Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) in Isle of Palms, SC

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - Isle of Palms city crews are working diligently to restore the beach after it experienced heavy erosion during Tropical Storm Idalia.

The loss of tons of sand to erosion means the drop off between the access points and the beaches can reach several feet, making it dangerous for people to reach the beach from these points.

Until the restoration of the beach is completed, Public Beach Access 1B, 2A, and 3A will be closed until further notice.

“The cleanup will happen over the next couple of days and then next week we’ll start doing scrapping at low tide to bring some of the sand back up,” Isle of Palms Mayor Phillip Pounds said. “And build a dune in front of these people’s houses to protect them for the rest of the hurricane season.”

Not only is it hurricane season, but it’s also sea turtle nesting season. Inclement weather can leave turtles exposed, but Pounds said the city is doing all it can to keep the turtles protected.

“You’re not in the dunes and hopefully not disturbing the nest,” Pounds said. “Our turtle team does a great as far as marking the nest or moving them when they feel like they’re in harm’s way. So, it’s very coordinated with our local turtle team as well as the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to make sure they’re aware of what’s going, you know?”

Despite the city not receiving federal funding, city leaders have managed to receive an emergency permit from the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management to begin restoration work Tuesday.

Pounds stresses the importance of maintaining safety before heading into Labor Day weekend.

“So, we just ask folks to be respectful of the workers that’ll be coming in and out of here. There’s going to be trucks and bulldozers and all kind of stuff going on. So just watch out and be careful,” Pounds says. “Our guys will be out here next week with the bulldozers when most of our summer crowd is gone. So, the timing is decent from that standpoint, we just need to get protection on the beach for these folk’s home as soon as we can.”

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ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCIV) — Currently, Isle of Palms has no limits on the amount of short-term rental licenses on the Island, which is something neighbors have been concerned about for years.

“We’re the only community in South Carolina coastal communities without limitations, and that includes all of the surrounding communities," Randy Bell, a former IOP councilmember, said. "You have 40 short-term rentals on Sullivan's island, 400 in mount pleasant, and maybe 100 in Charleston, but you have 1,800 here."

Isle of Palms residents rally for cap on short-term rentals: Referendum to hit upcoming ballot (WCIV)

Earlier in the month, Isle of Palms neighbors formed a grassroots petition to cap the number of short rentals at 1,600. The petition was signed by more than 1,100 residents. This led to the county verifying the petition forcing the city council to put a referendum on the ballot.

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"The residents put forth a petition, and that’s how democracy works, and we'll put that on the ballot," Mayor Phillip Pounds of Isle of Palms said. "So it’s to cap what they call investment short-term rentals. So non-full-time rental properties to cap that at 1,600, and that will be the simple question on the ballot: a simple yes or no."

With the decision now up to voters, former Councilman Randy Bell hopes the council learns to listen to their constituents moving forward.

“We’re the dry sponge in the middle of a puddle, and we don’t want to be the dry sponge anymore. We would like to have reasonable limitations well thought out by council. It should have avoided a referendum, but here we are," Bell continued. “I was on council, and I don’t care what every councilperson’s opinion is, but you’re there to represent the people that put you in office."

For the next upcoming election, there are four council seats open.

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Like residents on Folly Beach just a few islands down the coast, Isle of Palms residents seem to want assurances that their coastal city will strike a balance between full-time residents and homes used as short-term rentals.

Earlier this year, many Folly residents believed their City Council wasn’t taking their concerns seriously and petitioned for a referendum to limit the number of short-term rentals. That effort was successful, and now Isle of Palms residents have succeeded in their own petition drive.

As a result, island voters will go to the polls Nov. 7 to decide not only four City Council races and a utility commission seat but also this question: “Shall the City of Isle of Palms limit the investment short term rental business licenses to a maximum of 1,600?” They should vote yes.

It’s important to understand what the ordinance will and won’t do. Those residents who currently live in their home (and qualify for the 4% property tax assessment rate on owner-occupied homes) still may rent out their home for up to 72 days a year, and they would not be subject to the new cap.

