Hello REALTORS®,
In the last Watchdog Report, I reported on the position statement your Board of Directors approved.
Moratorium: The position paper on moratoriums was timely because Pickens County Council enacted its second moratorium in two years on February 6. The moratorium prohibits applications for subdivisions of 50 lots or more and will last six months.
You can read our position statement on moratoriums by clicking here.
Short-Term Rentals: Your Board of Directors also adopted another timely position statement on short-term rentals. Last week, the SC REALTORS® released an economic impact study it commissioned on short-term rentals and announced legislation to address a hodgepodge of local ordinances that could harm a $4 billion industry. You can read the summary of the study here and our position statement on short-term rentals here.
And just this week, the Walhalla Planning Commission released for public comment an ordinance regulating short-term rentals.
How we use data: Data is critical to successfully advocating for REALTOR® interests. SCR’s short-term rental study is a great example.
Just this week, I used analysis of building permits and subdivisions to ask a simple question: what problem is Pickens County solving with a moratorium? You can read the data on building permits here and subdivisions here.
How we pay for it: Generating this data can be expensive. SCR commissioned Dr. Joseph Von Nesson at the University of South Carolina for the short-term rental study. Fortunately, we already have building permit data from US Census records that we broke down by city to show that 2/3 of the building permits in Pickens County were issued by the City of Easley. For the subdivision data, we read through Planning Commission minutes for 2021 and 2022 to compile that data.
But data is often expensive and requires specialists like Dr. Von Nessen. You can help ensure that we have the resources we need for this work by supporting RPAC. It’s easy. Your association includes a voluntary contribution to RPAC on your annual dues invoice. Pay it, and you are an RPAC supporter. If you haven’t supported RPAC this year, I encourage you to do so by clicking here.
Michael Dey, Director of Government Affairs