How a dirt road held up an Horry County housing development off Highway 90
A dirt road through scenic wetlands was enough to delay a rezoning request for at least another month while plans change.
A rezoning request seeking approval to bring 97 homes located near S.C. Highway 90 and Thomas Road was deferred at Thursday’s planning commission meeting over safety of the homes in a flood.
Developers were seeking to rezone from Commercial Forest Agriculture zoning code to SF10 that allows for single-family homes on at least 10,000 square-feet lots.
But problems with Thomas Road, a dirt road, held up a decision on the project. The matter will be deferred to next month’s planning commission meeting so that further studies can be done.
The original rezoning request is the third part of a larger Fox Rae Farms housing development approved in two earlier rezoning requests. In total, 276 units will be built across the three tracts of land at a gross density of 1.57 acres a unit.
Ten homes would be built in a designated flood zone, while some were designed against existing wetlands. Plans presented do not have wetlands being filled, but Horry County Planning Director David Schwerd said this could result in some wetlands being filled by homeowners.
“If people think they own it, they think it’s their right to do whatever they want with it,” he said.
Ultimately, for the developer’s desired number of houses to be built, something will need to be done to Thomas Road to get the full amount of lots. The dirt road is not wide enough to satisfy requirements for a required second point of access for that many lots.
If nothing changes and there is only one entrance with no special permission granted, the amounts of lots must decrease to 50.
April O’Leary, leader of flood advocacy group Horry County Rising, said if rapid flooding happened like during Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas, the families living in a new development could be stuck.
“I’ve spoken to half a dozen families out there that are concerned about being cut off by flood waters,” O’Leary said. “I do have tremendous concerns based off — we just don’t have the infrastructure at this time.”
Venture Engineering’s Steve Powell, who represents the property owner, responded that good road design could help give other folks living in the Thomas Road better access to Highway 90 during flooding. A bridge could potentially be used to improve access in a flood event.
“In the process of design, all these concerns can be addressed,” Powell said. “I think it is a plus for the residents of Thomas Road.”
For now, Powell will go back and redo the rezoning plans. Changes to how the project is designed relative to the wetlands and how Thomas Road could be altered to address concerns about wetland filling and access to the development in flooding events. The new rezoning request will most likely seek a multi-residential zoning code.
Multi-residential zoning requires the developer bring more specific plans, potentially including a study of wetlands and the topography of the area.
“It would be done as a part of the rezoning request, which is why MRD is preferred,” Schwerd said.
