‘It’s a fallacy’: Grande Dunes residents kick up ruckus over new road at Myrtle Beach meeting
A proposal that would have connected the Grande Dunes Members Club and former Waterway Hills Golf Club was denied by Myrtle Beach planning officials on Tuesday after residents came out in droves asserting their opposition.
LStar Ventures, who bought the 2,200-acre Grande Dunes development from Burroughs & Chapin Co. in 2013, proposed amending the Grande Dunes Planned Unit Development to connect two limited access private roads at the northern end.
While the proposal was submitted to the Planning Commission last month, LStar and members of the Golf Village Property Owners Association have been in negotiations over the proposed connectivity for nearly two months.
According to POA president John Bree, no progress has been made between the two groups to form a legally binding agreement. Bree said an offer was made by LStar but his association refused to agree to a non-binding proposal that doesn’t include contingencies for community approval of the proposed access.
“Clearly, we’re more comfortable if we have an agreement in hand first. We want the community to speak,” Bree said. “This is something that obviously is a subject that has been unfortunately divisive in the community.”
Currently, the proposal must receive at least 67 percent of residential approval, Bree said. He requested planning officials defer their vote until an agreement is made, but the commission instead voted against LStar’s application.
Planning Chairman Bill Pritchard said if the commission didn’t take action Tuesday they would have been forced to make a recommendation on the proposal in 30 days, whether or not an agreement had been made. Despite the denial, the proposal will go to City Council for consideration.
Several residents who live within Grande Dunes submitted planning officials with petitions outlining their opposition to the proposal. Many noted how they pay to live in an exclusive environment that will be dramatically impacted if the roads are connected. Some explained that the road would provide access to Waterway residents who would cut through Golf Village, potentially devaluing their homes and causing wear and tear to the roads.
While LStar has sold portions of its land since the 2013 purchase, it still owns the 18-hole golf course and surrounding housing developments, including Golf Village. It later acquired 240 acres north of the development that included Waterway Hills.
The properties west of the Intracoastal Waterway touch at the border of the cities of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach with Grande Dunes in the former and Waterway Hills in the latter.
LStar’s Waterway Hills property in North Myrtle Beach is currently listed within the district at Grande Dunes North, but it plans to build a neighborhood called Waterway Hills Village with about 888 homes and is expected to begin selling by the end of 2019, according to Margaret Lacalle, president of the company’s Coastal North Division.
The company’s goal is to build a private road from the new neighborhood to the Grande Dunes private Members Club at Terra Verde Drive, Lacalle said. The connection would be blocked by a gate that could be opened only by members of the club.
Lacalle said the connectivity would have promoted membership at the Grand Dunes Members Club, which is located between the two communities.
“Taking it to semi-private to public is in our mind, and we are property owners where we’re going to be very affected, we do not believe that opening up and putting gates where they are currently cited will in any way, shape or form bring the club to viability,” resident Sharnell Gillum said. “I think it’s a fallacy to believe connecting Waterway Hills is going to bring us the number of people necessary to make that club viable as a private club.”
While some residents shared their support for the proposal, those who spoke during the public hearing said they would like to see negotiations held in good faith before the proposal reaches City Council.
Pritchard advised LStar representatives to work with residents to come to an agreement, explaining how Council will likely side with the homeowners if the proposal doesn’t benefit the residents and appears to be an intrusion of privacy.
“Grande Dunes was sold as a gated and exclusive community and it has been presented to the buyers as something that is exclusive and separate,” Pritchard said. “I hope that you can find a way to negotiate something because if LStar takes it the way it is right now, I think the City Council will support the city residents.”
This story was originally published June 5, 2019 at 3:45 PM.
