Did North Myrtle Beach permanently ban short-term rentals like AirBnB? Here’s what we know
A simple search into the AirBnB website with the location set as “North Myrtle Beach” will yield over 1,000 results.
With a potential impending new ordinance from North Myrtle Beach’s City Council, could that all change?
“It’s a privilege to do business, to use your house as a rental property,” Interim City Manager for North Myrtle Beach, Ryan Fabbri, said at a workshop presentation in front of city council last month. “But you’ve got to do it the right way, otherwise that luxury is taken away from you. We have no mechanism to do that now.”
So, for the remainder of 2024, there’s no new or abrupt changes that short term rental operators should know about. But, in the new year, that could change.
“A second work session is scheduled to take place in January, where the council will continue to review and discuss the proposed ordinance,” Fabbri said Tuesday to The Sun News. “I appreciate your interest in this matter and will let you know the date and time of the next work session once it’s been finalized.”
Fabbri confirmed that neither a first reading, or a second reading, for short term rental property enforcement have taken place thus far this year.
This ongoing conversation in North Myrtle Beach now follows a decision made by the City of Myrtle Beach to ban converting short-term rentals.
City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, Dec. 10 to enact the new zoning change.
According to the new ordinance, the zoning change will ban converting short-term rental buildings into long-term housing for more than 90 days.
As of Tuesday, Fabbri said this ordinance has only been discussed in a work session, and has not been voted on by council members yet.
According to numbers presented by Fabbri in November, approximately 1,700 of the 5,400 short-term rentals in North Myrtle Myrtle do not have local responsible parties, meaning that the operators and owners don’t live where the short term rentals are.
Adding additional staff and resources to ensure rental enforcement for these short-term rental properties could cost the city close to a million dollars, if passed.
Some new limitations that city officials have brainstormed could include permits, occupancy limits and other requirements.
But for now, the conversation remains up in the air and in the preliminary stages of government for what could happen to short-term rentals, including AirBnBs, in North Myrtle Beach’s city limits.
