The ongoing debate about overdevelopment in Horry County often pits citizens against developers with Horry County Council in the middle.
The public desire to slow down development when developers request a property rezoning and the complication of underlying zoning in most areas of the county could be described in Winston Churchill’s words as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
Such a rezoning request is currently in the works in Horry County with respect to a proposed rezoning of what is known as the Bumgardner Tract off of Hwy 707 between St. James High School and Blackmoor Golf Club.
The property owners, the Wall family of Horry County, are asking Horry County Council to rezone approximately 721 acres (none of which is wetlands) of a 1,421 total acre tract from Commercial Forest Agriculture (CFA) to basically single-family zoning with a little multi-family and commercial zoning included.
If the rezoning request is approved, the development agreement shows approximately 3,700 housing units at final buildout, approximately 80 percent single family homes.
The possibility of 3,700 new homes replacing what is now mostly trees immediately set some citizens’ heads spinning with a desire to stop the rezoning.
What those opposing the rezoning apparently do not understand is that development of the property cannot be stopped. The current CFA zoning already allows for the construction of approximately 4,300 multi-family units.
I have spoken to representatives of the property owner and have been assured the multi-family units will be constructed if the rezoning request to single family is not approved. In today’s housing market in Horry County, the developers are confident 4,300 multi-family units could be sold as easily as single family homes in the area in which the property is located.
The enigma, if you will, is not how development on the property can be stopped, but rather what type of development will be constructed.