Horry County planners give nod to concrete plant plans

A planned concrete batch plant got its first nod from the Horry County Planning Commission Thursday night.

The potential plant would be built on a 2-acre parcel on Wesley Road off of George Bishop Parkway in the Myrtle Beach section of Horry County. The area is zoned for high intensity manufacturing. There are several apartments a few hundred feet from the property and the Claypond Village development is about 600 feet away.

The planning commission approved the plan with the caveat that the owner add a stipulation in the property's lease that trucks exit Wesley Road onto George Bishop Parkway near the site of the troubled Freestyle Music Park. The plan will go to Horry County Council and will need three readings before it can move forward.

The council is also debating a change in the county's noise ordinance that would allow qualified existing batch plants to operate overnight if they are working on an approved government project. The current ordinance prohibits plants from operating between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

One resident attended the meeting armed with a 30-signature petition raising concerns about the possible traffic, noise and air pollution.

"Traffic on George Bishop Parkway has gotten prettybusy. It's hard to see out ofWesley Street as it is," said Michael Thomas. "There are residents about 400 or 500 feet away on Wesley Street. We're concerned about the air conditions, and traffic will be worse than it is now and then there's the issue of noise."

Thomas lives a few hundred feet from the proposed site on Wesley Street in a strip of multi-use apartments with businesses on the bottom floor and retrofitted apartments on the top floor. Several Horry County Planning Department staff members said they were not sure when the apartments were renovated because the area has been zoned for light industrial uses since 1987.

Staff also suggested that progress has been made in how concrete plants operate.

Myra Starnes, owner of the property, said she plans to stipulate that trucks leave the property via George Bishop Parkway and that the planned plant be a self-contained plant with less noise and methods to eliminate much of the water and air pollution.

"The new plants have dust containment and noise containment. That's the type of plant I would be interested in building there," she said. "With all the new regulations [the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control] will be on them like white on rice. And then on the back, the easement for the power lines means that nothing will ever, ever be allowed to build up next to that site."

The plan will go before Horry County Council next week.