‘And we still don’t like it.’ Loris-area residents reject plans for 259-home subdivision
At a contentious and often rambunctious public meeting Wednesday night, Loris-area residents turned out to loudly oppose a proposed 259-home subdivision across the street from where they live.
Many of the 40-plus residents who attended the meeting in Conway live in the Porter’s Bay subdivision, three miles from Loris.
Developers want to build a nearly-identical subdivision to theirs across Lawson Road from the neighborhood. They planned to do so earlier, but were slowed by the 2008 economic crash, developer Walter Warren, an engineer with Thomas & Hutton, explained. Much of the land surrounding Porter’s Bay is undeveloped, or used for farming.
Wednesday’s meeting was the second time the residents heard Thomas & Hutton’s pitch, and the developer had come back with improvements to the plan that addressed flooding, water pressure and traffic.
The resident’s didn’t want to hear it.
“So basically they’re going to make Loris a city just like Conway and Myrtle Beach ... so it can bring more money into Horry County,” resident Crystal Clubb asserted at the meeting.
Another man, after hearing Warrens’ proposed improvements to the plan, shouted, “And we still don’t like it.”
The residents talked over one another frequently and shouted interjections as Warren attempted to answer questions about the plans. At one point in the meeting, several people stormed out in disgust. At another point, a man in the audience threatened to sue Warren if his firm built the neighborhood.
The meeting was so contentious that Kathleen Moyer stood up at one point to say, explicitly, that she liked the project. She was the only one to voice that opinion Wednesday.
“I am not opposed to this project,” she said. “I welcome this project as a homeowner in Porter’s Bay and I want you to hear the other side of that.”
The county Planning Commission scheduled Wednesday’s public meeting after residents protested. The rezoning request now moves to the County Council for a vote in approximately three weeks.
Residents irate about traffic
The project Thomas & Hutton has proposed would place 259 single-family homes on 112 acres along U.S. 701, just outside of Loris. The developer is seeking to rezone the property from the broad Commercial Forest Agriculture category to a narrower residential category. The change would give the neighborhood a density of 2.3 homes per acre, with quarter-acre lots the most common.
The redesigned plans Warren presented Wednesday showed two “green space” crossings that would help stormwater drain out of both Porter’s Bay and the new neighborhood. Warren added that his firm is working with Grand Strand Water & Sewer to build a new water main to boost water pressure to both neighborhoods.
The plans also showed Thomas & Hutton repaving part of Lawson Road as well as adding turning lanes to U.S. 701 to allow traffic to flow in and out of the new development.
Residents, though, took issue with those turning lanes and argued that they weren’t long enough to accommodate traffic. Some demanded the developer work with the South Carolina Department of Transportation to install a traffic light at the intersection. Warren countered by saying the road wasn’t nearly busy enough for SCDOT to do so.
County data shows that section of U.S. 701 is between 40-45% of its total capacity. Warren said his firm completed a traffic study as part of its plans and got similar results.
“If volumes are what you’re saying they are, then we easily would be able to approach DOT and this could ultimately become signalized,” Warren said.
But, he added, “right now, it’s nowhere near” that point.
Linda White, a Porter’s Bay resident, said the U.S 701 intersection with her neighborhood is currently “doable” but that she worries about adding more cars from the new development.
“With that much more traffic coming in and out...that’s going to be dangerous, that’s just going to be dangerous,” she said.
Donna Freeman, another Porter’s Bay resident, agreed. Both Freeman and White moved to the area from other states within the last decade.
“The traffic, it’s going to be a big problem,” Freeman said. “It’s going to be a lot of people killed there.”
Other residents worried about school bus access in and out of the two neighborhoods. One resident, who said he drives a school bus, said the added traffic would make turning in and out more difficult than it already is.
One resident, James Iacoviello, said the county should pause new development until it can build more infrastructure like new roads. White agreed.
“There’s no long range plan,” she said. “There needs to be a long-range plan even it means they have to limit the number of building permits per year while everything catches up.”
White and others argued they weren’t opposed to new development and new residents, but that they were more concerned with traffic. White said she moved to Horry County from Connecticut five years ago.
“I was happy to come and happy to have a place to live, that’s why I wouldn’t object to the new houses being built, (but) not as many as they’re proposing,” she said. “It’s the traffic issue that’s my concern, it’s not the people coming here because they have the right to be here just like I did.”
‘Time to give it a rest’
Horry County currently follows its 2040 Future Land Use plan for all development, though the County Council amends it frequently. In this case, the county Planning Department said the proposed subdivision fits in squarely with the 2040 plan.
Council member Danny Hardee, who represents the area, said even though Thomas & Hutton proposed stormwater and water pressure improvements as well as turning lanes, it might not be enough to win the rezoning request. He cautioned residents that the landowner could build a similar project — without the proposed improvements — under the land’s current zoning.
The land is owned by Squires Brothers Investment Group, run by the children of a longtime Aynor-area farmer. The land is valued at $426,000, according to county property records.
But, Hardee said, he’s not in a position to convince residents to pick one plan over another. He said his job is to represent the residents’ wishes.
“By saying I think they should take it, that’s me trying to make up their minds and that’s not my call,” Hardee said. “I don’t want to make that call, I’m just going to represent what they want.”
At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, residents presented Hardee with a petition opposing the project that included scores of signatures.
“You know you’re going to see growth and stuff but, geez, it’s time to give it a rest,” Freeman, one of the residents, said. “It really is time to give it a rest.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 1:12 PM.
