‘We’re in a new era’: Hilton Head residents united by a desire to regulate short-term rentals
The group never intended to become an island-wide movement.
Founded in late 2022 to oppose overdevelopment in the historic Gullah neighborhood, the Jonesville Preservation Society initially included only residents of Jonesville, where residents claim a string of newly proposed developments would triple the population of the already congested community.
But their message quickly spread beyond their small corner of Hilton Head. Today, the grassroots group boasts a staggering reach: membership from all of the island’s major neighborhoods, thousands of survey responses, and a dedicated core team large enough to fill any public meeting space.
Neighborhoods across Hilton Head are uniting because residents have realize most communities share similar goals — limiting construction of short-term rental facilities; eliminating loopholes that allow commercial-grade “mini-hotels” in residential areas, and increasing transparency between citizens and town officials on all matters of development.
“We’re in a new era,” said co-chair Kelly LeBlanc, citing the growth of social media and its power of connecting neighbors. LeBlanc says this newfound unity has allowed residents to identify common issues and develop a common language for their advocacy.
But the so-called preservation society doesn’t see itself as a leader. Rather, the movement is a “flat organization,” LeBlanc says, where community leaders across the island can network with each other.
Joining together in a crowded Council Chambers for a recent Public Planning Committee meeting, JPS members and allies urged town officials to send the group’s policy proposals to the Town Council for consideration. Each speech was met with a thunder of applause from the crowd.
Ronda Carper, who lives in the Bradley’s Circle neighborhood on the east side of the island, said her tiny community recently saw the construction of five new four-story “homes” intended for short-term rental.
Like others, Carper is advocating for changes to the town’s land management ordinance, “that won’t just serve one developer [but] will serve the entirety of Hilton Head Island,” she told the committee, motioning to the crowd of like-minded residents behind her.
“There are places on this island for short-term rentals, but it’s not residential neighborhoods,” JPS co-chair Daniel Anthony told the committee. “Y’all need to understand what that term means — residential neighborhood.”
Groups wants more short-term regulation
The JPS doesn’t want to ban short-term rentals outright. Instead, its policy proposals focus on regulating rental properties in three main ways:
▪ Implementing a maximum floor-area ratio (FAR) to prevent overcrowded land use and “mini-hotels” in residential neighborhoods
▪ Calculating rental permit fees based on square footage rather than the number of bedrooms, and
▪ Increasing parking requirements to disallow huge rental homes with minimal parking, a “gap in the code” that society LeBlanc says results in cars overflowing into residential streets, parks and marshland.
And in response to legislation introduced to the SC State House this January that would prohibit any local attempts to regulate short-term rentals, the Jonesville Preservation Society is drafting a bill of its own — one that would require short-term rental owners to be legal residents of South Carolina. Ideally, LeBlanc says, this rule would take short-term rentals out of the hands of conglomerates and put them back into the hands of individual property owners.
LeBlanc knows that rule would represent a massive loss for the rental industry — but it’s a sacrifice she’s more than willing to make for the sake of residents and for the health of the island’s neighborhoods.
“There’s always gonna be some losers, right? Right now, the neighborhoods are the losers,” LeBlanc said. “If you’re purely an investor, you have no interest here other than making money — I want you to lose. I want you gone.”
After nearly 45 minutes of public comment from Jonesville Preservation Society members, committee Chairman David Ames offered words of support for the group’s mission. Committee member Tamara Becker made a motion to send their recommendations to the Town Council, saying “there’s no harm” in doing so.
But residents became vocal after Becker’s motion was not seconded.
“Why?” shouted one attendee among the noise. “I think we have a right to know,” chimed in another.
Anthony and LeBlanc say the committee members’ inaction was a failure to represent their constituents’ concerns. The society’s survey results indicate thousands of islanders who are gravely concerned about overdevelopment in their neighborhoods, they said.
“I think [Ames] tipped his hand about how he really feels about this,” LeBlanc said. “If you’re not willing to look at this document, that says a lot about how much you care.”
Anthony added that he never expected their proposals to earn the vote of Town Council members — but just getting the group’s ideas in front of the island’s top leaders would be a great start, he said.
“We’re not done. It’s a step in the right direction,” he said, referring to the island’s recent entry into negotiations for a tract of land on Jonesville Road. “But the ultimate goal is to preserve these Gullah neighborhoods, these historic districts and these residential neighborhoods.”
