North Myrtle Beach council to consider rezoning request allowing high rise properties
North Myrtle City Council will soon decide on whether to approve a rezoning request that would allow for the development of high rise properties.
The city’s Planning Commission met Tuesday and voted unanimously to not approve the request from the city’s Planning and Development Department. The advisory board makes recommendations to council, but council members can decide to vote against the commission.
If adopted, about nine acres of land located near 17th Avenue South would change from a Resort Residential zoning district to Resort Commercial, which would give developers the go ahead to build properties up to 165 feet. Resort Residential zoning areas only allows properties to be up to 90 feet with parking levels underneath.
Harveey Eisner, who serves as chairman of the committee, said after receiving many letters from residents in opposition and hearing people speak at the meeting on Tuesday, the commission “felt at this particular time it was necessary to reject the proposal.”
“We want to revitalize that whole general area, and maybe there’s another way to do it, but we felt rezoning it opens up a lot of possibilities that we were not in favor of,” he said.
Mark Mullins is one of many residents that spoke against the request. He told The Sun News that rezoning the area would make the area more like Myrtle Beach, which he said is not as residential or family-oriented.
“We think that this big development would change the character to be more like Myrtle Beach, and it would be the start of high rise developments all the way up to North Carolina,” said Mullins, who lives adjacent to the area under consideration.
Stan Nelson, who lives in Crescent Beach, attended Tuesday’s meeting with his wife Carol Nelson. They didn’t speak during the meeting but said they sent in a letter to express their opposition to rezoning the area.
“We want to keep the quality of life the way it is now instead of having more tall condos, which would bring more people and more traffic,” Stan Nelson said.
The couple is also concerned about how an influx of people in the area could affect the beaches.
“The beach would be so impacted by a 1,000 more people on it,” Carol Nelson said. “It’s busy now. And aesthetically, you want the beach to be as pretty as it is and environmentally, it would be really bad.”
The commission’s recommendation will be brought before council on July 19. There will also be a public hearing.
Affected addresses
South Ocean Boulevard: 1525, 1600‐1602, 1604‐1612, 1616, 1625, 1709‐ 1712, 1714, 1716‐1718, 1801
Perrin Drive: 1603, 1613, 170
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 2:20 PM.