GUEST COMMENTARY

BARBARA YORESH

The parallel similarities between the two east coast areas are such that they almost seem like mirror images.

According to the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, the Vero Beach/Indian River Shores and unincorporated barrier island area is part of a barrier island system which is the largest on the nation’s east coast consisting of 730 square miles. And while New York’s Long Island is larger, it is geologically characterized as a glacial moraine.

Hilton Head Island in coastal South Carolina is the second largest of the east coast barrier islands at 55.5 square miles and it is this analogous community which most closely resembles our own barrier island/greater Vero Beach area in terms of natural features, cultural amenities and lifestyle.

Like our own community at large, Hilton Head is a resort community of pristine beaches, championship golf courses, varied cultural amenities and a landscape featuring ancient live oaks fringed with Spanish moss. And like the City of Vero Beach, Hilton Head long ago instituted stringent developmental codes to protect its natural beauty.

With a year-round population of just over 37,000, the Town of Hilton Head Island hosts upwards of 2 million visitors annually. The island has a wide range of resort hotel and timeshare accommodations for tourists, but there is a widely touted option visitors can also choose: short term rentals of privately owned properties.

If visitors to Hilton Head plan a stay of a week or longer, they may opt to rent an accommodation ranging in size from a modest one-bedroom condominium to a lavishly sprawling, multi-million dollar oceanfront estate. Rentals range in price from several hundred dollars per week to more than $15,000 per week depending upon size and location.

I first visited Hilton Head 20 years ago and stayed in Sea Pines, the island’s original and largest 5,000-acre development community – called a “plantation.” Envisioned in 1957 by developer Charles Fraser as a seaside retreat, Sea Pines is home to the annual RBC Heritage PGA golf classic played at Harbour Town Golf Links with an 18th hole that features breathtakingly beautiful vistas of Calibogue Sound and the famously recognizable red and white-striped lighthouse at the Harbour Town Marina.

At the time, we owned three weeks of Marriott Vacation Club timeshare and regularly opted to stay at two of that company’s Harbour Town properties. We quickly became enamored of the island’s loveliness and lifestyle which featured prominent cultural opportunities in addition to the gorgeous surroundings. Might we care to live there part-time?

We contacted a real estate agent and began to view Sea Pines properties. From the onset – and regardless of price point – the agent noted that unless we planned to live there year-round, the property could go into a rental pool and in fact, several of the properties we viewed already had what was termed “a good rental history.”

A stranger sleeping in my bed? Unthinkable to me!

And yet it seemed that the owners of even oceanfront manses opted to allow just that in order to help pay for the property. And with the average Sea Pines home selling for $1.6 million by 2010, it was not difficult to see why even those with deep pockets might be tempted to rent their home.

Exclusive, gated plantations such as Wexford and Long Cove did not allow such rentals, but living there was way beyond my budget.

Despite the beauty of Hilton Head and the allure of Sea Pines, we eventually decided that we had no desire to buy for our own use a condominium within a plantation which was subject to the comings and goings of an unending stream of renters. I had no desire to live in what would amount to a hotel environment and be subject to individuals and/or families coming to revel with family reunions, golf outings and the like.

I surmised that the peacefully serene environs could quickly become a raucous party atmosphere with those short-term renters who were there to have fun.

If this anecdotal tale seems to have no pertinence to our own community, think again, because the issue of short-term rentals for unincorporated areas of Indian River County is being considered by county officials.

Imagine being a resident of our own barrier island who has made a substantial investment in their home and who now gets to “enjoy” living next to a property that is being rented on a weekly basis.

Aside from potential noise factors, there are issues of crime and safety when neighbors are now subjected to strangers living temporarily within their midst. While I am sure renters are screened to some extent by real estate professionals representing the property, it is likely their credit worthiness rather than their habits which is being reviewed.

Would a resident of John’s Island or the Moorings care to have weekly renters move in next door? For that matter, would a resident of the unincorporated mainland mind it any less?

In this day and age of eroding civility and manners, it is increasingly disconcerting to think that you will now be living next to a bunch of transient strangers. And while Hilton Head Island enjoys an incredibly robust rental market and is among the nation’s most successful tourist destinations, the complexion of that place I fell in love with two decades ago has most assuredly changed and not for the better.

While Hilton Head has benefitted tax wise from owners of two or more rental properties who pay a 2 percent Beach Preservation Tax and 1 percent Accommodations Tax to the town based upon gross rental proceeds, the island has become overrun by tourists much of the year.

During a recent return visit, I found myself still overwhelmed by the lush, natural beauty yet equally dismayed by the sheer volume of people and traffic. Yet one can hardly blame visitors seeking beautiful beaches, golf and cultural amenities galore. They have all that in Hilton Head.

And we have all that here in Indian River County. Rent it, and they will come.