buddy Thomas, Long Island Cafe, I would recommend you stay neutral. The Residents of the Island are the main source of income for all businesses through out the year. That after the election in November 2007, when we will be the MAJORITY, and at the latest after the election, the City [should] look into the connection of Wild Dunes with the City and that Wild Dunes be incorporated fully into the City completely with out their manned gates and security.

Friendly Fred
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February 12, 2007
Dear Mr. Scott Lawton,

     I am one of the disrespectful individuals along with many more who are trying to convey to the Mayor and City Council by trying to tell them that the City has Ordinances on Residential Areas and they do not allow for Commercial business in these Areas. When homeowners apply for a Business License for the purpose of renting his/her property, this becomes a Commercial Business. Do you hear? A Commercial Business! The City does not tell the property owner this is for long-term or short-term rental. If you, the Mayor and some of the Council Members would open there ears and listen to the majority, they would understand that the problem with short-term rentals is a PROBLEM they created. We are telling them enough is enough. They will either solve the problem or the concerned citizens will solve the problem for them come November if not before. Ordinances are only good until the next Ordinance is enacted. Write your letter to your Major and Council Members expressing your opinion and then come to the Council Meeting on February 22 and listen and then speak your concerns for all of us to hear on February 27 at the Council Meeting.
     From my viewpoint you are recent arrival. When Hugo hit, we left the Island and made a long and stressful journey to North Carolina and came close to meeting Mr. Hugo there. At the time of Hugo, my family had resided on the Island for 22 years. As far as FEMA, it only helped a few of us. Only a small percentage of the residents had Flood Insurance. Since most of us had been here long enough to pay for our homes, Flood Insurance was not required. Most of our friends on the Island DID NOT have Flood Insurance since their priorities was to support there families. As it turned out they lived to regret it. Back in 1989 the Island comprised mostly of working people that lived from payday to payday. The traumatic experience from Hugo created Divorces, broken homes and unfortunately suicides.
     I noticed your home on 31 st must not have suffered any structural damage and neither did mine and both homes did not have to be raised. I don’t know about you but I left the Island the day before Hugo hit and was not able to move back into my home until the following May 1990. Now if you want to talk about FEMA and Hugo, I live just around the corner at 3202 Hartnett. If you look just down the street at 31 st and Hartnett you will notice the mini-hotels are heading your way.
     You are right; we do have sufficient Ordinances that should have prevented this problem. Unfortunately, this Administration has allowed the REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY to have there way by allowing Short Term Rentals to move into SR1 and SR2. If you think the REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY is small potatoes on the Island, go down and count the number of Real Estate businesses in our business area. Nearly all the business is Real Estate or Real Estate related. To be exact there are 10 AGENCIES in our business area at the stoplight with 4 more on J.C Long Blvd or near to J.C. with 1 at Breach Inlet and I don’t know what is in Wild Dunes. Some of the Agencies are so big; they have Offices in two different locations.
     Economically speaking, the residents would not miss the Realtors being gone. Maybe then, we could get some businesses that we could use and not have to go Mt. Pleasant to do our shopping, i.e. a good Drug Store. Sullivan’s Island surely did not miss the income from the rentals that were displaced. It raised their taxes some but not enough that we heard any complaints.
      If the REAL ESTATE Industry wants short-term rentals, fine, move them to the Business District or Wild Dunes where they have facilities to cater to them.
     As far as our neighbors from Mt. Pleasant, Charleston, Summerville and other cities in the Area, that desire to come to the Beach, they are WELCOME, the city has provided Parking for them – not in the front yards of our residents. I don’t believe anyone has even hinted that our visiting guest were not welcome – are you suggesting this.      The only suggestion I have for you being in the real estate business is change your occupation. I think the area of short-term rentals is going to tighten up in the near future. Come to the Council meeting and find out what your neighbors think if you care.

Fred Young
3202 Hartnett Boulevard
Isle of Palms, SC
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Dear Island Eye News,
I read your paper today and was surprised to see the "411 on Dewees Island ". Just so you are aware, Dewees Island Property Owners Association's official website is: www.deweesislandpoa.org http://www.deweesislandpoa.org/> . Jonathan Lutz, our naturalist, does a great job at providing a naturalist's view of the Island in the "Nature" part of our website, which is open to the public.

