Nearly 900 housing units possibly coming to Forestbrook community
Update: The plans to put a medical center on the property were dropped at the Oct. 3 planning commission meeting.
New homes and doctors offices could be in the Forestbrook area’s future.
Nearly 900 housing units and a medical park may be built pending Horry County Council’s approval of two rezoning requests.
If approved, a new housing development and medical park would be located at the intersection of S.C. Highway 31 and Highway 544. While it’s two separate rezoning requests, Horry County Planning Commission looked at them together at its Thursday workshop meeting.
“They are tied together, they’re both remnants of the Collins’ estate property,” DDC Engineers’ Mike Wooten said.
Wooten is acting on behalf of the listed property owners Rebecca and Robert Collins. No votes were taken at the workshop meeting; the full planning commission meeting on the development will be at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 3.
The medical park request is asking for a change to the existing Weatherly Planned Unit Development. Currently, the owners can build 42 homes and highway commercial on the property. The hope is to change the existing plans to allow for both in-patient and out-patient care centers.
The housing project looks to have 690 homes and 204 multifamily units built on 266 acres. Currently zoned Commercial Forest Agriculture, the applicant is seeking to change to Multi-Residential 3. It will incorporate green space, sidewalks and a community garden.
Homes will be built on a minimum lot size of 5,000 square feet.
Horry County Planning Director David Schwerd said his staff has heard some complaints about stormwater control and traffic from the community. The complaints mostly deal with the housing development request of the two proposals.
While nearby areas have experienced some road flooding, Wooten said the property’s water does not flow toward nearby Huntington Ridge community and the former mining pits on the property will be more than enough to vastly improve the properties ability to hold its water.
“There will be a whole lot less water coming off this tract then there is now. The biggest issue we got now is traffic control,” Wooten said.
A traffic study expects once fully built the new development will produce 8,000 to 10,000 car trips a day, according to Schwerd.
The current plan has a lot of the traffic letting out onto Forestbrook Road. Wooten said the project will be a 20-year build-out, so the road will be five lanes well ahead of the completion of the project.
Widening Forestbrook Road is expected to begin in 2024. The entire road project should be completed by 2026, according to Horry County’s RIDE Project dashboard.
The development’s outlet onto Forestbrook is slightly out of line with Prather Park Drive. Planning Commission Chair Steve Neeves said he would prefer if the development plans lined up with Prather, but Wooten said it is not possible.
Neeves said the project’s traffic impact still makes him nervous because he knows how bad traffic can be near the development on Forestbrook Road.
Wooten said it is his hope that when the traffic increases, a stoplight will be built at the entrance to the development.
While the exit is currently too close to the existing stoplight at the mouth of Forestbrook Road, Wooten said he’s working with the South Carolina Department of Transportation — which sets stoplight standards — on potential changes to the traffic pattern, including the possibility of making an exception to the regulations.
He’s hoping to hear back from SCDOT before the Oct. 3 meeting, when public comment will also be held.
The second traffic outlet will be on Sunlight Drive, which empties out onto S.C. 544 and Dick Pond Road. Wooten said the traffic design is intentional to avoid dumping traffic directly into the nearby developments.
Both ordinances will require three individual readings before they are potentially approved.
“It’s two separate issues, but it’s one major tract,” Wooten said.
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 7:00 AM.