New rentals coming to ‘downtown’ Market Common. Which council member represents the area?
After weeks of differing opinions between Market Common residents and developers, the Myrtle Beach City Council made their decision on the final stage of the Market Common plan, MarketWalk.
The majority voted in favor of it.
Myrtle Beach council members hold at-large seats; no specific member represents Market Common at the same time all represent Market Common. Council member Bill McClure campaigned to add districts for the council.
Property records show that none of the council members live in the Market Common district.
Following 47 minutes of discussion, questions, comments and concern, a majority of elected officials, including Mayor Brenda Bethune voted yes for MarketWalk, with McClure and Mayor Pro Tem Mike Lowder voting against the project.
This vote on Tuesday morning follows a recommendation from the Planning Commission and changes to the plan by the development company, Homefed Corporation.
According to Ordinance 2024-60, the new plan includes 90 townhouses and 102 cottages, a swimming pool, clubhouse, lake pavilion and park, playground, a 3,500-square-foot drive-thru Starbucks on the corner of Phillis Boulevard and Howard Avenue, 424 parking spaces, and 15 commercial parking spaces.
The planning commission’s unanimous approval of this newer plan is contingent on Homefed adding an eight-foot sidewalk along Phillis Blvd, limiting the drive-thru to a coffee shop only, and contributing money towards the completion of Thunderbolt Park Path “in an amount mutually agreeable between the developer and City Management,” the ordinance states.
At previous meetings, folk showed concerns about the new development’s traffic impact, to which developers said they had completed a traffic study with no failing scores.
After filing a Freedom of Information Act with the city, The Sun News exclusively obtained a copy of the study.
Originally, the MarketWalk plans had the space zoned as a 180,000-plus-square-foot department store, according to city documents. Those plans were then amended to add a hotel to the area.
According to the ordinance, this new plan would change the master plan from the hotel to the townhomes and cottages.
Plans of Market Common show that this parcel is the last piece of land to be developed.