Thanks,
Dewees Island Management
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CONTAINING ACCIDENTAL LITTER IN CHARLESTON
       My two favorite drives in all the land are the connectors and bridges leading to and from Sullivan's Island and the Isle of Palms. One is hard pressed to find scenes more beautiful. But one day I noticed disturbing amounts of trash strewn along the roadway driving over the Ben Sawyer Bridge. I thought to myself that no one in their right mind would ever litter here. I too had places to go and work to do, so I kept on driving. About a week passed and my eye kept spotting the same trash, lodged in a marsh tree up along the mow line each day. Fed up, I decided to do something about it. So I walked into the center of the universe (Dunleavy's Pub) and asked the bartender for a large trash bag. Andy kindly obliged. For two hours I walked from Middle Street to the bridge and back, picking up trash on both sides of the causeway. What I found made me furious and curious. How could so many people “talk” about the lifestyle and landscapes here, and yet allow one piece of litter to leave their hands—especially here?
     My dear friend Terri Dolan spotted me and pulled over on the causeway to say hello. She jokingly asked if I was completing a community service sentence, or perhaps just let out on work release. I explained with a smile that I was simply fed up seeing so much trash on our marsh and connector roads, so I decided to take a walk and pick it up myself. When I was a boy, my uncle Ed Gardner took me along my grandparent's scenic mountain roads in upstate New York with a wheelbarrow to pick up trash. We collected load after load of litter tossed out by careless people passing by. In college, my Rugby Club volunteered to walk the Charles River and pick up trash tossed out by the same kind of careless people. I did this again on my own in graduate school. It is amazing how just one outing picking up litter along a road or marsh can impact a child's idea of litter. I have my uncle Ed to thank for that. The Adopt a Highway program is of course a helpful organization adding community value by promoting the picking up of trash in designated areas. Either way, the spontaneous assembly of teams, families, and young people can easily canvass low country landscapes and islands to pick up trash (and recyclables).
      As I walked back to Dunleavy's, I had amassed what felt like 40-45 pounds of trash in the bag, most of which was not biodegradable. I asked Andy once again if I could use the Dunleavy's dumpster, which he kindly obliged. One patron was kind enough to jump up and walk me around back and point out the right dumpster. The “judge and jury” inside Dunleavy's insisted on buying me a beer, which was very kind. Of course we all talked, ask questions, and searched for answers regarding the findings of this roadway trash collection. For several minutes I explained the various kinds of trash I found, and what I thought some of it meant. The primary reason I am writing in is because the findings were somewhat astonishing. Readers beware: the analysis and detail of what I found may not be for the faint and squeamish.
      First, the trash was almost eighty percent McDonald's fast food, Wal-Mart shopping bags, and over-sized beer bottles—interesting evidence regarding these care-less consumers. What I could not figure out was the high volume of empty Ace Hardware bags blown into the trees and marsh bushes. But wait, hardware store customers are not the types that litter? This evidence made zero sense. But the Wal-Mart (and other grocery) bag contents really stunned me. About a dozen of these plastic bags contained pet waste. It turns out, pet owners have been taking their animals to the beach (or elsewhere), picking up their pets' messes in public, then tossing the plastic bags out the window in private after they leave. What's more, there were a number of plastic soda bottles filled with liquid that was not soda. So it's not just pets unable to find a restroom. There were other interesting types of trash: a magnetic realtor car sign, a truck side-view mirror, and even a gas cap—each safe to assume as accidental. But there were multiple latex gloves, soil and fertilizer bags, and an astonishing amount of Styrofoam coffee cups. Not from Starbucks, but from convenience stores and downtown coffee shops. How did they get all the way down here?
      Near the “Welcome to Sullivan's Island” sign there was a greater concentration of plastic and Styrofoam, grouped together and seemingly a result of the tides. A good amount of trash obviously washes up from the harbor or perhaps is lost out of boats. This made some sense. But I still could not figure out the volume of Ace Hardware bags. So I raised this question again to judge and jury at Dunleavy's. Terri Dolan, herself a paint contractor and work truck owner, had just come in and brought this most important realization to light—honest people leave trash in the back of their pick-up trucks, everyday trash which may be blowing out of windows and truck beds unknowingly over windy causeway and bridge drives. We all run in and out of local stores each day, especially construction and restoration folks needing a part or two. Was this the Ace Hardware mystery solved?
      In a work vehicle, tossing things in the back is commonplace. I took it one step further and thought about how many times good people roll down their windows (or open their convertible) to drive across the connectors and the bridges down here. That's why they call this place heaven and we all live here. But open-bed construction and work trucks may be the source—unknowingly of course. How much trash blows out of our cars, SUV's, or truck beds is beyond our knowledge—especially those feather-light grocery bags. I have dozens of empty bait and tackle bags in the back of my SUV, and I roll down the windows at 55 mph all the time. Some of the trash I picked up may very well have been my own.
      So how can we turn this trash problem around? Obviously never litter. Ever. The first solution might be to kindly refuse bags at the counter. Tell your store clerks “no bag needed today, thank you.” If a bag is essential, be sure they are rolled up or removed from the back of vehicles. The only next step is to take a walk and collect trash where you live or work. Bring a friend. Bring a few. But, as we were advised years ago by Adopt a Highway, be very careful of three things when picking up trash: 1) Oncoming traffic, wear something colorful. 2) Serious thickets, spurs, and long, long cactus barbs –the latter I learned the hard way along Louis Stith Highway. And 3) Do NOT squeeze, open, stomp, or aggressively handle any trash. Bags or cartons may contain needles, broken glass, insects, or other things most unhelpful. In the final analysis, simply being aware of loose trash susceptible to wind in our vehicles may reduce accidental litter significantly.

Baron Hanson
Charleston
baron_hanson@post.harvard.edu.