COASTAL OBSERVER

A group of Pawleys Island area residents this week appealed to the town to do something about property owners encroaching in the state road right of way on the island’s north end.

“There’s been so many people moving here that there’s just not enough parking for the common people,” said Ron Rader, who told Town Council that he started coming to the island as a child in the early 1960s.

After he found that his usual parking spots on Atlantic Avenue occupied by fences, trash cans and other things, he went to the county courthouse to look through the property records. Rader handed out a plat to the council members showing an 80-foot right of way on the road.

“If you drive down there, you’ll see how many people have encroached on that right of way,” he said. “Before, it was OK; there weren’t that many people. We didn’t pay that much attention to it.”

The town has paid attention to the right of way. In 2011, officials considered using a portion of the 80 feet as a pedestrian path, which would have eliminated parking places.

Guy Osborne, the police chief at the time, said the plan wouldn’t improve safety because it would add to the number of cars driving around looking for parking spaces. The idea was scrapped.

Last year, the Planning Commission proposed the town create a parking plan as part of its comprehensive plan. No action has been taken.

“What can we do?” Sam Plexico asked the council this week. “I’ve been told by different officials with some situations, hey, you can just pull up their bushes and there’s nothing they can do. Well, I  don’t really want to be that guy.”

After beachfront towns in Charleston County imposed parking restrictions during the pandemic, the legislature amended state law to limit that. It also made it clear that obstructing the right of way “including the shoulders and right of way” is prohibited. The fine is up to $100 a day or jail time.

“It’s not legal,” Police Chief Mike Fanning said he tells people when asked about encroachments. “If you drive over somebody’s bush, and you don’t do it maliciously and you’re not intentionally damaging them – you’re just exercising your right to park –there’s not a whole lot we can do.”

Council Member Sarah Zimmerman suggested the town talk with the county or state about a shuttle bus, like Charleston County has.

“I don’t want to ride a bus to the beach,” Rader said.

While the area has grown, access has stayed the same, Mayor Brian Henry said.

“It’s not a situation isolated to Pawleys Island,” he said.

State Rep. Lee Hewitt, owner of Garden City Realty, said he gets calls about encroachments on South Waccamaw Drive, with only a 50-foot right of way, and along Business 17 near the Murrells Inlet Marshwalk.

The state Department of Transportation has authority over the right of way.

“In the past, they have gone to North Litchfield and cleaned away all the stuff people have put out in front to stop people from parking,” Hewitt said.

Rader told Town Council he doesn’t want to go to “the next level.”

“I wish we could get all the decisions made among us,” he said.

Council Member Rocky Holliday said the town would look for solutions.

“I think there are some ideas out there,” he said.