Massive Conway development could deliver 1,300+ homes to untouched rural land

There’s an experiment happening in Conway that could transform large-scale development projects across growth-hungry Horry County.

You’ve heard this part before: A builder has plans to put thousands of homes on land untouched by asphalt and infrastructure, knowing how quickly they’ll sell for mid-six-figure prices.

But what if the houses were built around hundreds of acres’ worth of sensitive wetlands over the next decade, and all that land then deeded to a conservation group to lock it away from use?

That’s exactly what’s about to happen in the county seat after officials approved a 10-year development agreement to allow for 1,333 homes on 300 acres at the intersection of Collins Jollie Road in the city’s northeastern reaches.

Using a planning tool known as a conservation subdivision — a first in South Carolina’s largest county — builders will set aside hundreds of acres’ worth of wetlands and other open space as they develop, eventually deeding all of it to a conservation group for eternal protection.

“There is a method to what appears to be madness,” is how Mayor Barbara Blain-Bellamy put it on Jan. 17, ahead of the town council approving the deal with applicants DDC Engineers and Bolton & Menk.

Town officials say it’s the best deal possible since the land is zoned residential as is — and eligible for up to more than 2,700 homes without the preservation plan in place.

“This is still giving us the highest and best product we can have as a development in the city. The conservation subdivision is a very unique tool. It is the best way to develop property,” City Manager Adam Emrick said. “The question is not whether they can develop the property, because they can by right.”

Resident Stephen Grooms, who lives near the proposed development, said long-term concerns about added traffic and public safety are on his mind.

“I’d just be concerned about what it’s going to do to this side of town 10 years from now, 7 years from it. I don’t think we’re built for it. I think you’re talking about changing the face of that side of town,” he said. “It’s going to completely alter our neighborhood as we know it.”

LandChoice, a Michigan-based nonprofit focused on preservation, says conservation subdivisions have several advantages:

1. More effective stormwater retention and run-off due to large tracts of open space that absorb and filter effluent
2. Preservation of up to 70% of buildable land and protection of flood plains, wetlands and slopes
3. Same number of homes can be built as allowed in higher-density areas

The entire 829-acre parcel was annexed by Conway leaders in the early 2000s - a move current officials said protected it from a much dimmer fate.

“The county would let them go in and do anything they want with that, and you would have a less superior product. You wouldn’t have a conservation subdivision You’d have a disgusting looking Dollar General,” council member William Goldfinch IV said. “This is going to be better than it could be, and I’ve got absolutely no doubt about that.”