Pooler calls special meeting to discuss and adopt short term rental ordinance

Destini Ambus, Savannah Morning News
Pooler City Hall sees large crowd of residents and property owners to discuss short-term rentals.
Pooler City Hall sees large crowd of residents and property owners to discuss short-term rentals.

After the first reading and town hall for a short-term rental ordinance, the City of Pooler is holding a special-called city council meeting 9 a.m., Wednesday to discuss and pass the ordinance.

Last Monday, a draft ordinance was presented at a Pooler City Council meeting, along with a moratorium to halt the issuance of business licenses for short-term rentals for six months. At the time, Mayor Karen Williams said there would be the opportunity for more public input before the second reading and adoption of the ordinance.

However, the city is rushing to adopt an ordinance due to a potential amendment to a state senate bill that would preempt local governments from regulating STRs.

According to Williams, the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) notified elected leaders that language would be added to a currently unknown senate bill that will be voted on this week, before the session ends March 28.

The alert stated that the language would likely contain a grandfather clause for properties operating as short-term rentals and make enforcement of STR ordinances impossible over time as local governments seek to amend their existing policies.

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"If this legislation passes, our ability to implement local regulations would be severely restricted if not blocked altogether," The post on the website said. "We cannot risk having no framework in place to address short-term rentals in our community."

Karen Williams, the new mayor of Pooler, during her inauguration speech.
Karen Williams, the new mayor of Pooler, during her inauguration speech.

Williams said staff had been working on implementing some of the suggestion's residents gave during the town hall. The biggest changes to the draft ordinance ae:

  • Providing proof of an approved homestead exemption through Chatham County

  • Requiring that each adjacent property owner sign a notice acknowledging that they were provided with notification of a short-term rental getting a permit near them

  • Fees were lowered (the draft ordinance has the fee for a permit at $600 with ad administrative fee of $25) and taken out of the ordinance and put into the schedule of fees

  • Any person currently operating a short-term rental will have 60 days to comply with the provisions of the ordinance.

Williams said she wants to assure that the city still plans on having resident input through workshops, and mentioned there will be one on April 15.

"The main thing is we have to have a basic ordinance in place," Williams said. "Their memo said that any jurisdiction that currently doesn't have an ordinance in place would not be able to regulate them, and I can't have that in the city. We have to be able to have the authority to regulate businesses."

Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Chatham County municipalities for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at dambus@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Pooler calls special meeting to discuss and adopt short term rental ordinance

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