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SEABROOK ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - An ongoing battle over short-term rentals is brewing on Seabrook Island, where homeowners say uncontrolled growth of properties is affecting their quality of life.

Homeowners Ted Flerlage and Paul McLaughlin said although they do not want to end short-term rentals on the island, the effects of recent growth have prompted them to call for a cap on short-term rentals.

“If you come here in July, around July Fourth, as a resident walking out boardwalk one, let’s say, to north beach, there’s no space, and that is a rental issue,” Flerlage, who has lived on the island since March 2020, said. “That is a noise issue. It is a parking issue because every spot on the limited parking area is taken.”

The two homeowners have spearheaded the Preserve Seabrook effort. A letter sent to residents as part of the effort says concerns “center on the uncontrolled growth of short-term rentals, especially on streets where there are many full-time and private residential properties.”

“We aim to retain a reasonable offering of properties that can be rented by guests who love to visit and vacation on our beautiful island, while ensuring Seabrook does not gradually morph into a resort community,” the letter states. “We believe adding a cap on the number of resort properties on Seabrook would protect the unique qualities of our island while allowing revenue generated through rental properties to continue to flow back to the town through state and county accommodation taxes that the renters pay.”

Over 300 residents have signed a petition to cap the number of short-term rentals on the island, according to McLaughlin.

The petition seeks a single question on the Nov. 2, 2021 ballot that asks if voters support:

“Seabrook, when I bought here in 2002 and built our house here in 2009, it was more like ‘Cheers,’” McLaughlin said. “Everybody knew your name. Now, with the influx of 500 rental properties and growing, it’s changed a lot, and the quality of life on the island has changed a lot.”

Seabrook Island Mayor John Gregg said a petition from those calling for a cap has been sent to a committee, which will conduct a factual inquiry and then report to town council with recommendations.

“The object for the ad hoc committee was to identify inquiries of factual matters that could inform council as it considers whether or not it is warranted to do further regulation,” Gregg said.

The mayor added that to operate a short-term rental on the island, homeowners need to have a business license and a permit from the town.

McLaughlin and Flerlage said they welcome the data-driven effort but want more communication from the town and to work with them on a solution.

“Our question to them: What is the tipping point? If 500 isn’t the tipping point, is it 600? Is it 700? Is it 800? So, in the meantime, we need to figure it out,” McLaughlin said. “We need to halt what’s going on. Everybody keeps what they currently have, and we study the problem, and we figure out what the solution would be. We don’t make the problem worse while continuing to study it.”

“These are people who live in South Carolina and vote in South Carolina who live on the island and vote on the island,” Flerlage said. “These are the people who are their direct constituents – the people who vote for the mayor and the town council. It’s more than 300 of those people who signed up, which is nearly as many as who voted for them in the last election on Nov. 2, and in our opinion, there has been no communication and we’ve been getting fairly short-tripped on the issue.”

Copyright 2021 WCSC. All rights reserved.

SEABROOK ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Seabrook Island neighbors are petitioning their leaders to cap the number of short-term rentals, stating there is overcrowding due to what they called over-tourism, but the mayor said the town has no plans to do so.

Seabrook Island homeowner Ted Flerlage says over 700 of his neighbors want to cap the number of short-term rentals on the island.

“What we’re trying to do is cap, not end the process of short-term rentals, cap at roughly the present numbers, evaluate what happens after that,” Flerlage said, “and then, determine whether or not we should lower the number of short-term rentals.”

As of June 19, there are 484 of these properties on the island, which residents said has led to overcrowding on the island’s streets and amenities.

Mayor John Gregg said for this year, data gathered over the past few months suggest otherwise.

“We’re not going to be looking at imposing limitations on the number of short-term rental units,” Gregg said.

Coastal Getaways owner Nancy Buck said more people are starting to call the island home, and good rentals are full for around 40% of the year.

She says all of her clients are property owners who rent to help offset the costs of the amenities, taxes and insurance.

“We’ve also gone from 35% permanent residents to 60% residents in the last two years,” Buck said. “Twenty-five percent of the properties have turned over since 2019.”

Buck also adds the majority of the amenities are mostly used by members and not rental guests.

However, the homeowners want the town’s government to hear them out.

