Plans for major 700-acre development in Burgess are off the table. Here’s why.
Developers who had proposed a major 3,900-home project complete with 13 acres of commercial space on a 706-acre tract of land in the Burgess area of Horry County have formally withdrawn those plans.
Residents had gathered at an Horry County Planning Commission meeting Thursday evening for a public hearing on the proposal, but were told no such hearing would happen.
“If anyone’s here for the big tract of land on S.C. 707, that’s no longer on the agenda so if you want sneak out of here you can,” Planning Commission Chairman Hunter Platt told the audience.
On Friday, county spokesperson Kelly Moore and Planning Commission chair Hunter Platt confirmed that the developers had formally withdrawn their plans. The developers didn’t provide a reason for the withdrawal, Moore said.
It’s not fully clear why the landowner, The May Company, and the developer, Thomas & Hutton, withdrew the plans. Walter Warren, an agent for Thomas & Hutton working on the development, did not return messages Friday seeking comment. And Karen Horton, an agent for the landowner, said she was unsure why specifically the plans were withdrawn.
Still, observers of Horry County development said they suspect that concerns raised by residents about increased traffic and population in the Burgess area likely scuttled the plans. Residents had made those concerns known at a community meeting and in emails over the past month.
“I think it all stems from the number of dwelling units which drives the other questions about the amount of traffic and the impact on the schools and everything else,” said Al Jordan, the president of the Greater Burgess Community Association, which plays a significant role in development issues in the area. “I think when people heard (3,900) dwelling units they didn’t hear the next sentence. It’s really tough to overcome that.”
As proposed, the plans for the 706-acre tract called for a planned development district that included single family homes, apartments, outdoor storage and commercial space, as well as a retirement home.
Original plans called for 2,282 single-family homes and 1,590 apartments, along with 13 acres of commercial space. Those plans were later reduced, according to county records, to 1,900 single-family homes, 1,200 apartments and the commercial space.
But residents were still opposed. Some told The Sun News they worried about increased traffic on S.C. 707 and surrounding roads in Burgess, while others said they were concerned the development could push additional stormwater onto nearby properties, causing flooding.
And other residents were worried that a nearby cemetery, located alongside the 13th fairway of the Blackmoor Golf Course, could be damaged by flooding. That cemetery, as well as the development land, were once part of a collection of rice plantations where more than 1,000 people were enslaved.
The cemetery, some residents believe, holds many unmarked graves of formerly enslaved people, and those residents began an effort in December to preserve the graves if the development moved forward. Black residents of the Burgess area continued to bury family members at that cemetery in the decades after emancipation, up to the 1960s.
Read more about the search for graves here.
While only a handful of the graves are marked, radar technology has shown that the land contains dozens of burials. The residents worried that if the area flooded due to the development, the graves would be damaged.
Other residents worried that infrastructure in the Burgess area, including the roads and schools, couldn’t handle the addition of thousands of new residents if the development went forward. County records showed that the nearby St. James schools, elementary, middle and high schools, were all at or nearing capacity. Traffic data estimated that S.C. 707, which the development borders, was at 60% to 65% capacity.
Jordan said he believes the land will eventually be developed, though he doesn’t know when or how. Even though the developers withdrew the current plans for the land, known as the Bumgardner tract, Jordan said he suspects the developers will eventually submit new plans to Horry County.
“I suspect they’re going to want to rework it and come back with a revised plan,” he said. “I just can’t imagine that it won’t get developed, I don’t see that as a choice.”
