New Horry County and school board district maps are here. See what’s changed.
Horry County’s new district maps — produced as a result of the once-a-decade redistricting process — are here.
The map, while in draft form, lays out new boundaries for Horry County Council and Horry County Board of Education districts, and compacts a number of growing or already populated areas into tighter districts.
That’s a change, county leaders on the Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee said, that eliminates “fingers” of the previous districts that stretched into neighboring areas. The district that now contains Carolina Forest, for example, previously reached into Myrtle Beach city limits, while the district that now contains Forestbrook previously reached into parts of Conway.
The new districts, said Horry County IT/GIS Director Tim Oliver said, are “much more compact than they have been in the past. We lost significant fingers that were in the previous districts.”
You can view an interactive version of the proposed map here.
The new, more compact districts would consolidate which council members oversee which areas. County Council member Dennis DiSabato and school board member Tracy Winters, for example, will exclusively represent Carolina Forest while council member Johnny Vaught and school board member Melanie Wellons will have a tighter district around Forestbrook. The districts representing Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, too, will be more strictly contained within city limits.
And some growing areas, like the S.C. 90 and S.C. 905 corridors, will be almost fully contained within one district, represented by County Council member Danny Hardee. On the school board, Neil James would represent the area.
The more compact districts, said County Council member Tyler Servant, who chairs the redistricting committee, will allow residents to have better representation.
“When you have communities that are broken up it’s tough for communities to have a strong voice on issues,” Servant said. “And by having communities together it allows neighbors to get with a single council member to understand the issues and be able to address it.”
A more compact district was an ask made by the Carolina Forest Civic Association, which organizes residents and lobbies local leaders to address community issues.
Over the coming weeks, members of the public will have the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed maps. Horry County will hold a public input meeting on the map on Dec. 1 and the redistricting committee will vote to approve the map in mid-January. That would put the maps on track to win County Council approval by mid-February or early March.
In addition to releasing the new district maps, county leaders also published population and demographic data for the county’s 11 districts. Each district will have approximately 32,000 residents in it, and will be more diverse than 10 years ago.
Overall, each district will be roughly 77% white, compared to an average of 80% white a decade ago. District seven, which includes Conway and is represented by Orton Bellamy on the county council and by Janet Graham on the school board, remains the most diverse district with 62% of its residents identifying as white and 29% identifying as Black.
District five, which includes Surfside Beach and Garden City and is represented by Servant on the county council and Howard Barnard on the school board, remains the least diverse, with 91% of its residents identifying as white and only 2% identifying as Black.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a link to the interactive version of proposed map.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
