Save Folly’s Future represents hundreds of Folly residents who have joined together around a common cause. To retain the best of what Folly has always reflected: a quaint and laid back island with an unbelievable natural environment.
We wish to remain an island community with a quality of life that most people just dream about. That dream is our reality and it can continue for generations to come, if we are able to balance the number of private homes with the growing number commercial short term rentals springing up in our residential districts.
We are engaged in a community wide debate as to where the fulcrum should be placed in this balance between private homes and investment Short Term Rentals. In the Fall of 2022 Save Folly’s Future collected petition signatures to establish tighter Short Term Rental guidelines including placing a cap of 800 on Investment Short Term Rental licenses. (Those units that are rented year around, not homes that are owner occupied and rent out a room or two for up to 72 days a year). More than enough signatures were collected to allow for a city wide Citizen’s Referendum on the petition. The Folly Beach City Council allowed the petition to go to Referendum on February 7, 2023.
The Referendum was successful by a vote of 656 to 579. The challenge now and for the foreseeable future is to keep the STR guidelines established by the referendum from being summarily altered by the city council; something that is allowed by state law and which is a distinct possibility.
John McFarland (Founder of Save Folly’s Future)