Crescent Beach rezoning plans put financial gain over community concerns, reader says

Preserve Crescent Beach

The City of North Myrtle Beach proposed rezoning land in Crescent Beach from Resort Residential (R-4) to Resort Commercial (RC).

The Planning Commission unanimously recommended denial of the rezoning in June 2021. Nearly 1,000 opposed the rezoning (by petition, emails, and phone calls). All speakers opposed rezoning, except two.

The Planning Department proposed an overlay, allowing an 18-story oceanfront high rise with nine stories across the street, doubling the oceanfront density currently allowed.

Although Council stressed the importance of retail and restaurants, the proposal requires retail in only 10 percent of the first floor of the parking garages. The overlay allows commercial development without changing the zoning and allows property owners to develop contrary to the current zoning requirements.

Preservation of the beach and the concerns of the community should be put ahead of the financial gain sought by developers.

Contact City Council to protect and preserve Crescent Beach.

Tina Mullins, North Myrtle Beach

License tobacco sales

I see first-hand the harmful effects of tobacco use on patients who began smoking or vaping in their youth, and sadly there continues to be a tobacco-use epidemic among youth.

Three out of four teens are not refused tobacco product sales. These products are sold in grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies.

According to the 2019 S.C. Youth Tobacco Survey, 28% of high school students report current use of any tobacco product.

Twenty-four percent of vape products were obtained from a gas station or convenience store, and 12.5% were bought from a vape shop.

Our state aids the ease of obtaining these products.

There is no definitive way to track where tobacco products are sold because retailers are not required to register for a license to sell them. This hinders enforcement of our sales age laws. You can’t enforce what isn’t tracked. We must change this.

Retailers are required to have an alcohol license to sell alcohol. It is past time we require the same for tobacco product sales.

Our legislature should support S.C. House Bill 3754 limiting youth access to tobacco products.

Norma Khoury, Columbia

Craft antitrust laws with care

Recently, there has been discussion around two tests completed by cybersecurity experts that revealed TikTok’s ability to circumvent both Google and Apple’s privacy protections. This is a frightening revelation as TikTok’s parent company is Beijing-based ByteDance.

Technology is a polarizing issue, and in the past few weeks, there has been a lot of debate in D.C. over American technology companies and whether there should be antitrust legislation put into place to regulate their actions.

While politically expedient, it should be understood that the Chinese Communist Party has close relationships with their domestic companies.

With international tensions on the rise, we cannot overlook the threat to our security from these foreign tech entities that do not operate by the same set of rules as American companies.

The ever-increasing threat of China in information and technological warfare should not be overlooked. The explosive growth of TikTok is a perfect example of how a Chinese-based company can grow despite a cloud of security concerns.

I hope our legislators will consider the broad implications of their actions and not push through antitrust legislation that will only cripple domestic companies while we have a geopolitical enemy lurking at the doorstep.

Will Unthank, West Columbia

Change NATOs rules

In NATO’s 14 articles that allow countries to become members, the parties to this treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments.

Under article 5, it states that an attack on one member is an attack of all members, which means that Russia’s President Putin can attack any non-member he chooses unless he has the audacity to attack another member.

I see a big loophole in NATO’s rules and a solution to stop Putin’s murderous rampage. NATO should have an emergency meeting to add a 15th article that would expel any country that violates the rules.

This could stop Putin because the other NATO countries wouldn’t be bound by an antiquated law that allowed Putin to murder innocent women and children and also allow all the countries in the world to stop him without fearing NATO members’ reprisals. Rules can be changed.

Gregory J. Topliff, Warrenville