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The City of Isle of Palms is holding the first of two public hearings to discuss limiting future development and protecting the golf courses in the Wild Dunes p

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Isle of Palms is holding the first of two public hearings to discuss limiting future development and protecting the golf courses in the Wild Dunes planned development district on Tuesday.

The discussion stemmed from a 1975 agreement that would make it possible for there to be over 300 more rooms built in the Wild Dunes between hotels and condos.

According to Mayor Phillip Pounds, it all started back in February when a group of residents asked the council to take a look at the decades-old agreement to see if they could make some changes. Anthony Santiago says he was one of those residents.

“We thought we were developed already after The Sweetgrass Inn,” Santiago said. “We don’t even have parking for that. And then through the due diligence we discovered the capacity to expand this more than double.”

Santiago and others who are against future development in Wild Dunes say that more development would overwhelm public safety and public works resources, cause more drainage and sewage issues, and make traffic and parking on the island more of a nightmare.

“Every city municipality has the right to rezone as you develop,” Santiago said. “This is almost fifty years ago when we did this. Nobody thought we’d be as big as we are.”

The Isle of Palms City Council now has five ordinances up for discussion that would preserve public and private facilities and put a cap on density in the planned development district.

Beverly Miller is the executive director of the Barrier Island Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit formed to address challenges unique to the barrier islands. She said she wanted to show support for the ordinances through a petition. It now has over 750 signatures.

“When that was written, this island was erratically different, and it’s so different now that we need to amend those zoning ordinances so that we are up to today and the demands that are on the island today that were not here in 1975,” Miller said.

Pounds said the Wild Dunes agreement was one of the first of its type in the country.

“Unusual maybe, but as areas get built out there’s certainly an opportunity for cities to revisit the zoning and the density and the future development,” Pounds said.

Pounds said the city has received many phone calls and emails from concerned residents worried how much the island could take. He says there’s confusion about the slow process, but he says with the public hearing, that will stop development even though they aren’t completely through the process.

“When you’re on an island where you have such little landmass to develop anything, the ability to put 300 plus units in Wild Dunes today, I don’t even know where they would put them because there’s not that kind of landmass,” Pounds said. “But some of the concern was, could they do something on the golf courses, could they do something on the tennis courts. That’s some of the ordinance that we’re looking at during this process is protecting those areas.”

Tuesday’s public hearing will take place at Isle of Palms city hall at 5 p.m. Another public hearing will take place Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. at the city’s recreation center. The city’s planning commission will take a look at the ordinances and give feedback to city council. Then, it will be up to city council to schedule a second reading which would solidify the ordinances.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

ISLE OF PALMS — Islanders here may have to learn to live with the resident coyotes as shooting the species is illegal on the island, and trapping is the only other option.

Officials don’t know exactly how many coyotes live on Isle of Palms, but most of them linger near the Wild Dunes area.

Twelve sightings were documented so far this year. And 59 were counted in 2022, according to Ryan Warren, an animal control officer on the island.

But the invasive predators have a presence in each of the state’s counties. The species is extremely adaptable and detrimental to deer, turkey and other native animals.

Between 20,000-25,000 coyotes are taken annually in the state.

Summertime is when Isle of Palms animal control officers get the most calls about coyote sightings. Visitors often report the coyotes because they don’t realize the animals are residents on the island, Warren said Feb. 22 at a meeting on how to deal with the animals.

“We’re definitely pushing for people to call more,” Warren said. “So maybe that might be why we have more sightings or maybe there’s more out there.”

The city tries to alert residents and visitors of the animals through its website and occasionally on Facebook. And Warren said they will consider adding signs in the area, too.

Coyote dens might be spotted in a number of locations.

In flat areas like Isle of Palms, it is common to see a den dug up under roots of a fallen tree, in brush areas and on the sides of banks, according to Jay Butfiloski, the furbearer coordinator for the state Department of Natural Resources.

The animals are also known to wander in the dunes on the beach here.

In 2021, a 2-year-old Boykin Spaniel was attacked by four coyotes in the sand dunes on Isle of Palms.

Also in 2021, a Mount Pleasant man said coyotes were to blame for the death of two of his cats in the fenced Sandpiper Point II neighborhood.

Missing or deceased pets are good indicators that coyotes could be nearby.

Officials believe the coyotes on Isle of Palms could be coming from Mount Pleasant and other areas.

The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway between Mount Pleasant and Isle of Palms is not a barrier for the animals, as they can easily cross it, Butfiloski said.

