Cruise ships' visibility puts off potential home buyers

Charleston real estate is our passion. As Realtors, our job is to showcase Charleston's assets. Daily, we have the honor of sharing with interested home buyers our city's rich historic traditions, abundant waters and marshes, outstanding cuisine, top-notch medical facilities, and gracious hospitality. And of course we also have the privilege of showing our clients some of the most historic, celebrated and well-preserved homes in the Southeast.

In addition to helping our clients, our work translates into a better Charleston economy.

Earlier this year Forbes Magazine identified Charleston as the ninth strongest real estate market in the nation. On the lower peninsula alone, there are over 250 Realtors.

Using recent census and population estimates from 2000 and 2009, the Charleston Regional Development Alliance calculates an average of 34 new people move to the Charleston region every day. In 2009, Realtors sold 133 residential units on the southern peninsula (zip code 29401), at an average price well over $1 million.

Increasingly, our ability to flaunt our fair city to home buyers is frustrated by the recent influx of cruise ships. These gargantuan ships puffing black exhaust and bellowing horns stand in stark contrast to the distinctive properties we are selling. Traffic is snarled and views of the harbor are blocked.

Twice a week, sometimes more, we must avoid the waterfront, when it is the very place our clients are clamoring to see. Yes, Charleston has accommodated cruise ships for decades, but never at such a high frequency, and certainly not at the immense scale now standard for modern cruise ships today.

Regrettably, it is not unusual for clients to look askance at our waterfront and pose apprehensive questions about the frequency and duration of cruise ship visits. More regrettably, we don't have answers.

Mayor Joe Riley and the other members of City Council must implement reasonable local standards for the cruise industry to help assure that the charm of the city's built environment will endure. Adopting cruise standards is really no different than implementing architectural and other land use rules.

In Charleston, there are pages upon pages of city regulations that govern building height and scale, lot widths, paint color, tree types and windowpanes. More to the point, there is a city regulation limiting rickshaw operation in order to avoid "a carnival or theme-park atmosphere which is destructive of the historic and traditional ambiance of the peninsula which is substantially made up of 18th and 19th century structures." While not without their detractors, these codes help guard our city's rare authenticity. If it is reasonable to regulate house heights, it is equally fair to place reasonable standards on cruise ships. Akin to our land use rules, these standards will ensure cruise ships will not ultimately upend the quality of life for current and future residents.

Many people who love being here will leave and many people that would consider living here will never come if cruise ship visits are expanded. We are not alone in asking for standards. The Preservation Society of Charleston, Wagener Terrace Neighborhood Association, Coastal Conservation League, Historic Ansonborough Neighborhood Association, Historic Charleston Foundation, Charlestowne Neighborhood Association, and the City of Folly Beach have all formally presented position statements demanding local cruise ship standards be implemented.

Our job is to sell houses to people who will live, work, play and become an integral part of our community. The cruise industry's job is to sell cruise vacations. It is the mayor and City Council's job to acknowledge the delicate balance between the authenticity of our historic city and a city dominated by cruise-based tourism and take action in a manner that protects our quality of life. Reasonable standards will do just that.

Thomas Bennett

Carriage Properties

Exchange Street

Charleston

This letter was also signed by: Helen Geer, William Means Real Estate, Christie's International Real Estate; Brown Hamrick, Disher Hamrick & Myers; Lois Lane, Lane & Smythe Real Estate; John Liberatos, John Liberatos Real Estate Co.; Daniel Ravenel, Daniel Ravenel Sotheby's International Realty.