Folly Beach received a significant amount of federal funding for emergency renourishment following beach damage from Hurricane Ian.

Published: Thu Mar 02 2023|Updated: Fri Mar 03 2023

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - Folly Beach received a significant amount of federal funding for emergency renourishment following beach damage from Hurricane Ian.

The September storm washed away sand dunes and caused erosion to take away parts of the beach.

The $27 million of funding will work to get the beach back to normal with sand replacement.

“This is not a full renourishment, but it does allow us to get a little more beach back in place for the protection of infrastructure and recreation,” Folly Beach Mayor Tim Goodwin said.

Around 900,000 cubic yards or 90,000 dump trucks of sand, will be replaced, and the city plans to use sand from the Folly River.

“That kind of does two things,” Goodwin said. “It helps us refurbish the beach with beach sand that just kind of washes around in the river, and it kind of opens up the river for the boaters, gets rid of some sand bars.”

The mayor believes beachgoers will be excited about the project, but they are not the only ones who will benefit.

Safety is a concern when the beach is in its current state.

“A lot of people don’t understand but especially in medical emergencies, we have a lot of equipment to carry, so it’s helpful when we can bring that one a cart or a four-wheeler, and with a small beach that’s impacted by the storm, it makes it pretty difficult or impossible to do, so getting this sand is a huge help for us,” the City of Folly Beach Director of Public Safety Andrew Gilreath said.

The sand is also crucial for those who rely on the beach for business.

“Just makes the beach so much deeper, so much more room for everybody, everybody’s not shoulder to shoulder stuffed on the beach, so once we get that new beach it’ll be glory days for us,” Sun & Ski Beach Service Owner Andy Pracht said.

The project most likely will not get underway till after the busy season.

“Everybody just has to work together to get through the summer,” Pracht said. “It’s going to be crowded. It kind of is what it is. Hopefully, we could have a new beach by this summer but we’re not going to. So, if we have one by next summer that would be awesome.”

City officials say this will be the first emergency renourishment Folly has needed since 2018.

They say It will be a few months before a timeline is laid out for the project.

A contract should be awarded in late summer/early fall and construction will start shortly after.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

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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For folks who really love Folly Beach, Feb. 8 can’t get here soon enough.

One way or another, it’ll be over by then.

You see, on Feb. 7 Folly residents vote in a referendum, prompted by a citizens’ petition, to limit short-term rentals. Because City Council couldn’t do it — or wouldn’t.

Investors are driving home prices out of reach for even wealthy families, and as such, Folly is becoming an island of transients.

A lot of places are going through the same thing — Isle of Palms is struggling with this as we speak. But the old-timers aren’t being hyperbolic when they say this really is a battle for the soul of Folly Beach.

There are 1,125 homes on the island licensed as rental properties — and that accounts for 43% of Folly Beach residences. It’s hard to be a community when nearly half your population turns over weekly.

The ballot question, if approved, would limit those licenses to 800. That’s still a lot, but it’s a compromise — about the best anyone can hope for. Because, truth is, rental houses have been part of Folly’s fabric for decades.

The fight has gotten nasty, turning neighbor against neighbor. Opponents say a short-term rental limit would prevent residents from passing down property to their heirs. Which isn’t true — they simply couldn’t pass down a license.

They say it will deter sales, as some people must rent out their second homes to afford them. Well, they could rent ’em out — they’d just have to get in line for a license. Which is a first-world problem if there ever was one.

Opponents say this would make island property worth less, which may be true ... to a point. It could mean the difference between a Folly house selling to some James Island couple for $950,000 or a Boston hedge fund for $1.1 million.

A family that wants to retire to the beach would always be outbid by multinational hedge fund investors.

These opponents claim this would take away people’s property rights, and that’s dangerous. You know how some folks get these days when you invoke “freedom.”

Anyway, it’s all baloney.

The government has always limited a homeowner’s “freedom.” But as importantly, it limits your neighbors’. It’s called zoning. How many of these folks fighting for their constitutional right to an Airbnb would keep quiet if someone opened a junkyard next door? How about a petting zoo?

Which, incidentally, is sort of what short-term rentals sometimes turn into.

Everyone should care about this. Although Folly is its own city, it’s always been part of Charleston — as important as The Battery or Marion Square. Generations of Lowcountry folk grew up surfing the Washout, shagging on the pier and throwing back cold ones at the Sand Dollar … or on the sand.

Back when that was legal.

Time was you couldn’t walk into Bert’s Market without seeing somebody you knew. Folly is where people went to relax, wade through the surf or lounge on the beach late Saturday afternoons, when the sky is golden and the ocean turns the most amazing shade of blue.

Unfortunately, a lot of us don’t go anymore. Too crowded, too many tourists, the traffic on Folly Road untenable. Everything changes, that’s a fact. But we don’t have to help it along — 43% rental property. Good grief.

Some old-timers are hopeful. The petition was signed by nearly 500 Folly voters — read: full-time residents — and it’s rare that more than 800 vote in any island election. And some of the opponents can’t vote because, well, they don’t really live there.

Even if the limit passes, the pressure won’t stop. Already, some state lawmakers — the same ones who grouse about the tyranny of the federal government — want to strip local communities of their right to regulate short-term rentals.

