|
Moratorium shuts down construction on Folly
By Shannon Cavanaugh
Contributing Writer
This spring, the sound of hammers and demolition crews on Folly Beach has been silenced.
Taking what some consider a drastic move, the Folly Beach City Council in January put a moratorium into effect to stop construction on all single-family homes, multi-family homes and commercial buildings, as well as the destruction of any building, until July 1.
“The problem here is that God didn’t produce any more dirt. We’re all we can be here on Folly,” said Mayor Carl Beckmann. “The last 10 years, it’s been a mess here on Folly Beach. You can’t fix a zoning or land-use problem unless you look at all of them at the same time, because they impact everything else. This moratorium makes everything stop.”
That includes real estate. Danny Rhodes, an agent with Prudential Carolina Real Estate’s Folly Beach office, said it is costing real estate agents their business and homeowners their dreams. A client from New York backed out of a $750,000 purchase the day after reading about the moratorium.
“This moratorium is scaring developers and anyone looking to buy on Folly Beach. I have tried to look at the positive side of this moratorium, but I don’t see the positive side,” said Rhodes, who lives on Folly Beach. “They say they want to keep the integrity of Folly Beach, but it seems to me they are trying to limit growth.”
Last year, the number of single-family homes built on Folly Beach more than doubled, from 24 to 50, and contractors built 150 new condominiums, with 50 more working their way through the approval process.
Before the moratorium started, contractors managed to vest 43 building plans, including two by Folly resident and building contractor Gary Brown, who said he opposes including “residential-one zoning” in the moratorium.
“I’ve got plenty of work to get through the moratorium. It’s not about affecting my pocket book, but taking people’s land. I argued against R-1 being included in the moratorium,” said Brown, who is a member of the design and review board for the city of Folly Beach. “R-1 hurts people. I know people who have two lots for sale, and this is creating a hardship for them. No one will buy the lots because of the moratorium.”
One of Brown’s clients backed out of a deal because he didn’t want to buy property and pay interest on $475,000 for six months while not knowing what new building ordinances the city would enforce.
Brown said Folly Beach won’t feel the full impact of the moratorium until this summer, but some city officials see the upfront loss as a small price to pay for sorting out conflicting ordinances and interests.
“It’s a constant knee-jerk reaction out here. From April last year until January this year, the council passed 16 land-use ordinances. This moratorium will give us some breathing room to get our act together,” said Aaron Pope, Folly Beach’s zoning administrator.
“It’s frustrating when it changes from month to month. You can’t rely on anything. We don’t need a Band-Aid put over the problem; we need to get land-use ordinances away from being a political football by taking it away from city council, which constantly dips its fingers into it.”
The city has hired Clarion and Associates, of Chapel Hill, N.C., to review all ordinances. The consulting firm spent a week at Folly Beach in February and seeks to gather input from city officials and the public over the next several months.
The firm plans at look into issues affecting the barrier island and its citizens and formulate a plan with the whole community in mind. The changes ahead are uncertain but anything is possible, said Beckmann.
Meanwhile, much of the debate plays out on the streets of Folly. At Rose Hardware, the moratorium is the talk of the town, especially among construction workers and owner Linda Rutledge.
“Building houses smack up to the beach line, I don’t think that’s right,” said Scott Dorsey, who builds homes off the island. “It ruins the ‘beachy’ feel. But then everybody’s got to make a dollar and it’s all about money.”
At first, Rutledge opposed the moratorium, but later changed her mind, she said. Her business is not suffering as she thought it would.
“When I first heard about it, I was dead set against the moratorium. I’d heard so much negative talk about it,” said Rutledge. “I am in the business and I was concerned how it might affect me financially and other businesses. Contractors support not only me, but the rest of the businesses. But now I’m hearing a lot more in favor of it, and their intent for the moratorium is good.”
The biggest question for Folly’s 2,100 citizens, and the outside consulting firm the city has hired, is what part of Folly the city wants to keep as its image.
Right now, the mayor estimates that 64% of the homes on the island are rental properties owned by people who don’t live on the island.
For some residents, the island is still the “small fishing village with a drinking problem,” as one local called it, that existed in the laid-back days before Hurricane Hugo ravaged it in 1989. Others residents say it has changed so much they don’t know what Folly really is any more.
“I’ve asked people what part they want (Folly to be) and I get 10 different answers. To me, keeping Folly ‘Folly’ is retaining the small-town flavor and not having rentals overshadow the people who live here,” said Beckmann.
“We want to keep the houses in the style and nature of a small town, not the rental capital of the world. We want to maintain our quality of life, and it’s being threatened by the high-rise.”
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version