S.C. Supreme Court ruling paves way for development on former Deer Track South Course

The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that the owner of the former Deer Track Golf Resort South Course in Deerfield Plantation can receive a previously approved general permit for storm water discharge.

The ruling should free the land for redevelopment.

Bill Clark Homes had been contracted to purchase the property for several years before allowing the contract to lapse a few years ago while the land was mired in litigation, and the homebuilder is interested in revisiting the contract.

“We’ve been in contact with the owners of the golf course and are prepared to renegotiate the contract that we had,” said Jeff Farrell, Myrtle Beach Division President of Bill Clark Homes.

Schaad Companies of Knoxville, Tenn., owns the former South Course, which sits on approximately 158 acres in Surfside Beach. Company officials did not return phone messages and emails seeking comment.

In an appeal filed by the Deerfield Plantation Phase II B Property Owners Association, which is attempting to avoid a large housing development on a course that is already largely surrounded by housing, the Supreme Court affirmed a decision by an Administrative Law Court upholding the issuance of a permit by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).

The ruling was made on Sept. 30. The course, which closed in 2006, has been tied up in lawsuits and environmental issues that have prevented redevelopment for several years.

A class action lawsuit that originated from homeowners on the South Course and attempted to prohibit redevelopment has been settled, and the environmental challenge has likely reached its end.

“The only thing you can do is ask the Supreme Court to reconsider the decision and that just doesn’t seem like it’s a viable option,” said Amy Armstrong, executive director and chief counsel for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project of Georgetown, which represented the Phase II B POA in the appeal. “There are no viable legal grounds to do anything else.”

The case history

Bill Clark Homes was contracted to purchase the course late in 2005 and designed a subdivision consisting of 278 lots, according to court documents.

The proposed development plan necessitated the construction of a new storm water management system utilizing an existing drainage network of storm water ponds on the former South Course.

DHEC issued a permit to Deertrack Golf Inc. in 2008, and the POA filed a suit alleging DHEC wrongfully issued the permit.

The Army Corps of Engineers initially determined the property did not contain any “waters of the United States” subject to the Corps’ jurisdiction under the federal Clean Water Act. But in 2010, upon the POA’s application, the Corps declared federal jurisdiction over .37 acres of the existing waters on the proposed redevelopment tract.

The POA’s latest appeal argued the property owners needed to go through the permitting process again because of the Corps’ determination and new requirements, but the Supreme Court ruled the permit can be issued, with some possible minor modifications by DHEC.

The court stated: “Because additional agency action may be necessary with regard to the .37 acres over which the Corps has asserted jurisdiction, we remand the case to DHEC for further action consistent with this opinion … as necessary to implement the Permit.”

Armstrong said the SCELP will monitor what action DHEC takes. “We’ll be watching to see what DHEC does,” she said.

The flood debate

The predominant issue for many residents around the former South Course is that they believe a real potential for flooding will be exacerbated by a significant housing development.

“We’re not saying don’t develop it. We’ve gotten overrun with coyotes, snakes, rodents and other things. We want something done, but we don’t want to put our people in harm’s way,” said Bill Megert, past president of the Phase II B POA and a current POA board consultant. “Development is fine. If they want to develop 100 homes we can handle that kind of water. But 270 homes is impossible.”

Megert said about half of the 126 homes in Phase II B suffered major flooding during Hurricane Floyd in 1999, though only a few homes suffered minimal levels of flooding during recent record rainfall that approached 2 feet over four days in some areas of the Grand Strand.

In the late 2000s, Horry County nearly doubled the storm water drainage outflow capacity from the South Course area and it seemed to work.

But Bill Clark Homes’ previously proposed housing development raised the grade level of its homes up to six feet above the existing level of the golf course and surrounding homes, and residents fear that will make their neighborhoods more prone to flooding.

“When they raise the grade by 6 feet my Phase II B [development] becomes a saucer,” Megert said. “When it rains, we flood. We feel we have the right to be protected. They have no consideration for my 126 homeowners.”

Farrell contends retention ponds and new drainage that are included in his company’s plans will handle storm water runoff created by the development’s impervious surfaces. And he said the proposed development’s plans have already received the necessary approvals from Horry County, Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) and DHEC.

“We’re compensating for that [development] with giant lakes throughout the project,” Farrell said. “We’re not going to add to any future flood conditions that would happen if we did nothing. It will drain into these ponds we’re going to create on our property. That has no effect at all on them.”

In addition, Farrell said the increased outflow capacity has already proven its effectiveness. “What caused them not to have the flooding was the cork that was holding it all into that giant pond was enlarged and water dispersed much quicker than it had in the past, and all this was done without us doing anything,” Farrell said.

Neighborhoods around the South Course already have some drainage issues aside from any proposed redevelopment.

Mike Couture, owner of Myrtle Beach Realty, the property manager for 16 HOAs and POAs around the South Course – the vast majority of property with the exception of Plantation Resort, owned by Blaine Liljenquist – said because the course hasn’t been maintained for nearly a decade, drainage on the course is failing and it’s affecting his homeowners.

He said sand, silt, overgrowth and debris are filling drains and pipes are decaying, and his company doesn’t have the property rights to make the improvements.

“The vast majority of our drainage at some point has to pass through parts of the golf course,” Couture said. “We can make all the improvements we want to make but it just dams up on the property. Without any development, without anything going on today, we still have some major drainage issues.”

Couture wants Horry County to force Schaad Companies to maintain and repair the drainage systems, or abate the problem itself and assess the bill to Schaad. “The county is not exercising what I feel their rights are to force somebody to maintain that,” Couture said.

Possibly complicating the potential redevelopment of the South Course is road ownership. Megert said his POA owns part of Plantation Drive and Circle Drive into Deerfield, and both Schaad and the county own other roads. He intimated the POA may not grant access to developers.

“If that avenue is closed, my next question to the state of South Carolina is how are you going to have access to our land if you don’t have our road?” Megert said.

Development forthcoming?

The former North and South courses at Deer Track have both been closed since 2006, and redevelopment on both now appears possible.

In the spring of 2014, the S.C. Supreme Court denied a petition to hear a class action lawsuit filed by homeowners around the former North Course that attempted to prohibit redevelopment of the golf course property.

The denial ended a series of appeals. The 190-acre tract was owned by a developer for several years and is now believed to be owned by its former lien holder, First Trident Financial LLC, which purchased the course for the equivalent of its remaining debt at a foreclosure auction in 2012.

No new development plans for the North Course have been submitted to the Horry County planning department.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 10:08 PM with the headline "S.C. Supreme Court ruling paves way for development on former Deer Track South Course."