Talk about taking away freedom.

And short-term rentals were here to stay even before the pandemic made telecommuting a thing. Our real estate prices, high as they are, still look like a bargain to folks from New York or Connecticut. So it goes.

This happens in nearly every place that’s beautiful — people love it to death. But the old-timers are fighting, and it’s a fight worth having.

Because this is ultimately about whether Folly Beach is going to remain the Edge of America, or become just another piece of corporate America.

We’ll know by Feb. 8.

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A months-long discussion came to an end Tuesday night as voters decided on the fate of short-term rentals on Folly Beach.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - A months-long discussion came to an end Tuesday night as voters decided on the fate of short-term rentals on Folly Beach.

Just 78 votes ended up separating the debate of the number of short-term rental licenses allowed on Folly Beach. The final vote rang Tuesday night after lines at the polls began at 7 a.m. officially capping the number of rentals, like condos and Airbnbs, to 800 across the island.

There were more than 1,200 people that voted, which is about half of the number of registered voters on the island.

“This is probably the most people I’ve ever seen vote, even in a presidential election, that I can remember,” Goodwin said.

This special citizen vote tallies 655 voters for the cap on short-term rentals and 577 against it.

This issue stems back to October when a citizen petition to cap the number of short-term rentals came to city council, which was then put up to a citizen vote.

Ann Peets, who supports the cap, says she doesn’t want the permanent residents leaving because of disruptive renters.

“It’s a very tight-knit community and we feel like if people keep leaving that’s going to be lost,” Peets said.

Those against the cap on rentals, like Elton Culpepper, says he doesn’t want his kids to not have a rental option on inherited property.

“I feel like the property value will go down and they should be able to short term rental it,” Culpepper said.

Bill Murschel says he’s been renting on the island for over 25 years. Although he could not vote, he says he worries how this would affect his vacations.

“I don’t want to be priced out of the market,” Murschel said. “I want to have plenty of choices when I contact a local real estate office and pick my place.”

Mayor Goodwin says he signed the original petition and voted for the STR cap.

“We know they bring in tax dollars,” Goodwin said. “We never want to see short term rentals go away totally. It’s just where do you want your city to be in reference to a community versus businesses.”

He was asked if he thinks this will have any effect on people investing on Folly Beach in the future.

“I don’t think so,” Goodwin said. “You know, before this got started, like I said, the number was 800. That didn’t stop people from buying and selling out here... Nobody’s going to be totally happy with the vote. So, now it’s just a matter of the community coming back together and healing and let’s get on with the rest of the world.”

Goodwin says it will take several years for the number of current STRs to dwindle down to 800 from either people selling their property or no longer renewing their licenses. He says there’s currently around 1,200 on the island.

The vote will be certified on Thursday and will immediately take effect.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The spirited island hamlet south of Charleston shakes off mainland sophistication in favor of flip-flops and cash-only dive bars.

It's only twelve miles south of Charleston's historic homes and manicured window boxes, but the salty little town of Folly Beach ditches the Holy City's refinement in favor of an easygoing, barefoot sensibility that feels a bit more California than Carolina. Known to locals as the Edge of America, Folly is everything a beach town should be. Surf shops line the main drag; cover-ups count as appropriate lunch attire; and nobody takes themselves too seriously (they drop a pair of LED-lit flip flops to celebrate New Year's Eve). Here's where to stay, eat, and play in South Carolina's super chill surf town.

Every single room at The Tides Hotel comes with an ocean view. Perched at the end of Center Street, the town's main thoroughfare, the hotel is steps from both the beach and an array of local shops and eateries. For families looking to stretch out a bit more, there are a boatload of rentals to choose from: Opt for ocean-front properties that will sleep a crowd or cozy cottages with marsh and Folly River views. And for people who wouldn't dream of traveling without their four-legged companions, there are plenty of pet-friendly rentals too.

You won't go hungry on this island. Lost Dog Café is a local staple, serving coffee and all-day breakfast; don't miss the eggs Benedict, which they top with fried green tomatoes. Fish tacos, Vietnamese-inspired lettuce wraps, and Cuban sandwiches all have a place on the colorful menu at Chico Feo, where the vibe is equally colorful. Don't let the easygoing atmosphere fool you: Rita's Seaside Grille is serious about their food … and their cocktails. Try one of their Signature Crushes, fruity sippers with flavored liquors that pack a punch. End the night at Sand Dollar Social Club, a dive bar where you're invited to come as you are, so long as you're a member; membership costs $1, and bring your cash (you won't find a credit card machine here).

The island's six miles of beachfront are its main attraction, and it'd be easy to while away a week with no plans beyond putting your toes in the sand. But for those looking to build an action-packed itinerary, there are plenty of activities that highlight the destination's natural beauty: Book a guided kayak or standup paddleboard tour to explore the tidal creeks; stop by McKevlin's Surf Shop, South Carolina's oldest surfing outfitter, before catching some of the area's best waves at The Washout; and plan to make a return trip with your fishing poles to Folly in spring of 2023, when the beloved pier is set to reopen after extensive renovations.