Hilton Head limits who’s eligible for beach parking passes in 2022. Here are the new rules
The town of Hilton Head Island is limiting who can buy beach parking passes starting this year.
Timeshare owners who spend fewer than 183 days per year on the island no longer qualify for beach passes, which allow drivers to park in 135 residents-only parking spaces at Islanders Beach Park and 30 residents-only spaces at Driessen Beach Park, along with any metered spaces in the town’s beach parking lots.
Renters who lease on the island for fewer than 183 days, or six months, also are no longer eligible for beach passes.
The Town Council recently approved the new beach pass rules in a 7-0 vote, ending months of discussion about how to address a citizens group’s recent concerns about Islanders Beach Park being used by vacationers and day trippers.
Under the new system, timeshare owners who spend only one or two weeks on Hilton Head each year, including those who buy timeshares at a newly planned 166-unit resort off Folly Field Road, will not be able to purchase beach passes.
What’s changing?
To buy beach passes in 2020, people needed to live on or own property in the town limits. Applicants had to provide the government with a driver’s license and their vehicle registration, records show. Non-resident property owners also had to provide proof of property ownership, such as a current utility bill or tax receipt.
The new rules for 2022 specify that people are eligible for beach passes if they can provide the town with at least one of the following: a residential property owner’s tax bill or real estate closing documents for within the town limits (this covers both primary residents who have the 4% property tax assessment ratio and second home residents with the 6% property tax assessment ratio, along with partial-deed or timeshare owners who spend 183 days or more per year on Hilton Head) or a current residential rental agreement with a term of 183 days or more.
“Properties that are utilized as short-term rentals” are not eligible for beach passes, according to the new application.
(Residents still can get a beach pass for a golf cart, as long as they have properly registered it with the state Department of Motor Vehicles.)
The Town Council also decided to make the new beach passes only valid for one calendar year — instead of two years — and make them $15 per vehicle rather than $30.
Additionally, the town government has now said that only two beach passes can be issued per address.
Jeff Buckalew, the town engineer, in a phone call Wednesday said that in previous years, residents essentially could obtain an unlimited number of beach passes. If someone had six vehicles, for example, Buckalew said they could buy six beach passes.
At the end of 2021, there were just over 8,000 active beach passes, Buckalew said.
The new rules for beach pass applications went into effect this month, Buckalew said.
Why now?
A citizens group formed last summer wanted Hilton Head to “tighten up” its definition of a resident “in order to control the number of beach passes sold,” islander Edwina Dunlap previously said.
The group also had specific concerns about Islanders Beach Park.
The town spent roughly $4 million to buy the land for Islanders in 1992. The park was built in 1999 for about $200,000, Buckalew has said.
The Islanders parking lot was exclusive to beach pass holders then, but in 2010 the Town Council decided to install 25 public parking meters at the property so the town would qualify for a $1 million beach renourishment grant from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, Josh Gruber, deputy town manager, previously said. The metered spaces, Gruber said, had to be open to anyone.
That decision has since drawn the ire of some residents.
“This opened Islanders parking to vacationers and day trippers,” Dunlap has argued. “When there are no meters available, many simply park in any available space. Low fines and little to no enforcement have encouraged people to ignore the rules and park in resident-only spaces.”
The citizens group last year urged town staff members to limit the number of beach passes sold; ditch the metered parking at Islanders; ban commercial vehicles and buses from going into Islanders, and eliminate pedestrian foot traffic from entering the beach park, among other things, according to a staff memo sent to the Town Council’s Public Planning Committee in December.
Other changes at Islanders
In response to the residents’ complaints, the Town Council tweaked the government’s beach pass rules and approved other changes to its operations at Islanders.
The council voted to block commercial vehicles from entering the beach park, with some exceptions. Assisted-living facilities, religious institutions, public and private schools and “any other similar community or civic organization” in the town limits still can drive shuttles into Islanders.
The elected officials also decided to not block pedestrians from going into Islanders, but told staff members to build a new pathway in the park so people will not walk in the middle of the street.
Additionally, council members directed Town Manager Marc Orlando to continue to negotiate with DHEC over the idea of removing Islanders’ 25 public parking meters.
DHEC Director Dr. Edward Simmer in a January letter to Mayor John McCann said the state agency believes that if Hilton Head removes the meters, the town will breach its beach renourishment contract and will have to reimburse the $1 million in funds to DHEC.
A DHEC spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that the agency’s position has not changed.
Buckalew in a Wednesday phone call said he does not have a “definitive timeline” on what’s expected next in the negotiations.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 4:55 AM.
