A proposed ordinance outlines how a cap on the number of STVRs would be enforced in residential zones.
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Tybee’s [Island] moratorium on new short-term vacation rentals (STVR) will stretch through the summer.
The Tybee Island council voted Thursday to extend the city’s moratorium for an additional four months until the end of August. The extension would allow the city to further discuss a draft ordinance outlining new STVR regulations that was presented to council during the meeting.
STVRs, or properties advertised to visitors for 30 days or less on sites like AirBnB, has been a contentious topic in the city for years. Tybee Island has struggled to regulate the industry at the behest of long-time residents who fault vacation rentals and the tourism industry as a whole for diminishing a sense of community.
Opinion: Tybee’s neighborhoods have gone to the tourists. It’s not too late to address STVR issue
On the other side, STVR owners and Realtors push back on regulations they say infringe on property rights and claim the rentals bring vacationers and money into the city’s pockets.
Rentals: Short-term vacation rentals ‘hollowing out’ historic neighborhoods while driving up costs
Related reading :STVR’s impact on downtown? Rent for Drayton Tower 400-square-foot studio now $1,800 a month.
Last September, the city council ramped up efforts to curb STVRs and enacted a moratorium that bars property owners in residential zones from registering their dwellings as an STVR if they don’t already hold a permit. The temporary ban was meant to allow the city to assess the current number of STVRs on the island, their impact and how best to regulate their growth.
The city last estimated that about 37% of properties in residential neighborhoods and about 48% of properties on the entire island are registered as STVRs.
More: Tybee Island council delays vote on short-term vacation rental cap — but OKs limiting occupancy rate
Previously: Tybee council set to vote on significant short-term vacation rental regulations
The draft STVR ordinance presented before council calls for a cap — though the number is undetermined — on STVRs in residential zones and further outlines how the city would regulate existing vacation rental properties. The draft was a culmination of the ideas brought up in public workshops, forums and meetings with stakeholders that took place since last fall.
The ordinance would amend the current Land Development Code so that STVRs would not be allowed to operate in residential zones (R-1, R-1-B and R-2). Properties that already operate as an STVR would be “grandfathered in” but would be considered “nonconforming” to the land development code, reads the ordinance.
Those properties can continue to operate as an STVR as long as they maintain a permit and comply with regulations, which includes generating a certain amount of income from short-term rentals in a three-month period.
More: Thunderbolt passes its first short-term vacation rental ordinance and hotel/motel tax
A cap on the number of STVRs allowed in certain zoning districts was not yet established in the current draft. Council has previously discussed setting the cap in residential zones to the current number of STVRs, but residents criticized that their neighborhoods are already overrun with vacation rentals.
An exception to those regulations was outlined in a hardship clause, where longtime residents or families would be allowed to apply for an STVR permit in the event of financial hardship due to changed life circumstances, such as illness, disability, incapacity or death.
In past council meetings, property owners pointed out that being able to hold an STVR permit is a financial privilege as renting generates additional income. Some also argued that properties that already hold a permit have an advantage on the real estate market.
Tybee resident Cyndi Clements spoke before council about how the number of vacation rentals on her street has doubled in the last six years.
“Every house that my lot touches are STVRs,” Clements said.
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At 37 percent of units in residential neighborhoods, the STVR problem on Tybee Island is already WAY out control.
God help Orcas Island if we ever get even close to that number. The case for a cap on permits is obvious.
This is really sad but of course, protecting their locals and the place itself is Tybee Island’s main concern of course. It’s just that the place is really beautiful and ideal for a vacation destination that accommodations there will naturally be in demand! I found out about the place years back from https://visittybee.com/vacation-rentals and was really captivated with what I ‘ve seen on their site! I just make sure to visit and schedule my vacations from work on dates that are off-peak season.
We are our own worst enemies.
Tybee Island does not suffer from over-tourism because, “It’s just that the place is really beautiful and ideal for a vacation destination that accommodations there will naturally be in demand.” No, like the San Juans, Tybee Island suffers from over-tourism because their elected leaders have chosen tourism as their main economic engine, and, like the San Juans, that tourism model has been poorly managed, and at the same time, over-promoted by a well-funded visitors center.
I appreciate your having posted this article. After having read the article, and viewing the Tybee Island Visitors Center website that you provided, and knowing that the residents of Tybee Island suffer from the same tourism overload during peak season as we do, and that their visitors center (like the San Juans) is targeting their buffer seasons… this tells me that unless I want to be a part of their problem that this is not where I would want to go on vacation.
Tybee Island doesn’t have a VR problem. Like the San Juans, they they have an over-tourism problem, and the lack of political will to do face it head on.