Roofer in Folly Beach, SC

FOLLY BEACH — City leaders will decide Aug. 19 whether they will appeal a recent ruling that struck down the island’s short-term rental cap.

A special-called meeting is set for 2 p.m. at Folly Beach City Hall on 25 Center St. and the cap is the focus of the agenda.

The meeting comes on the heels of an Aug. 14 ruling from Circuit Judge Thomas J. Rode that said the cap on the number of investor short-term rental permits available, as well as a related permit fee, were illegally adopted under South Carolina law.

Investor short-term rentals are operated by owners who do not claim a home as their primary residence or occupy the home full time.

City council will immediately go into executive session at the start of the meeting to receive legal advice on the status of the rental ordinance and the recent ruling. After council comes out of the closed-door portion of the meeting, members will discuss two items: a resolution to appeal the ruling and a temporary pause on issuing new rental permits pending a third-party study on the cap.

“Adverse rulings against the city have been issued,” the resolution states. “These rulings hold that the cap ordinance is invalid because it imposed a tax by referendum and that the city’s rental registration fee is an invalid tax.”

The resolution says that city council wants to preserve the myriad amendments made to the ordinance since it was adopted through a citizen’s referendum in 2023, such as carving out exceptions for medical hardships and establishing a two-tiered waitlist. Folly Beach also requires short-term rental operators to pay a separate rental registration fee, based on the revenue generated from the property. Rode called the permit fee an “improper tax disguised as a fee.”

If city council chooses to appeal, the cap will stay in place until the appeal works its way through the court system. If council chooses not to appeal, the cap will expire after midnight on Aug. 24.

City Administrator Aaron Pope said the short-term rental issue has remained one of the most-followed and debated topics on Folly Beach and “has been for several years.”

The special-called meeting and vote on an appeal is the “most transparent way of communicating Council’s individual and group decisions to the public,” Pope said.

City council will also vote on a proposed moratorium for new short-term rental permits until an ongoing study on the rental cap is complete. Folly Beach plans to hire an external firm to review the rental ordinance and make any changes based on that firm’s recommendations this fall or winter.

If adopted, the moratorium would stop any new licenses from being issued until the completion of that study, with some exceptions. Exempted from the moratorium would be permits gained through inheritance or for a medical hardship, provisional licenses and renewals of existing permits.

Ainsley Tillman, a local attorney who represents the plaintiffs in the case, said a moratorium shouldn’t be used to “circumvent” the courts.

“The court has ruled that the cap was void from the outset and that applicants—including those on the waitlist—are entitled to licenses. Especially for those who followed the City's license application process, it seems unfair to enact this moratorium, now,” Tillman said.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) — Folly Beach is taking a new approach to protecting its marshes from erosion as the city prepares to install its first model living shoreline Friday at Folly River Park.

The project will use natural materials to create a more protected edge between the Folly River and the marsh, while giving residents a chance to see how a similar approach could work along their waterfront property.

The living shoreline is part of the city’s broader effort to prepare for rising sea levels. The project has been in the works since 2024 and is included in the Folly Beach 2050 plan, which outlines long-term strategies for building resilience.

Folly River Park was selected partially because of the conditions along the shoreline. The park sits next to the Folly River, where tidal movement and boat traffic create significant wave energy along the marsh edge.

Kim Morganello, ecological design leader with Weston and Sampson, says the living shoreline will help buffer that energy.

“The Folly River has a lot of energy as the tide comes and goes, and there’s also a lot of boat traffic with the boat ramp right next to the park,” Morganello says. “This living shoreline is going to create a more protected edge between the Folly River and the marsh.”

The installation is a partnership between the City of Folly Beach, Weston & Sampson and Shoreline Restoration Group. Crews will use three approaches: oyster castles, bagged oyster shells and manufactured wire reefs.

The shoreline is designed to reduce erosion, soften wave energy, improve water quality and provide habitat for fish, shellfish and shorebirds.

Oysters will play a major role in the project. Morganello says the shellfish can help stabilize the shoreline while also creating habitat and filtering water.

“Oysters should really be the Lowcountry mascot,” Morganello says. “They’re heavy lifters, creating habitat for fish and other aquatic species, stabilizing the shoreline, protecting the marsh from boat wake and wave energy, cleaning the water and helping promote good water quality.”

Living shorelines have been used in South Carolina for nearly two decades, but a regulatory pathway established in 2022 opened the door for residents to install them alongside private property.

Morganello says the Folly Beach project is intended to serve as a model for homeowners interested in using the same approach.

“We’re creating a model for that,” Morganello says. “If you’re a resident who wants to help stabilize your salt marsh or shoreline, you can now have a living shoreline installed through this regulatory process.”

For homeowners, the motivation can be as simple as watching a marsh edge slowly disappear.

“If somebody lives along the salt marsh or lives along a tidal creek and they’re starting to see that marsh edge erosion, a lot of times it looks sort of like shelving off, like the salt marsh is starting to fall into the tidal creek,” Morganello says. “Eventually that could lead into upland erosion, which, of course, as a property owner, is scary. So, if we can protect that marsh edge, we can help protect our upland edge.”

The project is also designed to change over time. As oysters attach to the materials and grow, the structures could eventually become part of a natural oyster reef.

“One of the benefits of living shorelines, like many other nature-based solutions, is that they only get better with time,” Morganello says. “We’ll start capturing baby oysters almost immediately, and by next summer we should have adult oysters growing. Eventually, you might not even be able to see the living shoreline materials we put down. You’ll just see an oyster reef.”

The timing of Friday’s installation is intentional. Crews need low tide to access the exposed marsh and place the materials. It’s also late enough in the season that oyster spat, or baby oysters, are still present in the water and can begin attaching to the new structures before winter.

