COASTAL OBSERVER

As the town of Pawleys Island looks for ways to preserve its traditional beach houses, there is a growing concern that the town’s own rules are driving new buyers to tear down old houses. 

That’s because the town requires buildings be brought into compliance with those rules when the cost of improvements exceeds 50 percent of their value.

“Are we discouraging owners – or buyers –from maintaining and improving the livability of older homes, therefore encouraging or requiring their replacement?” Bill Otis, the former mayor, asked.

He proposed a remedy to the town Planning Commission this month. The town could exempt “historically significant” structures of a certain age from the 50 percent rule.

But Otis, who served as mayor for 20 years, said even if the town amends its requirement, improvements to structures would still trigger compliance with federal flood regulations. 

“I do think it’s important to distinguish between the flood section of our code and all the other sections,” Town Administrator Dan Newquist said.

The town requires houses to be raised 3 feet above the minimum required by federal regulations as part of a program that reduces premiums for federal flood insurance policies.

Otis told the commission that the issue is personal. A house that’s been in his family for 73 years is now up for sale. He said that has prompted questions about how much renovation can be done and where the balance will tip toward a teardown.

The town adopted its unified development code in 2003 “with the objective to bring all structures on Pawleys Island into zoning compliance over time, including setbacks, etc.,” Otis said. “This was probably the right thing to do at the time.”

But since the town adopted architecture guidelines for new houses in 2021, it has turned its attention toward preserving older homes, starting with nine that were included in a 1972 National Register designation for a historic district on the island.

This year, it approved a request to tear down a beachfront home from the 1940s as part of an agreement with the owners of Liberty Lodge, a National Register structure, to preserve its façade and surrounding maritime forest.

Since then, the Planning Commission has talked about extending the historic district status to the entire island and including structures that are at least 50 years old, the threshold for National Register status.

“There is a partial solution to this problem,” Otis said. “It won’t take two years.”

The town could decide what age would qualify for a historically significant structure and then allow them to remain non-conforming as long as that non-conformity wasn’t increased.

While the 50 percent rule met the town’s need 20 years ago, Otis said, “everybody has started to talk about and is concerned about the look and feel of Pawleys Island.”

That concern has also led some town officials to question the benefit of requiring that houses be raised an extra 3 feet.
“Has that proven to be a significant help to insurance policies?” commission member Fran Green asked.

Federal flood insurance coverage is limited to $250,000, commission member Mark Hawn noted.

“The only situation where it would come into play is an Armageddon situation,” he said.

Although there are over 500 dwellings on the island, there are only 222 federal flood insurance policies in effect, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They paid a total of $613,793 in premiums this year.

The agency’s Community Rating System gives local governments a way to reduce premiums by improving their regulations, management and public outreach. Pawleys Island is one of nine communities in the state with a Class 5 rating, equal to a 25 percent premium discount.

Only two communities have a better rating: Charleston County at Class 2 and Folly Beach at Class 3. Georgetown County has a Class 7 rating for a 15 percent discount.

If Pawleys Island loses its current rating, “there are certainly going to be repercussions,” commission member Paul Groce said. “FEMA has promulgated these rules with good reason.”

FEMA allows communities to exempt historic structures from the flood regulations for repairs or substantial improvements, but the structure needs to have either a federal, state or local designation as historically significant.

Newquist plans to submit a request to the State Historic Preservation Office in the spring grant cycle for funds to conduct an inventory of historic structures.

“They’ll look at all the houses; every single one,” John Hildreth, who chairs the commission, said. “There’s no downside.”

Creating a local program for historic preservation could lead to eligibility for the National Park Service’s Certified Local Government program, which would provide access to other funds and technical support.

“The important first step is to get a survey of historic resources,” Newquist said.