New Horry County policy would allow longer fairs, haunted houses, Christmas villages

Tracey Stillwell almost had no forest to haunt.

When the Virginia Beach entrepreneur made plans for a scary trail in unincorporated Horry County, she learned county policy limits special events to seven days.

Stillwell wanted her Myrtle Beach horror show to run for a month.

Had she not received a landowner’s permission to use some wooded acres of amusement property behind Broadway Grand Prix, the terrifying trail would not be opening Friday.

“You cannot have an event in this county if it’s not zoned amusement, and the only people that will zone something amusement is somebody that’s going to go put in [an attraction like] a wax museum,” said Stillwell, who has put on five haunted trails in Colorado and refers to herself as “the forest girl.” “It’s literally not attainable.”

That policy could soon change. Next week, Horry County leaders will vote on a proposal that, if approved, would allow seasonal events such as county fairs, haunted houses, circuses and Christmas villages to run for up to 30 days.

“Right now, there’s no method for approving those,” said Janet Carter, the county’s planning director. “This would just create an alternative process for a special event that would last longer than seven days.”

Under the proposal, businesses or organizations seeking an exception to the seven-day rule would submit an application to the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals, which could approve a longer time frame and add certain conditions, such as specific hours of operation or parking requirements.

There would also be a public hearing and the county would send letters to nearby property owners describing the proposed event.

“The board would have the benefit of all that public input in determining if this is something that’s actually beneficial to the community or something that would be a detriment,” Carter said.

One of the businesses pushing for the change is the Myrtle Beach Speedway, which wants to host a county fair in April. Speedway staff had hoped to hold a fair earlier this year, but the seven-day rule was a hurdle they couldn’t overcome.

“It never occurred to me that we had to worry about a permitting issue,” said Steve Zacharias, the Speedway’s general manager. “All of a sudden, it was like ‘Oh man, what are we going to do?’”

Company leaders put their plans on hold, but they said the fair won’t happen in 2016 unless the county relaxes its special events policy.

Zacharias said the Speedway is working with an outside company to run the fair, and that business needs at least three days to set up a Ferris wheel, not to mention more time to make money.

“A fair is good on weekends,” he said. “Monday through Thursday, everyone’s in school or the kids are doing other things. So the fair isn’t viable in those mid-week days. You have to have your weekends to make a good profit.”

The fair would also be critical to the growth of the Speedway’s business, Zacharias said.

“We have 48 acres of property that are underutilized over there,” he said. “Racing isn’t what used to be. It’s not surviving. It’s doing its part, but it’s not the business that we need to have on that property. … It’s perfect for this kind of situation.”

Although the policy change received a thumbs up from the council’s Infrastructure and Regulation Committee last week, county officials said they must develop a streamlined process that will allow groups seeking an exception to the seven-day rule to work with the county’s public safety department and the ZBA at the same time.

“Obviously, it’s going to need public safety input,” said Horry County Councilman Johnny Vaught. “If there’s going to be crowds and all that, we’ve got to have security there. We’ve got to have ambulance service there. All those different types of things.”

Planning officials said that shouldn’t be a problem.

“If this passes, we’ll come up with a process that’s efficient and gets the job done with as little burden on the applicant as possible,” Carter said.

County officials also said the proposal would not lengthen the Grand Strand’s motorcycle rallies because the county’s process for issuing vendor permits isn’t changing.

City of Myrtle Beach leaders eliminated vendor permits in 2008 when they passed a series of ordinances aimed at cracking down on the rallies.

County officials also made changes to their rally rules during that time. They raised the price of vendor permits and restricted the number of permits issued in certain areas. Those policies are separate from the special events regulations, so the proposed changes won’t affect the rallies, said county spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier.

“It’s by no means meant to extend the bike weeks,” she said of the ordinance County Council will consider on Oct. 6.

What the changes will impact are events like the Haunted Forest.

For weeks, Stillwell and her Myrtle Beach business partner Scott Hughes have been carving out trails in the woods behind Broadway Grand Prix. They’ve been planning to recreate scary characters from classic horror movies along the cobweb-lined path.

The trek will last about 25 minutes, with the forest open nightly through Nov. 1.

Stillwell said she’s even made plans to give some of the proceeds to the nonprofit Backpack Buddies. If the event is successful, she’s considering hosting a haunted trail throughout the summer.

And all of this nearly didn’t happen.

Stillwell jokingly said she’s not sure she wants the county’s policy to change. She’s secured her spot and changing the special event permit rules could invite competition.

Then again, she’s confident about the Haunted Forest’s position in the terror market.

“This thing is going to be wicked,” she said. “We got the prime location. … We fell into a good one, a really good one.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 5:45 PM with the headline "New Horry County policy would allow longer fairs, haunted houses, Christmas villages."