“I’d like him to reconsider,” Flerlage said. “I’d like him to look at the reality and listen to the people who are property owners here, the residents on the island. You know, 700 people is a big number.”

“Let’s wait and see how this year goes,” Buck said. “They instituted the short-term rental ordinance couple of years ago, or actually, last year, so let’s give it a full year to see how it goes.”

Both Buck and the homeowners said they want to work out their differences over the next several months to come up with a solution that works for everyone.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

A mystery came out of the ocean on South Carolina’s Seabrook Island, and authorities haven’t yet identified what some are calling “space junk.”

The Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network was the first to notice, posting a photo on Facebook of a “mysterious object that washed ashore” on Thursday. The island is about 24 miles south of Charleston.

The object is big, taller than a woman standing nearby, and it’s cylindrical.

It also looks like it’s made of concrete, but Marine Mammal network officials say that’s deceiving. Touch it and it feels like “a soft foam,” said the network, adding that it was quickly whisked away by town officials.

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October 12, 2017 10:12 AM

The Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network asked for help identifying the object and the Kiawah Conservancy shared the plea on its Facebook page. Dozens of people have responded with guesses ranging from parts of an alien craft to refuse from a “government munition dumping site” in the Atlantic.

“I saw it this morning on my walk,” posted Jennifer Passantino on the Kiawah Conservancy Facebook page. “I assume it was a buoy, but could also be the remains of an alien spaceship.”

The most popular assumption is that the object is part of a NASA rocket, shuttle or “re-entry capsule.”

“Part of the space shuttle Challenger that blew up about thirty years ago. Looks like a rocket nozzle to me,” wrote Jim Elrod on the Mammal Network Facebook page. “Notice the different insulating materials. Take a sample of the insulating material and try to burn it to see if it melts.”

“You may want to contact NASA,” said Barry Dearborn in a Facebook post. “This could be part of the space shuttle Challenger’s External Tank.”

Todd Mason disagreed, noting any part of the shuttle would by now be “covered in marine life.”

“This is either newly introduced to the ocean or was buried deep prior to being dislodged,” Mason said.

In June, the Charlotte Observer reported a similar mystery object -- made of metal -- washed ashore at Corolla. Its use and origin were never reported.

This story was originally published October 5, 2018, 1:44 PM.

A new retail destination with a larger Harris Teeter supermarket to serve residents of Kiawah, Seabrook and Johns islands is one step closer to becoming a reality.

The Charleston County Planning Commission voted 7-1 on Aug. 14 to recommend a land-use change from low-density residential to a planned development district for about 50 acres in the Andell West tract next to the Freshfields Village Shopping Center.

The proposal failed to move forward last October when the panel deadlocked 4-4 after questions were raised about the connectivity to Freshfields, the placement of the connections and the architectural blending of the new retail site with businesses in the neighboring center.

Freshfields is owned by Columbia-based Edens. It paid nearly $125 million for the property last year.

The new plan for the project off Kiawah Island Parkway clarifies the points of connection between the two retail sites, puts a 100-foot vegetated buffer between the road and the development and sets aside 20 percent of the land as open space.

Plans call for the existing Harris Teeter supermarket at Freshfields to move to the new location in a larger building of up to 65,000 square feet, according to Chris Corrada, a principal with the development firm Riverstone Properties LLC of Richmond, Va., which owns the 50-acre parcel.

The first of a cartload of new supermarkets coming to the Charleston area soon will open.

North Carolina-based Harris Teeter plans to host its grand opening at 8 a.m. April 17 on Nexton Parkway at Brighton Park Boulevard near Summerville, according to spokeswoman Danna Robinson.

The first full day of business will follow a “Taste of Teeter” preview of the 64,000-square-foot grocery store from 4-7 p.m. April 16. Participants can sample products, and registers will be open for those looking to shop during the preliminary event.

The new store also includes a fuel station. Plans also call for outparcel buildings on the 14-acre site. Harris Teeter, a subsidiary of The Kroger Co. of Cincinnati, bought the property in 2016 for $4.76 million, according to Berkeley County land records.

Across the street, Florida-based Publix is under construction and is expected to open the 48,000-square-foot store by mid-year, according to Nexton spokeswoman Cassie Cataline. The supermarket will anchor One Nexton, a new retail development with a mix of tenants.