He recommends people do a number of things to protect themselves and their pets from coyotes.

First, people should keep pets on short leashes and don’t leave them unattended outside where coyotes are known to roam the area.

Habitat management can be considered as a control method, too, Butfiloski said.

Clearing out brush in areas that are highly traveled, like in parks and even yards, could prove beneficial. It will reduce the habitat for the small mammals that coyotes prey on and also prevent them from hiding.

The biggest issues with coyotes in developed areas is typically food and trash-related, though. People are encouraged not to leave food outdoors for feral cats, pets or other wild animals.

“That allows a free meal, it allows them (coyotes) to kind of get habituated to people, and that’s where things get to be a problem,” he said.

While more calls come in about coyote sightings on the Isle of Palms during tourist season, statewide coyote sightings are typically higher in the wintertime, partly due to vegetation, lost foliage and increased breeding activities and movements.

There tends to be a decrease in sightings in the summer when the animals are pup rearing.

“When the pups are young, they’re like kids. They don’t care if they’re very visible whenever a den is nearby,” Butfiloski said. “But it might not be an indicator (that) you’ve got a whole bunch more.”

No hunting license or permit is required in South Carolina for people to shoot coyotes on their property within 100 yards of the home. But local municipalities may have other regulations.

Night hunting is permitted on registered properties or with a depredation permit. Trapped coyotes may not be relocated.

Ever since the Isle of Palms incorporated in the 1950s, voters have elected eight at-large council members and a mayor. In the coming month, these city voters will decide if that’s two council members too many.

We don’t think it is. More specifically, we don’t see any big advantage that shrinking City Council would provide to residents, and we see a few disadvantages.

The idea of reducing council’s size has been batted around quietly for several years, Mayor Phillip Pounds tells us, partly because the city does seem to have a rather large council for its size, about 4,400 residents. Only about 4% of South Carolina municipalities have more than seven council seats, and most of them are much larger. For instance, Charleston, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant have 12, 10 and 8 council seats, respectively.

The debate has remained fairly quiet, even as the council added it to the Nov. 8 ballot, and with less than three weeks remaining before early voting starts, no one has offered a compelling reason to vote “yes.” The conservative approach to any referendum question is to maintain the status quo unless there’s a compelling reason to make a change.

The primary upside of shrinking the Isle of Palms council apparently is saving a little time for council members and staff. Not to knock efforts to improve efficiency, but that strikes us as pretty thin gruel. It’s true that voters still would have six council members representing them (all seats are at-large), but who’s to say that the seventh or eighth council member wouldn’t be the one who listens to particular voters’ concerns most closely — and does the best job representing them?

Because of the way the reduction is planned, if voters approve it in the referendum, the City Council would be a mess for two years. The slim-down would be phased in with voters electing just three rather than four seats in the 2023 city election and then doing the same thing in the 2025 election. That would leave the council with an even number of votes (including the mayor’s) for two years. That might make a big difference, delaying important action on an important issue. Or not. But why take the risk?

This issue seems to be important mainly inside City Hall. While Mayor Pounds tells us he supports the idea, he acknowledges that the average Isle of Palms resident seems to have little skin in this game: “I can’t imagine they would notice a blip if we have five council members or seven or nine.”

If City Council members believe the current city governance is inefficient, then perhaps they should come up with changes that don’t affect the voters’ ability to elect council members. And if council members believe the job requires too much work — about 10 hours of work a week, on average — for too little pay (council members make $1,500 a year, but do qualify for health insurance benefits), perhaps they should either reexamine their work schedule or step aside for someone else to serve.

The council’s relative size might make the job of its members more time-consuming, but that also might work to ensure that their consensus, once they arrive at one, will better stand the test of time.

The city is grappling with big decisions, from the future of its marina to possible adjustments in its short-term rental rules to the logistical headaches involved in managing summertime crowds. We’re unconvinced City Council would make better decisions with fewer council members.

Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings.

Isle of Palms City Council members will hear the first reading of a plan to temporarily block short-term rentals in a special meeting Tuesday afternoon.

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - The Isle of Palms City Council did not support a moratorium or pause on issuing new short-term rental licenses. The agenda item at a Dec. 6 special meeting garnered a lot of attention.

Many people spoke, both for and against the moratorium, at the meeting. One person presented a petition with more than 600 signatures she said was ‘mostly from residents’ against the pause. The property owner of Wild Dunes also spoke on behalf of some residents against the ordinance.