The cap would apply only to so-called investor-owned properties and second homes (which have 6% assessment rates). Currently, the island has about 1,600 of these types of properties with short-term rental licenses, so the cap was designed to maintain the status quo — and to ensure the number of short-term rentals doesn’t rise much more.

But no current property owner should face an immediate hardship if the referendum question is approved, and that’s important to note. All owners of rental properties who have a current license by Nov. 7 will be grandfathered in, and those who had one as of April 30, 2023 will have 60 days — through January 2024 — to apply for and receive a short-term rental license, even if the number of applications surpasses 1,600. Also, these licenses will be transferrable to family members. These responsible, equitable provisions should minimize hardships if the question were to pass.

“We have a growing number of short-term rental licenses in residential communities,” former City Councilman Randy Bell told reporter David Slade. Mr. Bell has worked with the pro-referendum group Preserve Isle of Palms Now. “We are trying to maintain the one-third, one-third, one-third split between full-time residents, second homes and rental properties.”

It might strike some as odd that the cap issue is emerging even as the island has seen a recent slowdown in short-term rentals. Visitors and residents always have made up a large part of the Isle of Palms’ identity, but the Nov. 7 referendum is yet another example of South Carolina communities, particularly those popular with tourists, seeking a better balance between the economic vitality of short-term rentals and the relative stability and quietude of neighborhoods with mostly full-time, year-round residents. State legislators should not pass any laws that would hinder the work of cities and counties on this issue.

As with Folly, even if voters approve the cap, we don’t expect the referendum to be the last word on the subject. City Council would have to implement it but could make modifications as it sees fit. As City Attorney Mac McQuillin explained, “If the ordinance is approved by voters ... council can amend or repeal following the election just like any other ordinance.” If the referendum is approved, City Council should amend it if there’s a consensus that it is not working as planned or officials find a better way to ensure the resident-visitor balance.

If voters say yes — as they should — it’s certainly fair for Isle of Palms council members to consider whether 1,600 really is the best number in the long run or whether that number should be changed to reflect the distinctly different areas of the island, such as the front beach and Wild Dunes. That’s a fair debate, but one that would take place with council members knowing full well that island residents — also known as city voters — remain concerned about the scale tipping too far away from them.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This editorial has been updated to clarify that only investor-owned properties that have a short-term rental license by Nov. 7 or ones that had such a license as of April 30, 2023 and reapply within a 60-day period after Nov. 7 would not be subject to the 1,600 cap.

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ISLE OF PALMS — Along most streets of this barrier island, daytime parking is limited to residents and short-term rental guests. But a beachgoers advocacy group has asked the state to make that parking available to all.

The Charleston Beach Foundation argues that with so many short-term rentals on Isle of Palms, vacationers renting on the island are parking on state-owned land that day-trip visitors are unfairly forbidden to use.

“The voters have spoken on the Isle of Palms, and there is no cap on short-term rentals,” said Beach Foundation co-director Myra Jones, citing a November ballot question that was voted down.

“Our theory, basically, is that a short-term rental is a business, there are businesses island-wide, and the businesses are benefiting from the residential-only parking,” she said.

In a Nov. 27 letter sent to S.C. Department of Transportation Secretary Christy Hall, Isle of Palms Mayor Phillip Pounds and others, the Beach Foundation claims “IOP no longer has legitimate ‘residential’ areas and the general public is being denied their constitutional guaranty of equality and privilege to access state roadways and rights-of-way.”

That argument echoes some comments made by Hall in a 2021 letter to the small coastal city during a wide-ranging debate about public parking on the island.

“I am of the opinion that the 2015 (Isle of Palms parking) plan has improperly designated a significant number of state-owned highway rights of way as ‘resident only parking’ potentially denying non-residents their constitutional guaranty of equality and privilege,” Hall wrote.

She added, “Accordingly, at a minimum, the state-owned roads intersecting SC 703 (Palm Boulevard) should be re-evaluated for the restoration of public parking along the first block.”