The competing Berkeley County grocery stores are coming to the 5,000-acre unincorporated Nexton community where 7,500 residences will exist at full buildout in about 15 years, bringing 18,750 people to the Charleston suburbs. That’s more than the current population of Moncks Corner.

As of early February, the master-planned community had 3,000 single-family houses and townhomes sold and under construction and 1,860 apartments completed, according to Cataline.

More homes are coming to the area in a separate development southwest of Nexton. About 700 housing units are planned on part of a 1,000-acre tract near Nexton Parkway and Drop Off Drive near Interstate 26. Summerville annexed the large swath of land west of Sheep Island Road in 2020. Most of Nexton is not in the town of Summerville.

A Mount Pleasant-based publisher of local and regional history books that last branched out to New England is adding the Midwest to its geographic portfolio.

Arcadia Publishing announced Feb. 8 that it has acquired Belt Publishing, which is headquartered in Ohio.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Arcadia described the new addition to its literary lineup as “an independent press known for its commitment to publishing diverse voices and stories from the Rust Belt,” including “serious nonfiction on any topic” and “smart narrative” accounts.

Arcadia CEO Brittain Phillips said the deal delivers “two terrific opportunities in one acquisition.”

“It strengthens our local and regional catalog in the Midwest, where Belt has been publishing remarkable books for a decade,” he said in a written statement. “And as we look to the future, Belt helps to expand the way we think about local-interest publishing, with new voices and fresh ways to define sense of place.”

Belt was started in 2013 by former English professor Anne Trubek. She said that “while it has been fun to own and run a small business,” it also could be “overwhelming and stressful.”

Belt has released such titles as “What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia” and “The Last Children of Mill Creek.” It will continue to operate under its current name with Trubek staying on as publisher “while benefiting from Arcadia’s unique sales and marketing model for local and regional content,” according to the prepared statement.

Trubek said the Wingo Way company “has long been the model for local-interest publishing and served as the inspiration for Belt.”

“We will be able to continue with our editorial program and expand into new areas, together. ... How tremendous,” she said.

Aracadia was founded in 1994 and has amassed a catalog of more than 20,000 titles that focus on “hyper-local” history and culture. Many of the books are loaded with vintage photographs and include distinct sepia images on the covers.

Less than a month after the state’s health department issued a sweeping letter to food and beverage makers warning against advertising THC, High Rise Beverage Co. announced it will pause its distribution of hemp seltzers.

The Charleston-based brand made the announcement Feb. 7. The decision comes as the company plans to launch a hemp and THC-free line of adaptogen seltzers in March.

The “Blackout Edition” is a response to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Jan. 22 letter to the hemp industry declaring that product labels for hemp-infused food and drink shouldn’t declare that they contain THC, CBD or Delta-9 — though all of them naturally occur in hemp oil.

High Rise said in a statement that 10 cents from every can sold from the “Blackout Edition” will go toward advocacy for hemp laws and educational initiatives in the field.

Matt Skinner, co-founder of High Rise, told The Post and Courier that the company’s cannabis dry bar will also be going cannabinoid-free.

The nonalcoholic movement is big enough to support the dry bar without THC, Skinner said. And at this point, he feels like High Rise is a brand beyond its THC products.

High Rise isn’t the only business pulling back from distributing hemp products in South Carolina.

In response to a raid on his hemp shop, delayed justice and a lack of clarity about what is and isn’t legal, Michael Sims is planning to close Crowntown Cannabis, his only South Carolina location.

SEABROOK ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - A Seabrook Island family is raising the alarm after a rental golf cart ignited in their driveway, catching their home on fire.

Specifically, the vehicle was an eco-friendly Low Speed Vehicle; an LSV cart runs on electric battery power.

Anne and Daniel Arnold have visited Seabrook Island for 15 years.

“It means everything to us. We love how natural it is, all the wildlife, the beach isn’t crowded,” Anne said. “It’s just a beautiful, special place and we feel very blessed being able to spend time here.”

The family lives in Maryland but bought a house on Seabrook to use for vacation and rental income.

In July, it was one of their rental guests who called in a panic.

“She sounded extremely alarmed and upset. She said, ‘Anne! Your house is on fire! Your house is on fire!’ And I said, ‘What?!’”

Thankfully, Daniel was in town and visiting friends just down the road. He rushed over.

