The future of short-term rentals is becoming a controversy on Daufuskie Island

Some Daufuskie Island residents are feeling frustrated after the Daufuskie Island Council voted down code amendments that would have allowed short-term rentals on the island again after a change in Beaufort County’s codes last year put them on hold.

Short-term rentals, like Airbnbs and other vacation homes, were unable to operate starting in November of last year when the county told owners they needed licenses. People started applying for licenses, but were denied because there were no regulations for short-term rentals in the Daufuskie Island Code.

As an unincorporated part of Beaufort County, Daufuskie Island must follow Beaufort County codes and ordinances, but unlike other unincorporated areas, Daufuskie also has its own set of codes. Those codes have to work in conjunction with Beaufort County’s codes and are voted on by the Daufuskie Island Council, then the County Council.

Code amendments, which detailed how the rentals were to be operated on the island, were sent to the Island Council during its Sept. 20 meeting. The council voted down the amendments 4-3, leaving some residents frustrated and believing the council will unfairly restrict short-term rentals.

The code changes will only affect the historic district on Daufuskie, because rentals in private communities like Haig Point or Melrose are subject to the community’s rules, not the island’s.

“They’re [the Island Council] going to restrict those short-term rentals for the historic district, which basically cuts us out of the economic prosperity that’s happening with the short-term rental market,” said Steward Yarborough, a resident of the island. “The people outside the resorts, which are less affluent and you know, not as rich as the people inside the resort, they’re going to be cut out of the prosperity.”

Yarborough owns three businesses on the island as well as operating a short-term rental, which he sees as the “lifeblood” of the island. In the spring, Yarborough created the Daufuskie Alliance for Responsible Rentals, or DARR, when he got wind that the council may be looking to restrict the rentals. The group has grown to around 100 members, according to Yarborough.

About 550 people live on the island, according to the 2020 census, so 100 people isn’t a small group.

“Nothing like that has ever happened on Daufuskie,” said Yarborough. “And they’ve just disregarded it because of their own personal opinions.”

Eventually Yarborough became a member of the Daufuskie Island Codes Committee, as a representative of DARR, while they worked to create the short-term rental codes for the island. Through what Yarborough calls “tense and sometimes frustrating” negotiations, a compromise was eventually reached in the codes committee.

The council, however, felt that the report from the codes committee was inferior on “a few minor details.” Roger Pickney, the council chair, said the report was nine-tenths “perfect,” only taking issue with a lack of citizen input in the application process and there being no limit on how many rentals one person can own.

“I don’t think anybody here is against short-term rentals,” Pickney said. “We’re trying to balance the commercial health of the community with what people come to Daufuskie for, which is the quiet and the beauty. And that’s difficult.”

Some residents felt that during the process of deciding the future of short-term rentals on the island, the council wasn’t transparent because it didn’t post when the codes committee was meeting or allow public comment during Island Council Meetings. Originally, the code committee meetings weren’t public but the results were. The code committee meetings were made public after residents became upset.

Pickney lives in the Historic District himself and says that two-thirds of the houses in his neighborhood are in the rental pool. About 25% of all homes in the Historic District are short-term rentals, according to a survey conducted by the Island Council.

“The idea of unlimited short-term rentals in a National Historic Preservation District, which we are, could be detrimental,” said Pickney.

However, the people who rent in the Historic District aren’t just tourists, according to operators of the rentals. Glenda Roberts owns multiple Airbnb properties across the country, with one being in the Historic District.

Roberts’ rental has often been rented out by families of residents, families building homes on the island, musicians, maintenance workers for Haig Point’s generators and recently, a film crew from the African American Museum in DC, who were in the area to record Gullah culture for the museum.

Chase Allen, the owner of Iron Fish Art Gallery on the island, also operates an Airbnb in the Historic District having about 300 guests in four years. Of those 300 guests, not one has ever been a problem, according to Allen, who says he vets guests thoroughly.

Members of DARR take issue with citizen input being part of the process for short-term rental license applications, fearing that it will pit neighbors against each other.

“There’s a limited amount of people here to be social with and if you’re turning neighbor against neighbor, then it’s going to drastically affect the social structure on Daufuskie,” said Yarborough.

The council will reconsider the code changes at its next meeting, on Oct. 2. According to Pickney, it will modify the report until a majority vote is reached. Then the codes will be sent to the Beaufort County Council, for its vote.