B&C eyes property near Myrtle Beach airport

Burroughs & Chapin wants to take back control of property it owns adjacent to the Myrtle Beach airport where Horry County has held the option to purchase the land for more than a decade.

The Horry County Council signaled it’s willing to release the development company from the agreement, because they no longer plan to purchase the property for an airport expansion to build a second runway.

Asked what future use B&C planned for the property, spokeswoman Lei Gainer declined to give specifics.

“It was set aside for expansion of the second runway. Now that idea has been abandoned, we are simply asking the county to release the property from the set aside agreement and allow it to be used for economic development,” Gainer said in an email.

The 31 acre property along Shetland Lane is part of the set-aside deal the company struck as part of the 1999 development agreement. The Horry County Council voted unanimously during a first reading last week to release the property early from the purchase agreement, which extends until 2020.

Mark Lazarus, Horry County Council chairman, says the county no longer has any use for the property.

“Myrtle Beach said ‘we’re not going to have it,’ so we wound up building the terminal building on the east side of the runway, so there won’t be a second runway,” Lazarus said. “We don’t need that property for any public benefit.”

“What this does is allows them to develop or sell it to someone else that will develop it, that will in turn bring tax dollars onto the tax rolls, which will provide extra dollars for the county and for the cities and for the schools,” Lazarus said.

“So, it was a good move on our part, instead of having property just sit there, collecting no tax dollars at all, that would ever be used,” Lazarus said.

The property is zoned for use as a mobile home park, but once the real estate is released from the agreement, that can change, said David Schwerd, deputy director of planning for Horry County.

“It’s not locked into the old regulation, they could ask for any use they wanted,” Schwerd said.

B&C has not submitted proposed development plans to the county for consideration. Neither have they requested that the city of Myrtle Beach annex the property, said Mark Kruea, Myrtle Beach spokesman.

The ordinance to release the property from the purchase agreement is set for final approval at the Aug. 16 council meeting.

In exchange for relinquishing the purchase option, the county added certain deed restrictions to ensure that future use is consistent with FAA regulations because of its proximity to the airport.

“The subject property will only be used for purposes which are compatible with the noise levels generated by aircraft using the Myrtle Beach International airport,” the ordinance said.

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "B&C eyes property near Myrtle Beach airport."