“The entire end of the house appeared to be completely on fire. The St. John’s Fire District was already here and had put the fire out by the time I arrived.”

Everyone got out safely, but in those few moments there was more than $50,000 worth of damage to the Arnolds’ home and another $6,000 in damage to the renter’s van that was parked in the driveway.

The focus of the investigation quickly turned to the charred remains of an LSV parked next to the garage.

Anne explained, “Earlier in the evening, a couple had been driving past the house. They had rented a Lightning Bugz LSV cart, and it ran out of charge. So they asked the rental guests if they could charge it here at our house, go to dinner, come back, pick it up later. Our rental guests thought they were being kind when they said, ‘Absolutely, sure.’”

The plug they used was apparently an extension cord, and pictures show it had no third prong grounding the electricity.

“It was basically modified 50-foot extension cord spliced onto the cart,” Daniel said. “Not the cord that was designed for that cart. It was not the manufacturer’s cord.”

The damage was so bad, the St. John’s fire Department says they can’t nail down an exact cause of the fire.

But they did determine the origin was the LSV cart.

Seabrook’s town Council met last month to hear an update on the fire. The investigation revealed the fire was “related to the charging process.”

Shortly after the fire, the Arnolds took a picture of another cart charging with an extension cord at the Seabrook amenity office.

“We were all blissfully ignorant of the risk. But now we’re not,” Anne said. “Will we get through this fire? Yeah. Nobody was hurt. We’ll get our house fixed. But we are really concerned about our neighbors, our community, and the Charleston community as a whole. Because these carts are all over the metro.”

The cart was from a company called Lightning Bugz, which rents LSV carts and golf carts at all of our local beaches.

The owner of Lightning Bugz, Mark Thorn, tells us they’ve been business nine years and have more than 5,000 weekly rentals.

Thorn said the company has never had another incident like this and that it was “definitely isolated.”

We asked if the company was making any safety changes.

Thorn said investigators probably won't have a definitive answer on the cause of the fire, but that they have been taking “preventive measures on components that make sense.”

“The biggest thing we have done has been replacing batteries to AGM which apparently do not give off any flammable fumes,” Thorn said. “We have also been checking power cords, battery cables and any other cable in between chargers and batteries. There are so many different variables when it comes to anything with electricity, but we are taking it very seriously and doing everything we can to prevent any future incidences as well!”

The Arnolds told us they are very concerned the Seabrook Island Property Owners Association rules and regulations recommend such carts are charged in garages or under buildings.

Page 18-19 of the handbook states, “Whenever possible, Neighborhood Electric Vehicles must be parked in a garage, carport or under a condo or villa during charging.”

Anne strongly disagrees. “I feel that in light of what we all know now, that could be potentially catastrophic. If that cart had been charging in our garage overnight, and the fire had started when everyone was asleep, that could have been a catastrophic loss of life, let alone property.”

They are also disappointed because they say SIPOA has not yet sent a notice or warning to property owners about the fire and how it could be prevented.

“If we found out somebody had an incident more serious than ours, if we had not spoken up we’d have to live with that,” Anne said.

St. John’s Fire District Chief Colleen Walz said it is her understanding that the manufacturer of this specific model of LSV is no longer in business.

“Battery chargers are not universal. So double check the manufacturers recommendations, there is no exception to this,” she told us. “Electric carts should only be charged outdoors, or in a very well-ventilated area. Companies that rent LSV’s should be sure and review safety measures for the safe operation of the cart…to include charging.”

The Town of Seabrook addressed the fire and posted the following list of suggestions online for safe charging:

Chief Walz added, “Often, new cart owners are not aware that their LSV or Electric cart may have lead acid batteries and the water-electrolyte level must be monitored. When these type batteries become dry, they can explode.”

Newer model chargers may have a “cut off” safety feature, she said, but you can not rely on that for every LSV cart.

Lastly, the Arnolds have concerns about how much insurance that companies, like the golf cart business, are required to have on Seabrook.

They said it’s not enough to cover the full cost of their home’s damage.

Their insurance companies are working out that issue. The Arnolds say they brought that concern to the Mayor’s attention.

The number one piece of advice: You should only ever use the manufacturer’s charging cord that comes with a golf cart or any electric vehicle.

Copyright 2019 WCSC. All rights reserved.