But Beverly Miller is one of many who said they wanted to see the moratorium pass. She has also owned a short-term rental on the island.

“Speaking for myself, I don’t want our city to be the last city who puts together any kind of restriction -- and I call it a restriction -- in order to find some balance between the residents and the short-term rental operators. Because having been on both sides, we’re not saying you don’t have any. You do want to accommodate the vacationers and the rental market. But you also need to find that quality of life for the residents,” Miller said.

Council member Blair Hahn voted against the moratorium.

“It appears to me that the issue is not so much short-term rentals as it is an explosion of traffic in noise and chaos on certain through freeways on our on our island. So if we can control that, I think we can control the concerns and the short-term rental issue will take care of itself,” Hahn said.

He said going forward the council will work hard to enforce speed limits, noise ordinances and other issues to protect the quality of life.

According to the council as of Dec. 5, 2022 there are 1678 licenses with 211 applications coming in since June.

Council member Jan Anderson says the more than 1600 licenses make up more than a third of the island. She voted in favor of the moratorium. “We don’t want to kill the rental market. We just want to manage it. We are now the only beach community in the Charleston area with an unlimited short-term rental opportunity.”

She goes on to say only 50 of the current short-term rental licenses are to residents. Council member Scott Peirce also expressed support for the moratorium as a short opportunity to evaluate the situation.

The council overall voted against the moratorium. For now, there won’t be a pause on issuing new licenses or a cap on how many are allowed.

City council asked staff members at its Nov. 15 regular meeting to prepare a 6-month moratorium for the council to consider at Tuesday afternoon’s meeting.

The agenda states the moratorium would “allow city council to evaluate the short-term rental regulations recommended by the planning commission.”

The document also says over the last few months the city received “several hundred new business license applications for short-term rentals which represents an exponentiation increase in applications.”

After Tuesday’s first reading, the moratorium must go through a public hearing and second reading before it could be ratified.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCBD) – Wild Dunes Resort on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Isle of Palms (IOP) for enacting ordinances which limit the resort’s development.

Five ordinances were passed in November which proponents said protected the city’s greenspaces. The ordinances amend stipulations of a Planned Residential Development (PRD) zoning district contract created in 1975 when the development of the resort began. It was previously amended in 2016 to reduce the number of units permitted.

The most recent changes were brought about amid fears that Wild Dunes was planning to build additional condos/hotels where current golf courses and recreation spaces exist. However, in a statement to News 2, a representative for the developer said “the developer did not propose to build on existing golf courses/green spaces.”

In a series of public meetings, residents expressed concern about the overpopulation that the additional development could bring as well as the damage it could cause to the environment.

Despite initial worries about how long the process could take, councilmembers acted quickly to pass the amendments, which Wild Dunes claims violated the city’s own protocol.

“The City failed to comply with the requisite procedure. As detailed above, the Planning Commission reviewed and recommended the Subject Ordinances on or around November 9, 2022, which was after the public hearings on the Subject Ordinances had already been held on October 18 and November 1, 2022. Thus, the City violated the procedural requirements of Section 5-4-39 of the City’s Code for amending PDD zoning districts.”

Likewise, Wild Dunes claims the city failed to meaningfully engage with stakeholders — despite a representative publicly appealing to council members at a November 15 meeting — and left them no option but to take legal action.

The lawsuit also argues that the city’s reasoning for passing the ordinances is misguided, stating that Wild Dunes has brought “measured and positive growth to the City for decades,” and would continue to do so with any new development.

It cites the many rehabilitation and renovation projects undertaken by Wild Dunes over the years — sometimes in partnership with the city — to improve the shoreline, golf courses, and other recreation facilities.

Regarding overpopulation, Wild Dunes noted that the existing PRD allowed for another 330 dwelling units and 53 inn units to be built, but Wild Dunes had no plans to build them all at once. Instead, developers said they would be “completed over time based upon real estate market conditions and other factors.” The lawsuit goes on to claim that individual rental properties bring far more traffic to the island, and that taking away property rights should not be used as a solution to regulate traffic.

Ultimately, the lawsuit claims that the ordinances prevent “economically viable and productive uses of [Wild Dunes’] property,” which effectively amounts to “the regulatory taking of [the] property.” Thus, according to the lawsuit, the city should compensate Wild Dunes for the land it took, or return the property rights to the owners.

News 2 has reached out to IOP for comment.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the developer.