Second Livability Officer on IOP Only Finds Rollcart Violations
Livability is an important issue for residents living in a beach town like Isle of Palms. Much of the support for the short term rental cap referendum is due to livability issues some residents think can be solved by limiting STRs.
The truth is that residents commit as many livability violations as tourists on Isle of Palms. According to the IOPPD’s monthly report for August, there were 5 noise violations committed by residents and 7 committed by tourists.
Some residents claim that livability violations go unreported or unenforced. In response to this, the community hired a second livability officer to patrol IOP. And since his hiring, he hasn’t had much to do.
Rollcart violations on Isle of Palms
A rollcart is your city-issued trash can that you place on the street once a week. There is a very old regulation in the IOP municipal code requiring rollcarts to be hidden from street view except on collection days. The second livability officer was so bored for lack of violations that he decided to dig up this old regulation and begin writing citations.
According to the IOPPD’s annual report (YTD as of September 30th), there have been a total of 126 rollcart violations committed by residents and 143 committed by short term renters. If your rollcart trash can is at all visible from the street on IOP, then you are subject to citation.
Where are the livability violations?
Proponents of the STR cap claim livability violations are out of control on Isle of Palms. According to the IOPPD’s annual report, there have been a total of 186 noise complaints (74 unfounded) filed with the department.
STR cap proponents also claim there are numerous occupancy violations and vehicle violations committed regularly by short term renters. In the same report cited above, there have been a total of 1 (one) STR occupancy violation in this calendar year. It also shows a total of 6 STR vehicle limit violations. There are 1800 short term rental licenses currently issued by the city.
Vote “No” on November 7th
Livability issues need to be addressed by the city and current laws should be enforced. If the data produced by the IOPPD is correct, then there are very few livability violations occurring on the island and every one is being addressed by the department. The second livability office has resorted to scanning the island daily for rollcart violations because he has so little to do.
Wrecking housing values and hurting IOP families with a cap on short term rentals is not the solution to livability issues. Vote “No” for the referendum to cap short term rentals on Isle of Palms on November 7th.