IOP Councilmember speaks on short-term rental decisions
ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCBD) – Isle of Palms will hold a city council meeting Tuesday night, but short-term rentals will not be a major topic of conversation after key decisions were made earlier this month.
Roughly 2 weeks ago, a special IOP City Council meeting was held to decide the direction of the petition, which today has over 1,200 signatures. At the meeting, the petition didn’t make it past the first hearing sending it to a referendum and placing it on the ballot in November.
Councilmember Blair Hahn told News 2 that the direction of the short-term rental ordinance could have had a different outcome. Although he voted against it in the first hearing, Hahn said his vote would have landed differently had the proposal been rewritten.
Councilman Hahn said the signatures on the petition are being verified by the election commission. Still, he believes some of the signatures may have been signed as a misunderstanding of the proposal.
“Everybody I’ve talked to that has signed the petition has said that they didn’t understand the ordinance. Once you explain the ordinance to them they say ‘I can’t support that,’ and that’s pretty widespread,” he said. “So there are a number of people that signed this petition that didn’t understand the ordinance and don’t want an ordinance that is this far-reaching.”
Councilmember Hahn also said residential short-term rentals are a problem, and one that he would be in support of solving; limiting them all together is something that he says goes far beyond the stated goal.
“When I’ve talked to people, the reason they want to limit short-term rentals is to protect residential neighborhoods, I’m all for that,” he said. “This ordinance is island wide and it attacks the ‘condo-tells’, the hotels that were sold as condos, and each room now has to have a short-term rental license,” said Councilmember Hahn.
The referendum for this short-term rental ordinance will be on the ballots in November and Councilmember Hahn said if it’s voted down council will take up vacation rentals in the fall.
