Planning commission rejects proposed rules limiting hotel stays, storage-unit residency and camping; staff urged to do more outreach

The Rock Hill Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to recommend denial of a proposed zoning amendment package that would have tightened rules governing hotel stays, self-storage occupancy and camping on private property.

Planning staff presented the package as an effort to prevent commercial uses not designed for habitation from becoming de facto permanent housing. “The intent of this is really to ensure that commercial land uses that aren't designed for housing do not become used as permanent housing so that the community doesn't experience negative impacts from that use,” a staff presenter told the commission. The draft amendments would have limited guest stays to 30 days in a rolling 12-month period with a narrow set of exceptions, required additional guest‑registry details to be available to the city on request, encouraged crime-prevention reviews and required interior-room configurations (and other security measures) for future hotels.

Staff highlighted concrete problems motivating the proposal: code-enforcement and police calls…