RESULTS: August 17 North Myrtle Beach City Council Meeting

During the August 17 North Myrtle Beach City Council meeting, six City employees were provided with Longevity Service Awards in recognition of their excellent service to North Myrtle Beach residents and visitors. Award recipients were Finance Director Randy Wright (30 years), Fleet Maintenance Mechanic Kevin Harrell (15), North Myrtle Beach Aquatic & Fitness Center Activities Assistant Director Diane Bartlett (l0), Construction Maintenance Crew Leader I Robby Herring (10), Assistant Building Official John Hill (10), and North Myrtle Beach Aquatic & Fitness Center Activities Director Heather Smith (10).

Mayor Pro Tempore Terry White presented a Proclamation declaring the week of September 11-23 to be Constitution Week in North Myrtle Beach, joining with the Theodosia Burr Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in encouraging “all residents to appreciate and understand the importance of the U.S. Constitution to our way of life, our freedom, and the rights and duties each of us has as a citizen of South Carolina and the United States of America.”

City Council passed a resolution opposing offshore drilling and exploration along the Coast of
South Carolina. In its resolution, City Council noted that in 2014 Horry County received $3.8 billion in domestic travel expenditures to lead South Carolina's 46 counties, accounting for 31.3% of the state total. These expenditures supported $682.6 million in payroll income and 39,000 jobs within the county. Tourism generated $370 million in state and local tax revenue.

The resolution also states that North Myrtle Beach works hard to maintain and expand its positive standing as a premier family-friendly tourism and residency destination in Horry
County and along the South Carolina coast, and must assess very carefully any and all proposed offshore and onshore activities that may hold the potential to threaten the livelihoods and investments of its citizens.

The resolution emphasizes that Council must continue to protect the continued good health of the city’s unique natural environment, noting that just one spill could forever sully the North Myrtle Beach environment and that of all of the Grand Strand, and threaten the long-term viability of our economy and environment.

The resolution also notes that the slight and speculative benefit of oil and gas exploration and drilling off our coast that would likely accrue to the global energy market is not worth the risk of even a single incident that would cripple the local and statewide economy.

City Council passed a resolution in support of the City's Occupational Health and Safety Policy Program. The City participates in the Municipal Association Insurance and Risk Financing Fund (SCMIRF). As part of the participation requirements, the City annually performs a Risk Self-Assessment, which requires an adoption by resolution of a Risk Management Statement. The statement affirms the City's commitment to the prevention and control of accidental loss. The adopted resolution will be issued in memo form to all employees with an explanation of how to report incidents and/or accidents.

Council passed second reading of an ordinance allowing for the annexation and zoning of two lots adjacent to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and S.C. Highway 31 (Carolina Bays Parkway). At its August 3 meeting, Council voted to table second reading of the ordinance, which at that time included three lots, because it was concerned over the need for adequate buffering between the boundary of the Pelican Bay Neighborhood (located in Horry County’s jurisdiction) and the land proposed for annexation. Prior to second reading, the applicant chose to remove one of the three tracts from the annexation proposal (Waterway-Rust, LLC (TMS #143-00-01-016/PIN #357-00-00-0004) in order to be annexed and zoned R-4. The option created a buffer to protect existing quality of life within the Pelican Bay development.

Council passed first reading of an ordinance to rezone two properties totaling about .61 acres off Little River Neck Road near the City’s water tower from HC (Highway Commercial) to R-3 (Mobile Manufactured Home Residential). City staff requested the change to the zoning district in order to clarify the location of the HC zoning district as originally designated when the city was first incorporated in 1968. The rezoning would lessen the area of HC zoning by establishing the new HC zoning district approximately 300 feet into the parcel from the edge of the Sea Mountain Highway right-of-way.

Among additional allowable residential uses, the R-3 zoning district would permit the construction of single-family detached uses on minimum 10,000 square foot lots as a right, without having to request a special exception to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), as is the case now. The affected property owner is aware of the proposal and supports the rezoning. Meanwhile, the affected property owner has simultaneously pursued a special exception within the subject area to allow a single-family detached use within the HC zoning district with the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA).

Council passed first reading of an ordinance to amend the Zoning Ordinance text to change the development standards for mixed use within the Highway commercial zoning district. City Council approved an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance text to limit the amount of multifamily allowed by-right within the HC zoning district in May 2015. Approving this revision would clearly allow a single residential unit to be constructed above a commercial use within the HC zoning district, which was staff’s intention all along.

Proposed Changes: Understanding a need to preserve a portion of a commercial district to be at least partially used for commercial purposes, staff inadvertently left out the allowance for permitting just one residential unit atop a commercial use in a single structure in the HC zoning district. To clarify this, the proposed ordinance would remove a small amount of language placed within the HC zoning district as part of the recent zoning text amendment. Without this language, the definition of "mixed-use" as defined in the ordinance would apply. The current definition of a mixed-use building is "a building that contains residential dwelling unit or units and commercial uses."

Council passed first reading of an ordinance to lease a portion of the lake located at the North Myrtle Beach Park & Sports Complex to Apex Wake Parks, LLC for the operation of a cable wake park amenity. The cable system will pull persons on water skis, wake boards, etc., over the leased portion of the lake. The term of the lease would be for a period of 10 years with an option by the lessee to extend the lease for two additional renewal terms of 10 years each. 

L-R- City Manager Mike Mahaney, Randy Wright, Kevin Harrell, Heather Smith, Robby Herring, John Hill, Diane Bartlett 

Mayor Pro Tem Terry White, DAR Chapter Regent Jane Harvey, and Members of the Theodosia Burr Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution





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