Leaders in Surfside Beach are taking a second look at the town’s current golf cart registration regulations.
The move follows “numerous comments and complaints” made to town leaders regarding its requirement and fee charged to residents to register golf carts. Currently, all residential and commercial golf carts must be registered with the Surfside Beach Police Department every two years.
During the process, golf cart owners must pay $2 per vehicle for registration and an official town decal. According to town officials, there are 1,253 residential and 434 commercial golf carts registered with the Surfside Beach Police Department.
Lt. Kenneth Hofmann says the program originated more than five years ago as a way to help relieve parking problems, curb golf cart thefts and recover stolen property. Golf cart owners must also renew registration with the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles every five years and register for a new town parking decal every year.
He says in recent years, Surfside Beach’s registration and decal program has proven ineffective.
“It has to be recorded, documented, put in a computer and tracked from that point of view,” he explained, when describing the registration process. “There’s a photograph that has to be uploaded. There’s just a lot of things that have not benefited residents in any way. Over time, we just found the program the police department adds to that is just generally ineffective at assisting the town residents.”
While Hofmann says it is convenient for the department to have a record of all golf carts in town at its fingertips, the department spends too much time registering and re-registering the carts. A decision paper asking town leaders to consider repealing Town Code 9-16 Decals and Exemptions, states department staff spends 322 hours per year on the task.
“The registration program has not proven to be a significant factor in solving golf cart thefts or identifying stolen property,” the paper says.
Officials say failure to repeal the ordinance will result in “residents continuing to pay fees for registering their personal property, and continued loss of valuable staff time that could be better spent on other matters.”
The decision paper further asks town council to reconsider requiring residents and commercial businesses o register golf carts with the police department, but to consider requiring golf carts without a town issued decal to pay applicable parking fees.
Owners like Don Woolridge say while they understand why the system is in place, they would be OK with the town eliminating the registration process.
“It takes a few minutes to get all the paperwork together, the insurance information, the registration information from the state and bring it to the police department for their inspection and registration,” Woolridge said.
Hofmann says town council must first consider repealing parts of the current town code on golf cart registration, make revisions and vote on the move.
