My mission is to prevent the further intrusion of STRs (Short Term Rentals) into residential areas. What is my plan?
First, we must protect the current ordinance. There are current council members and council candidates who favor repealing it. If repealed, it would open the floodgates and drown us in a sea of mini-Holiday Inns and eventually overwhelm our residential communities with STRs.
Second, we must pursue options to accelerate the return of STRs to homes through attrition. Currently, an STR license continues with the land, owner after owner, until the owner stops operating an STR. This needs to be changed so that the license expires with the transfer of the property to a new owner.
Short term rentals should never have been allowed in residential neighborhoods. A review of the descriptions of the residential districts in Tybee’s land development code describes residential land uses as, “Quiet, livable, low-density single-family neighborhoods,” “The character of development in these areas is oriented for permanent residents,” and “Commercial and industrial uses are incompatible.” Frankly, this was Tybee in the mid 90’s when we settled here, and it remained so for about 20 years.
When the influx of STRs began, it seemed innocuous, but then we began to see STRs overwhelm neighborhoods. Now, in our residential neighborhoods, every third residence is a registered STR with over 700 registered STRs. Enough is enough. There are about 1,200 housing units in our commercially zoned districts and about 2/3 of these are registered STRs. This is where our transient housing belongs. My plan would not affect them.
There are problems associated with the high percentage of transient, non-owner occupancy such as noise and lack of on-site supervision. The bigger threat, however, is the loss of the community which defines us. We need to ensure that long term residents do not become the minority.
Long term residents volunteer for and support the innumerable community programs which unite us – the Post Theater, American Legion, Shrine Club, TIMA, the Y and all its youth sports and classes, Tybee Arts Association, the Pantry, Pirates’ Fest, the St. Patrick’s parade. Who would want to open a dental practice, a vet office or a car repair shop where the clientele is dependent on a declining residential client base? In a landscape of merely beach homes for tourists, we would end up pretty much with only restaurants, gift shops and bars. In a future where STRs outnumber owner-occupied homes, who is going to form the community base to support the programs that make Tybee a joy?
Tybee finally recognized that STRs are incompatible with residential neighborhoods and stopped allowing most new STR registrations last year. We need to build on that progress.
