Tiny chapel, Horry college and beer dealer stand in way of Conway drug treatment center
South Carolina officials have determined a planned opioid addiction treatment center in Conway is needed, but a pair of the facility’s potential neighbors are fighting to ensure it doesn’t open near them.
Conway city officials previously approved the placement of the new business, but successful court challenges by a local beverage distributor and Horry-Georgetown Technical College have forced those city officials to reconsider.
Carolina Treatment Centers has run into several roadblocks in trying to open its third medication-assisted treatment facility in the state since purchasing the property, primarily due to its proximity to a religious institution.
A Conway zoning ordinance restricts businesses operating outpatient treatment centers from being located within 1,000 feet from religious institutions, and this property — within an industrial park at 1800 Husted Road — is only about 880 feet from the Traveler’s Chapel.
The 12-by-24-foot building with six small pews often hosts weddings and is always open for visitors to stop and pray. But a Conway zoning official told an associate of the treatment center in 2020 that it didn’t consider the chapel a religious institution when they were considering buying the property, according to court records filed in subsequent appeals.
That opinion changed two years later when the city denied the center’s business license application. The zoning official pointed to new supervision at the planning department as a reason for the new interpretation that the chapel is, in fact, a religious institution, court records show.
So the property owners had to apply for a variance that would reduce the distance they needed to be away from the chapel, and Conway’s Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously approved that request after a hearing last September.
“I think this is an incredibly important facility for our community as someone that works in the criminal defense world,” Paul Lawson, the board’s chairman, said during the hearing, according to a transcript. “(Opioid addiction) is a huge problem.”
College, business objections
Michael Stripe, president of the nonprofit that oversees the chapel, submitted a letter noting no objection to the outpatient facility, but some nearby business representatives showed up to the hearing to express opposition.
“Our concern is probably safety for our employees,” Tommy Parnel, director of operations for Yahnis Company, a neighboring beverage distributor, said at the hearing. “Usually when you have things like this, you have a lot of walk up traffic.”
The Yahnis Company and Horry-Georgetown Technical College then appealed the zoning board’s decision, alleging the city didn’t properly publish notice of the hearing and erred in determining the center wouldn’t be a substantial detriment to adjacent property owners, court records show.
Attorneys for HGTC specifically argued that the board failed to consider another aspect of the city’s ordinance governing this type of business — that they also can’t be within 1,000 feet of an educational facility. The college owns two buildings within that distance from the proposed treatment facility.
The city responded in court filings that only schools serving high school students and younger fit its definition of educational facilities under that ordinance, but HGTC officials say that those buildings do offer some classes for high school students.
“The college is simply asking the city to follow its uniform development ordinance, which we understand is supported by the city’s comprehensive plan,” HGTC spokeswoman Nicole Hyman wrote in a statement to The Sun News.
HGTC’s objection is despite its long-running lecture series focused on addiction and recovery that it hosts in hopes of increasing public awareness and reducing stigma.
“We do not see our asking the city to follow its ordinance as contrary to our positive efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of drug problems,” Hyman wrote.
The owner of Yahnis Company did not respond to a request for an interview.
A judge in March agreed with Yahnis and HGTC, issuing an order reversing the zoning board’s variance. The request is now set to be reconsidered at the board’s April 27 meeting.
Why is the center needed?
Joy Bailley, chief operating officer of Carolina Treatment Centers, told The Sun News she’s disappointed some neighbors don’t want them to open in Conway, but she and her partners are feeling confident their business license will ultimately be approved.
They already secured a certificate of need from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to open the 5,600-square foot facility, which will be named Pathway Treatment Center.
They’re eligible to fully operate beginning in August with pharmacists on site to dispense medications including Suboxone and methadone, Bailley explained, but they can operate simply as a physician’s office to prescribe the medicines as soon as they get their business license.
Bailley said the center will provide comprehensive counseling and other medical services needed for those diagnosed with opioid use disorder in the Conway and Horry County communities.
“This is a really critical time,” she said, pointing to the rising danger of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid which was involved in nearly 1,500 overdose deaths during 2021 in South Carolina, according to DHEC data.
Sara Goldsby, director of the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, told The Sun News that these specialized treatment programs are needed everywhere in the state, but a lack of availability forces some residents suffering from addiction to drive more than an hour every day to access needed medication and counseling.
“There are more than enough people in Horry County who need these services,” she said.
Horry County recorded 272 drug overdose deaths — most in the state, DHEC data showed — during 2021. There are currently two other outpatient treatment centers in the county, but both are in Myrtle Beach.
Goldsby added that outdated policies by cities and counties restricting where these treatment centers can be located makes access more difficult and helps drive the stigma preventing some people from seeking help.
“People go there for healthcare,” she said. “It really underscores the need to increase awareness that addiction is a disease.”
The Pathway Clinic and its partners are separately suing the city of Conway for its ordinance, which they argue improperly overrides a state law that limits the buffer between a healthcare facility and religious facility to 500 feet.