No changes were subsequently made on the roads connecting to Palm Boulevard. Instead, the state quashed an Isle of Palms’ plan to eliminate most free public parking on the island and installed angled parking along Palm Boulevard and added parking at Breach Inlet.

Both changes increased the amount of free parking for beach visitors, while resident-only parking areas remained as they were.

“I think where we left it, after we made those changes to Palm (Boulevard) and Breach Inlet, was that we would see how things would operate,” Hall said Nov. 28.

She said DOT would review the Charleston Beach Foundation’s request.

Pounds said the island is comfortable with the current parking regulations and said it’s absurd for the Beach Foundation to suggest Isle of Palms has no residential neighborhoods.

“I would love for that crowd to come out here and talk to the 4,000 residents who live on the island and tell them the entire island is commercial,” he said. “It’s not like our residential areas went away as a result of the referendum.”

In the Nov. 7 referendum, Isle of Palms voters were asked if they would support a 1,600-license cap for short-term rentals of commercially taxed homes. The measure failed with more than 54 percent voters in opposition.

Pounds said that while the referendum vote quashed one specific plan, discussions about limits on short-term rentals are ongoing.

As of the end of October, according to a city analysis, Isle of Palms had 4,610 residential properties, and 1,850 of them — 40 percent — had a short-term rental license.

Each of those short-term rental properties can have four permits allowing guests to park in resident-only areas.

“The Residential Parking Only Zones are being misused and abused by the STR businesses as their customers are allowed to park on the state-owned rights of way while excluding the general public,” the Charleston Beach Foundation said in its letter.

Under the city’s rules, the state’s right of way along most streets — strips of land adjacent to the roads — is available for parking to residents, their guests with permits and short-term rental guests with permits.

A short-term rental property owner can buy four permits yearly for $15, for tenants to use in residential-only areas where parking would otherwise be prohibited from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. during beach season.

City administrator Désirée Fragoso plowed through a laundry list of capital projects — including the consideration of a $65,000 change order for ongoing emergency beach work — at the Nov. 14 Isle of Palms City Council workshop.

Fragoso recapped City Council’s recent efforts to facilitate a sand trucking project to address beach erosion in the Breach Inlet area by infusing $250,000 into the undertaking. Since then, she recounted, Coastal Science & Engineering (CSE) and subcontractor Collins Construction have been hard at work not only in terms of mobilizing sand, but also surveying the island shore and collecting data.

Although Fragoso recommended that City Council approve the request for additional monies, Councilmember Scott Pierce suggested that CSE provide more information on the original scope of work before the governing body green lights any new funding.

When asked how much upcoming sand nourishment by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would cost the island, Fragoso estimated an amount between $200,000 and $300,000.

On the topic of public dock and “T”-dock repairs in the marina area, the administrator mentioned that the City has elicited estimate bids from potential contractors, which were due Nov. 21. As for imminent marina dredging (i.e. the removal of sand, silt, mud, etc.), it was noted that engineering consulting firm ATM (Applied Technology Management) has produced a final analysis on disposal alternatives that hadn’t yet been reviewed by City staff as of the night of the workshop.

Updates were also provided on beach access improvements as they pertain to county park emergency vehicle access. On that note, Fragoso informed listeners that City Council signed off on the endeavor a month prior, which now leaves the the fate of the construction venture in the hands of County government before IOP can begin pursuing bids from prospective contractors.

“We have ordered surveys of the paths we would like to improve, whether through an ADA path or foot bridges to address some of the standing water issues. We have an ongoing list of locations we want to improve over time,” explained the City official who manages six departments and about 102 employees.

Fragoso went on to invite community members to drive by the new outdoor fitness court — in front of the local rec center — featuring seven movement stations to help individuals tackle a complete workout in the interest of enhancing their strength and agility. A ribbon-cutting to ring in the new outdoor facility will take place in December.

The capital projects summary further included a preview of the undergrounding of power lines next year courtesy of Dominion Energy along 14th Avenue.

“We have been having Dominion Energy in the process of acquiring easements in prominent locations [for] some of the infrastructure that is necessary as part of the conversion in that area,” said Fragoso.