CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Charleston officials are moving to tighten and formalize the city’s rules for commercial film and photography permits, aiming to reduce disruptions for residents — particularly those living downtown.
Charleston currently requires permits for film or photography that affects the public right of way, such as streets and sidewalks, and the rules are mainly applied to commercial shoots. But many of the existing requirements are guidelines handled through policy, and city staff want to codify them into city law.
“These policies and guidelines are basically a list that an applicant goes by that lets them know what they need to do when they apply for a permit for approval,” said Dan Riccio, the city’s community services section chief.
Riccio said the effort is intended to “improve the quality of life of all our residents, but yet allow for these activities to occur in a safe way” with minimal impacts.
City staff said they have not had issues with applicants complying under the current approach, but codifying the rules would make them enforceable.
“The policy currently stands administratively, it’s not codified,” Riccio said. “The reason we would like to move forward with codification is because it is an enforceable tool. At this point, it is basically not enforceable. But we haven’t had any issues with any of our applicants during our approval processes.”
Under the proposed changes, those seeking permits would be required to provide parking plans in advance and follow guidelines designed to limit day-to-day disruptions. Riccio said shoots can directly affect residents because many locations are “right in front of people’s residences,” impacting parking, staging areas, equipment and vendors.
“Vendors need to find off-site locations to store their vehicles and stage them,” Riccio said. “And that’s one requirement.”
Charleston City Councilman Mike Seekings, who represents District 8, is also pushing for a requirement that residents be notified when permits are granted.
“To have some predictability and consistency in the residential districts so people know what’s going to be happening day in and day out, week in, week in, month in, month out. It’s really important,” Seekings said.
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Seekings said the city also needs to balance commercial filming and photography with the impacts of tourism in popular areas.
“They want to take videos, they want to show the world where they’ve been,” Seekings said. “And a lot of places, some more than others, are very popular, like East Bay Street and Rainbow Row. So on top of that, if we allow for commercial activity filming, photography, it’s really just a lot. And so we just have to balance it.”
City officials said family photos and wedding photos around town would not be affected by the changes.
For large-scale projects, Riccio said those shoots require a special events permit and approval from the Special Events Committee.
“I want to kind of clarify that a film and a photography permit will be for the smaller scale type of operations,” Riccio said. “Any larger scale will have to go to the full committee for Special Events for approval, because they take a lot more logistics and police and, and all kind of, of, different, issues that evolve around a larger, scale impact, photo shoot and filming.”
Seekings also wants permitting to better account for neighborhood routines, including street sweeping and trash pickup.
“Don’t get in the way of all those things,” Seekings said. “Let’s think about that as we permit commercial activity where private enterprise is making money off of the city of Charleston, and we have to manage it, we get the burden of it. Let’s just make sure it’s an appropriate burden at the appropriate time.”
The proposed ordinance is being developed alongside the city’s reworking of its tourism management plan. Riccio said the city is reviewing tourism-related issues “as they affect the quality of life of our residents,” including the filming and photography policy being incorporated into the special events permitting process.
City staff said they are working with community stakeholders and elected officials to finalize the ordinance. The proposal must go through committee and then three readings at City Council. Riccio said he hopes the changes will be codified within the next six months once the ordinance is ready.