Could environmental concerns stop this new SC hospital from happening?

A proposed Carolina Forest hospital is set for a public showdown next week after local advocates, state officials and county planners expressed environmental concerns about the project.

The hospital, proposed by Conway Medical Center, would be a 50-bed medical facility with an emergency room and intensive care unit located along International Drive, and meant to give Carolina Forest residents closer access to medical care.

But the lot where CMC is proposing to build the hospital is surrounded by wetlands and nature preserves, areas that could either make building a hospital difficult or pose threats, because state conservationists conduct regular, controlled burns of the nature preserves. The Horry County Planning Commission reviewed the plans for the hospital for the first time on Thursday and noted the public had called or written with concerns. A public hearing on the development is scheduled for next Thursday at 5:30 p.m. the county’s Government and Justice Center.

Local activists have also raised concerns about the project. April O’Leary, the head of Horry County Rising, the anti-flooding advocacy group, said Thursday that she’d like to see CMC build a new hospital, just not where it proposed to do so. Building anything on that lot, she said, could damage the wetlands either because developers would have to fill in the wetlands, or because storm water runoff from the impervious concrete and asphalt could disturb or contaminate the ecosystem there.

“I have nothing against CMC, it think it’s wonderful they want to provide a medical facility for residents but this is not the location to do it,” O’Leary said. “They might come next week and show us how they fit a square peg through a circle hole but right now I just don’t see it.”

County planners, though, didn’t delve into the issue in part because John Poston, a senior project manager at Development Resource Group, which is helping CMC develop the hospital, said plans for where and how it would build the hospital on the site aren’t yet finalized. Poston, who also serves as vice chair of the Horry County Board of Education, said he and the hospital were still working to “mitigate” issues presented by the surrounding wetlands.

The public could possibly see plans for the hospital for the first time next week.

“It would be helpful to have something to look at there,” Planning Commission Chairman Steven Neeves said at the council meeting. “I think everyone is looking at the wetlands going, ‘How in the world are you going to build anything?’”

County planners have noted that the hospital conflicts with the county’s Imagine 2040 master plan.

First announced in early September, CMC’s proposed hospital would include an emergency room and offer women’s health, surgical, cancer care, orthopedics, and imaging services. The $150 million hospital would include eight labor and delivery rooms and two C-section rooms for expecting mothers, six intensive care beds, three operating rooms and a six-bay infusion center. The 50 beds would be transferred from Conway Medical Center’s primary 210-bed facility in Conway.

CMC has proposed to build the new hospital on a 359-acre tract of land along International Drive, adjacent to the state Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve, the county International Republic Heritage Preserve and the Carolina Forest neighborhood The Farm. According to county planners, about 223 acres of the property is considered wetlands, leaving more than 100 acres for development. As designed, the hospital would sit on 35 to 40 acres of the 359 acre lot and include landscaping that blends the hospital property into the surrounding wetlands. If the hospital moves forward as planned, it could create up to 250 new jobs and open by 2024.

‘Not compatible’

On Monday, the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) sent a letter to John Danford, the county’s deputy planning & zoning director, saying the project would interfere with DNR’s conservation efforts in the area and could cause other environmental harms, too.

The letter, which DNR shared with The Sun News, says that DNR’s controlled burns of the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve could interfere with the daily operations of a hospital.

DNR conducts controlled, or prescribed, burns of certain wildlife preserves to help prevent uncontrollable wildfires.

To conduct those prescribed burns, DNR Director Robert Boyles explained in the letter than the department blocks access to International Drive to prevent drivers and others from the smoke and other harms. The closed gates at either end of International Drive could also block potential hospital traffic.

“Knowing that prescribed fires will be conducted on adjacent property and that smoke will be present in this location, the SCDNR finds siting a medical facility in this location has unavoidable risks for the operation of a medical facility, including the use of emergency medical ambulances and helicopters,” Boyles wrote. “Ordinary and emergency visits to such a medical facility are also subject to the temporary closure of International Drive during prescribed fires.”

He added: “The SCDNR asserts that a medical facility, such as a hospital, and the prescribed fire management activities on (Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve) are not compatible.”

Boyles also wrote that the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve is home to several protected species including Venus Flytraps, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and Bald Eagles. To protect those creatures, Boyles wrote, the DNR must protect the Carolina bays and pine trees in the area, which provide them protection and a habitat.

On Thursday, Poston, the project manager, said he and the hospital were working the issues raised by DNR.

“We immediately went to work on those concerns, trying to work out issues related to vegetation and controlled burn,” Poston told county planners. “We are working on those issues as well as the access issues.”

In a statement, CMC spokesperson Allyson Floyd said the hospital would only occupy the upland areas of the property, and not the wetlands, Boyles noted that a large building near a wetland would disrupt the ecosystem.

“Siting large buildings and associated roads and parking facilities on such a parcel would have substantial challenges or wetland impacts,” Boyles wrote.

In the statement, Floyd wrote that hospital officials had spoken with Boyles since he sent his letter and that the two parties will work together as the development moves forward. The hospital will also “continue to work with Horry County to alleviate any possible concerns.”

Floyd noted that the hospital has not yet purchased the property it is seeking state and local permits for, and is still conducting “due diligence” on the purchase. The hospital would need a license from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to open, which CMC applied for in May.

“As we await DHEC’s decision,” Floyd wrote, “We continue to actively work with our engineers and site planners to ensure that we effectively utilize the property, while respecting the environment and maintaining its natural habitat and beauty.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 11:06 AM.