The public is invited to participate or observe the installation from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. Morganello says the event will have a drop-in format, and visitors can watch from a dock that extends beyond the living shoreline.

Those who want to help with the installation will meet at the Folly Boat Ramp and be guided under the Folly River Bridge to the project site.

The city hopes the model will not only strengthen the shoreline at Folly River Park but also give homeowners a deeper understanding of how nature-based shoreline protection could work on private property.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The Charleston area should expect periods of heavy rain, coastal flooding, isolated tornadoes, and dangerous beach and marine conditions as Hurricane Isaias moves inland along the Gulf Coast this weekend.

While Isaias is forecast to make landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane Friday night, its impacts will extend well east of the storm’s center. Forecasters say deep tropical moisture associated with the system will spread across southeast Georgia and South Carolina through the weekend.

The National Weather Service in Charleston expects widespread rainfall to develop Friday night and continue into Saturday, with the heaviest rain falling across coastal communities.

Forecasters are calling for 3 to 5 inches of rain across the Charleston tri-county area, with 1 to 3 inches expected elsewhere. The greatest flooding threat will occur where multiple rounds of heavy rain move onshore.

Coastal flooding is also possible during each high tide cycle through Sunday morning. The highest risk is expected around Saturday morning’s high tide, when water levels could approach major flood stage in some areas.

“Any rainfall that occurs during high tide will exacerbate flooding issues,” the National Weather Service said.

Breezy conditions are expected Friday and Saturday. A Lake Wind Advisory is in effect for Lake Moultrie, where wind gusts are forecast to reach 25 to 35 mph.

Along the coast, Gale Warnings remain in effect for nearshore waters. Seas are expected to build through Friday, reaching 5 to 8 feet late Friday night. A high risk of rip currents is also expected at area beaches.

Forecasters say the risk for isolated tornadoes and waterspouts will increase late Friday near the coast and continue into Saturday as rain bands move inland. Any tornadoes that develop could form quickly and produce localized wind damage.

The severe weather threat has already prompted multiple event cancellations and schedule changes across the Lowcountry. The City of Charleston has activated portions of its flood mitigation plan and is staging crews to respond to flooding and other storm-related issues.

City parking garages will be open free of charge Friday through Sunday for residents in flood-prone areas who need a safe place to park. Learn more here.

Residents are encouraged to secure loose outdoor items, monitor weather forecasts, avoid driving through flooded roadways, and have multiple ways to receive watches and warnings.

Bottom line:

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) — Folly Beach is turning to artificial intelligence to get a closer look at how its shoreline changes over time, but the city needs some homeowners to provide the vantage points.

The city contracted with Surfline Coastal Intelligence for $76,500 earlier this summer to use artificial intelligence cameras to document erosion patterns and wave activity along the shoreline.

City officials say cameras installed at beach access points and piers alone will not provide enough data. They are now asking some Front Beach homeowners to allow cameras to be installed on their properties.

The city and Surfline are considering select locations stretching from Folly Beach County Park to Summers Place Lane.

The cameras will provide live monitoring of the beach following storms and other major weather events, potentially reducing the need for post-storm surveys typically conducted by the city’s contracted coastal engineer.

The technology also would allow the city to track changes to the shoreline in real time, including the health of the beach and sand dunes and how much sand is gained or lost each day.

“It’s going to be really beneficial to us, especially for post-storm analysis and end-of-year kind of look at how our beaches are doing, especially after renourishment,” Mayor Chris Bizzell said.

Bizzell said the technology also could speed up the process of documenting storm damage when the city seeks state and federal assistance.

“Every year if we have a storm, we have to do a post-storm analysis so that we can apply for federal and state aid,” Bizzell said. “We can do a post-storm analysis using this camera data in one day. Additionally, we can also turn this around very quickly to give people in Columbia a return on investment for their resilience grants and so forth.”

There is also a tourism component. City officials say the cameras could count the number of people on the beach at a given time, helping the city quantify the economic impact of its beach investments.

“The benefit really is so we have real-time monitoring of the beach health, the sand dunes, accretion, how much sand we’re losing and gaining each day,” Bizzell said. “But there’s also a tourism component there where we can count the number of people on the beach at any given time. So, at the end of the day we can go back to Columbia and say, ‘Here’s where your investment in the beach is pays off in tourism dollars.’”

Hosting a camera would come at no additional cost to homeowners. Surfline will reimburse property owners for electricity costs at their request.

“They get paid each month for the electricity and so forth,” Bizzell said. “So, it’s a kind of low entry point for the homeowner and it does help the city significantly. But again, it’s all voluntary.”

The city has contacted 10 homeowners about hosting the cameras. Three have agreed, three have declined and four have not responded.

Homeowners who agree would enter into a three-year contract with Surfline and give the company access to their properties for installation and occasional maintenance.

Bizzell said participation is voluntary and Surfline would handle the logistics of installing and maintaining the cameras.

These cameras differ from artificial intelligence license plate reader systems, such as Flock, which have raised privacy concerns in other communities. Bizzell said the key difference is that Surfline cameras are low-resolution and cannot identify people’s faces.

“These cameras are very low resolution. They can’t identify a face. It’s basically shapes,” Bizzell said. “So, when they make an identification on the beach, it’s more or less there’s a person on the beach or there’s a person in the water. It doesn’t have any identifying data associated with that.”

Bizzell said the goal is to monitor the beach rather than individual people.

“There’s no privacy concerns here because we’re not monitoring the individual; we’re monitoring the beach,” Bizzell said. “Most of this is about making sure that the beach information is as easy to assemble so that we can provide that information to all the decision makers that are managing our renourishment programs, our aid after a storm, those types of things. So, it does benefit everyone if we have those numbers in front of us.”