Attorney notes issues with proposed Myrtle Beach mo-ped, golf cart law

A proposed Myrtle Beach ordinance envisioned to curb a “proliferation” of slow-moving rental vehicles by putting more regulations on the businesses that rent them was tabled Tuesday after a lawyer representing one of the businesses pointed out the law was a potential legal landmine.

The drafted legislation was inspired by an abundance of golf carts and mo-peds that clogged the 23-mile traffic loop during last year’s Atlantic Beach Bikefest over Memorial Day weekend. City attorney Thomas Ellenburg, who drafted the ordinance, said it was intended to “bring order out of chaos.”

Jack Scoville, Jr., a lawyer of 39 years and mayor of Georgetown since 2009, said the ordinance – though well-intentioned – was “replete with some serious issues that need to be addressed.”

He said his client, Moped Rentals of Myrtle Beach and Rent Me Superstore owner Ben Robinson, has about 400 mo-peds in his fleet and approximately 20 full-time employees.

He “pays a substantial business license fee to the city every year,” Scoville said. “The ordinance as written is extremely intrusive into the business practices of my client’s business. It provides direction on how he is to deal with his customers. It provides minimum standards of the way he has to go about renting these mo-peds. … When you couple it with the provision that any violation or failure to comply with the ordinance is a criminal matter, that concerns us greatly.”

Other top issues, he said, were the legislation’s provision requiring mo-ped renters to wear colored vests to indicate their age and for helmets required of those under 21 to be adorned with reflective material. Neither provision is required by state law, he said, reminding the council of the last time the city passed an ordinance that conflicted with state law.

The city council enacted a law in 2006 that required all operators and passengers on mo-peds, scooters and motorcycles over the age of 21 to wear helmets. The law was later struck down by the South Carolina Supreme Court when it was found to have superseded the state law, which only requires helmets for those under 21.

“The ordinance as written requires my client to maintain $300,000 of liability insurance, commercial automobile liability insurance,” Scoville said. “Now as I read that, that would mean that each mo-ped has got to have $300,000 of coverage, which I don’t think you can get and certainly can’t get in an economically reasonable manner. That would be extremely expensive to have to maintain 400 separate (policies) … on these vehicles.”

The proposed legislation’s provision requiring rental agencies to certify a renter’s competency to operate the vehicles may also fall into gray areas, he said, and raise other potential issues with laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Scoville also noted the definition, specifically of a mo-ped, under the city’s proposed law differs from the state’s definition and the provision as written could put his client out of business.

Under state law, a mo-ped is described as a cycle with or without pedals and with a motor of not more than 50 cubic centimeters that produces no more than two brake horsepower and is not capable of propelling the vehicle at a speed greater than 30 mph.

Under the city’s proposed ordinance, a mo-ped is described as a cycle with two or three wheels and with pedals and a motor that produces no more than one-and-a-half brake horsepower and is not capable of traveling at a speed greater than 25 mph.

“If it were to pass in its present form, verbatim, we would definitely bring suit to contest it,” Scoville said after the meeting, noting riders don’t have to wear vests or reflective helmets and mo-peds don’t have to have two pedals and be limited to lower horsepower engines that produce speeds less than 30 mph.

“A lot of this stuff should really be addressed by state law and it hasn’t been and we just have a lot of problems with the ordinance as written,” Scoville told the council.

A provision in the ordinance’s first draft would have required all mo-peds, golf carts, scooters and low-speed vehicles to be registered with the city at a fine of $50 for each conveyance in its first year. The fees were dropped in the ordinance’s second draft after businesses raised concerns in a recent meeting with city leaders.

“We have to do something. There has to be change,” said Mayor John Rhodes. “We have to get more control over what’s been going on in the streets. … We’ve already had enough people hurt. That’s the main issue is making sure we don’t have any more accidents than we’ve had already.”

Councilman Wayne Gray said that the council has been “lobbied heavily” by residents concerned with mo-peds on the streets.

“The fact that there’s that many mo-peds out there being rented … in a relatively small geographic area scares me,” he said, after learning Robinson’s business has 400 in its fleet and his operation is one of many in town.

Several new operations seem to spring up each tourist season with fleet vehicles that aren’t as reliable, according to the rental agencies.

“When you have that many mo-peds then you throw in all the folks” who own and operate mo-peds locally, the number could easily top 1,000, said Mayor pro-tem Mike Lowder. “We do need to come up with an ordinance that’s doable but at the same time that it’s an ordinance that will pass state muster … (and) try to prevent some of these … wildcat renters out there so to speak.”

Myrtle Beach City Council chose to continue a first reading of the ordinance for two weeks to give the city’s attorney time to work out the kinks Scoville mentioned. But the board did approve a resolution declaring the weeks around Bikefest (May 23-June 2) an extraordinary event, giving the city manager the green light to ban mo-peds and golf carts from this year’s traffic loop. The vehicles would be banned from traffic loop roads beginning two hours before it opens.

The council also declared the weeks surrounding the Carolina Country Music Festival, from June 3-June 15 an extraordinary event. Extraordinary event declarations allow the city manager to make unilateral decisions, including diverting traffic, temporarily closing businesses and hiring extra law enforcement “for the protection of lives, health and welfare.”

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Attorney notes issues with proposed Myrtle Beach mo-ped, golf cart law."