The City can address livability without damaging small businesses, jobs, and responsible neighborhood investment.
The City of Charleston has proposed an amendment to the short-term rental ordinance affecting commercially zoned STRs in the ST Overlay Zone. As written, the current draft would:
It’s not only an STR issue. The overlay-zone hospitality economy supports restaurants, retail shops, cleaning companies, maintenance vendors, event businesses, and local employees. An independent study by Tourism Economics (an Oxford Economics company) found the amendment would cost Charleston, every year:
Over ten years: roughly −$1.1 billion in business sales and −$102.4M in state & local taxes. Today, STRs in the overlay zone support $342.9M in business sales, 1,560 jobs, and $53.9M in total tax revenue annually.
We support clear rules and strong enforcement. There is a better, more enforceable standard — and it scales fairly with the size of each unit.
| Approved bedrooms | Max occupancy |
|---|---|
| 1 bedroom | 4 guests |
| 2 bedrooms | 6 guests |
| 3 bedrooms | 8 guests |
| 4 bedrooms | 10 guests |
| 5 bedrooms | 12 guests |
Responsible hospitality earns the neighborhood’s trust. CEHA will operate a Neighborhood Accountability Hotline to resolve noise, overcrowding, parking, trash, and party-house concerns before they reach city enforcement — and our operators post approved occupancy and house rules in every unit. We’re asking the City to regulate the behavior that harms neighborhoods, not to punish the compliant.
Read the letter below, then add your name at the bottom. A professionally organized coalition letter carries more weight than scattered emails — CEHA will deliver one unified, fact-based package to City Council, the Mayor’s Office, the Planning Commission, and staff.
We, the undersigned residents, property owners, business owners, employees, vendors, and supporters of the Cannonborough-Elliotborough neighborhood and the greater Charleston hospitality economy, write together in support of responsible short-term rental regulation.
We agree with the City on the goal. Charleston should have clear, enforceable rules, and the livability of our neighborhoods matters. We support strong enforcement against the conduct that actually affects quality of life — excessive noise, parties, overcrowding, parking and trash violations, and unpermitted units.
Our concern is with how the current draft pursues that goal. As written, it reaches further than the problem requires. It would impose a hard eight-guest cap regardless of a unit’s approved size and create a five-year restriction tied to new construction and exterior modifications. An independent study by Tourism Economics (an Oxford Economics company) estimates these provisions would cost Charleston roughly $106.2 million in business sales, 511 jobs, $23.0 million in wages, and $10.2 million in state and local tax revenue every year — about $1.1 billion in business sales over ten years.
A better, more enforceable standard already exists. We respectfully ask the City to revise the amendment to:
This is not a request to weaken oversight. The Alliance is committing to a Neighborhood Accountability Hotline to resolve quality-of-life concerns before they reach city enforcement, and our operators will post approved occupancy and house rules in every unit. We are asking the City to regulate the behavior that harms neighborhoods — not to impose arbitrary limits that punish the compliant property owners, small businesses, and workers who make responsible hospitality work.
The City can address livability without damaging small businesses, jobs, and responsible neighborhood investment. We urge you to adopt a better amendment — and we stand ready to work with you to get it right.
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Join or Donate →Contributions support CEHA’s advocacy, research, communications, and organizational efforts and are not tax-deductible as charitable gifts. CEHA is a South Carolina 501(c)(6) trade association.