Drive-thru restaurants, now prohibited, could be coming to this Myrtle Beach road

Drive-thru restaurants could be coming to Myrtle Beach’s Robert M. Grissom Parkway.

A request submitted by C. F. Smith Property Group seeks to amend the Myrtle Beach Zoning Code to allow drive-thru restaurants that meet certain criteria in a mixed-use area on Robert Grissom M. Parkway.

Although the request doesn’t name particular restaurants, it would open the door for development in the future.

“We’re not here asking for a specific case, a specific property,” a C. F. Smith Property Group representative told the Myrtle Beach Planning Commission. “This is more just a clarification that on this corridor, which does have a good mix of single family, multifamily and commercial, that we would request being allowed this.”

If the code is amended, restaurants won’t be the first drive-thru facilities in the area. City zoning already allows drive-thru banks and pharmacies. Restaurants with drive-thru service, however, are prohibited.

“Restaurants with drive-thru service are prohibited in the (mixed-use, medium density) district except for those structures that abut Kings Hwy, structures are less than 5,000 square feet in area, and had drive-thru facilities in place prior to the adoption of Ordinance 2014-34 (June 10, 2014),” the code says.

C. F. Smith Property Group wants to revise that section to include restaurants abutting Robert M. Grissom Parkway with order boards at least 400 feet from the closest single-family residentially zoned property.

With city staff’s recommendation of approval, the request is set to advance. In order to be implemented, it will first have to go through two readings and be approved as a city ordinance.