Isle of Palms must rethink beach parking, open up more space for visitors. Here’s why
It might soon become easier for visitors to access beach parking on Isle of Palms, as the city suffered yet another loss in its battle to restrict parking for non-residents on the popular beach destination.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation changed its mind — nearly six years later — on the island’s 2015 ban on nonresidents parking on most streets. For the past decade, Isle of Palms and other Charleston-area beaches have placed steadily greater restrictions on who can park on the islands and where.
“It is my sincere desire to work towards a resolution for the public parking issues on the Isle of Palms in order to strike the right balance for the community and Charleston region,” S.C. DOT secretary Christy Hall said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing the dialogue with the City and am hopeful that a compromise can be reached that accomplishes this goal.”
Hall wrote in a letter Monday to IOP’s mayor and City Council that the 2015 parking plan, approved by former transportation secretary Janet Oakley, “improperly designated a significant number of state-owned highway right of ways as ‘resident only parking’ potentially denying non-residents their constitutional guaranty of equality and privilege.”
She also wrote that DOT wants to work to expand parking availability on Palm Boulevard by changing the land side of the road to angled spaces.
Isle of Palms Mayor Jimmy Carroll did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, at the beginning of an emergency City Council meeting Tuesday, Carroll said the meeting that evening had been called under “exigent circumstances.” It came one day after the city received the letter noting DOT’s intent to revoke the city’s once-approved managed beach parking plan.
The project, which went into effect in 2016, was now in limbo. Carroll said the city developed its beach parking plan in a “collaborative, extensive effort” among City Council, the Isle of Palms community, traffic engineers, city staff and DOT.
”City Council held public hearings and special meetings to discuss the impacts of the beach traffic, and to develop strategies to reduce hazardous traffic conditions to ensure safe access for police, fire and medical vehicles responding to emergencies,” Carroll said, adding, “And to preserve the safety and welfare of pedestrians while protecting and providing parking for beach access.”
Carroll said executing the previously state-approved parking plan had cost city taxpayers approximately $250,000 — excluding costs associated with time and staff involved.
”After implementation, the city has spent approximately $1.6 million to manage the beach parking in accordance with the plan,” Carroll said.
Council voted unanimously to go into executive session to receive legal advice on both the SC DOT letter and a piece of statewide legislation that could have a direct impact on beach parking.
Hall’s letter is the second major blow from the transportation department, which also barred the island from eliminating hundreds of remaining parking spaces on Palm Boulevard in September. The City Council claimed it needed to get rid of those spaces to prevent dangerous conditions caused by visitors jaywalking across the state highway. DOT rejected that claim, and the city’s own police chief said he did not know of any accidents related to the current conditions.
Hall did offer to work with the city to evaluate crosswalks, speed limits and road signs as the two entities move forward with addressing parking safety and availability.
The letter from Hall on Monday came a day before Isle of Palms officials were set to hold an emergency City Council meeting Tuesday to receive legal advice about a piece of statewide legislation that could have a direct impact on beach parking.
Introduced by Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, S. 40 would require local governments to get permission from the state before making changes to any parking on state roads or blocking a road owned by South Carolina. It also would require that parking be free along state highways located on barrier islands, including Isle of Palms, and may only be restricted by DOT. The measure unanimously passed a Senate subcommittee in late January.
Isle of Palms also faces a lawsuit brought by the Charleston Beach Foundation, which sued the city in 2020 after the barrier island sought to temporarily block non-residents from using more than 750 parking spots near the beach, leaving just 10 free spaces. Isle of Palms officials said the reduction was intended to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
That decision to block non-residents from accessing the town during the pandemic was the final straw for Grooms.
“The barrier island towns — they blocked traffic, actually put up roadblocks, ‘residents only,’ and that really angered a lot of folks,’ Grooms said in an interview with The State on Tuesday. “But when they removed the roadblocks, the Isle of Palms had basically removed all the parking. Even though the roadblocks were gone, you still couldn’t go to the beach.”
Grooms said he doesn’t spend as much time on IOP as he once did. But the 2015 parking plan eliminated one of the spaces he had been using to visit the beach for decades, so he said he was glad to see the DOT reverse its stance on the issue.
“Now a bunch of folks who moved in and crowded the island are now saying, ‘The island belongs to us’ that ‘You can’t come here.’ That’s just not acceptable,” he said. “It’s not a private island.”
IOP’s main argument for the road restrictions and the need for paid parking came from the island’s increasing popularity, which Carroll said has grown out of control to the point that the city struggles to pay for public safety expenses incurred by visitors. Grooms said there’s a possibility the state could step in to give the city more support in that area while emphasizing that it doesn’t change who controls parking in state right of ways.
“I’m willing to try to help the town with that,” he said. “But the town has to allow parking on the beach. That’s the main point. They blocked access indirectly through restricting parking.”
The Charleston Beach Foundation, which began in July 2020 as a Facebook group advocating for accessible beaches, rejoiced when it heard about DOT’s decision to reject Isle of Palms’ 2015 restriction on non-resident parking.
”The Directors of the Charleston Beach Foundation are thrilled and appreciative of the efforts of SC DOT to take corrective action regarding non-resident parking on the Isle of Palms,” the group wrote in a statement. “Over many years we have watched as the City Council of the Isle of Palms, along with other beach communities, restricted and removed vast amounts of available free public parking on state owned roads, providing access to public state beaches, to island residents only.”
The group also supports Grooms’ bill.
South Carolinians fighting against the restrictions also feared that unless the state stepped in, the Palmetto State could end up seeing the death of free beach parking altogether.
The full Senate Transportation Committee meets Wednesday morning to consider S. 40.
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Isle of Palms must rethink beach parking, open up more space for visitors. Here’s why."
