Tag: Horry County Council

DiSabato Asks for Another Deferral on Postal Way Rezonings

Tuesday night was supposed to be the night that Horry County Council would vote up or down on second reading of two rezonings, Chatham Crossing and Waters Tract, on Postal Way in the Carolina Forest area.
It didn’t happen. Instead, council member Dennis DiSabato moved for a second three-month deferral for the two rezonings, which were originally supposed to be voted upon at the May 16, 2023 regular meeting of council.
The citizens of Carolina Forest have never been in favor of these two rezonings. They expressed multiple concerns about the developments that would result during two community input events during Carolina Forest Civic Association meetings.
The minutes of the May 16th meeting provide interesting reading. During discussion before the motion to defer, DiSabato stated, “He and the developer had heard everyone’s concerns at the public input meeting they had in Carolina Forest a couple days prior. The developer had asked for a deferment, not for 90 days, but for a period not to exceed 90 days. They wanted an opportunity to go back to their client to see if there was anything that they could do to expand on the infrastructure to try and make this project more palatable to the community. They either would figure out very quickly that they could, or they could not. In either event, it would come back as something the community supported, and if not, it would come back quicker than 90 days and would be voted up or down based on what that outcome was.”
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Postal Way Rezonings Back on Council Agenda with No Changes from Three Months Ago

Horry County Council will consider second reading and hold public input on the two controversial rezonings along Postal Way at its regular meeting tomorrow night.
The two parcels of land, Waters Tract and Chatham Crossing, will add 1,654 new residential units and some new commercial development in an already crowded area.
The rezonings were deferred for a period of 92 days at the request of council member Dennis DiSabato, ostensibly to see if criticisms of the rezonings, voiced by Carolina Forest residents, could be addressed in the development agreements associated with the projects.
According to the language in the development agreements, which will be considered for second reading, nothing has changed in either development agreement from what was presented to council three months ago.
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Increase Fees on New Residential Construction or No Reelection?

Two years ago, Horry County Council imposed impact fees on new construction for the first time in county history. Two years prior to the impact fee ordinance, 72% of county voters had said YES to impact fees in an advisory referendum.
During the first two readings of the impact fee ordinance, the maximum possible fee of $6,645 per single family home was passed with other types of construction also being charged the maximum fee allowed by state law formula.
On third reading, then council member Johnny Vaught amended the ordinance to reduce the fee by 81.4% to a rate of $1,236 per single family home. Seven other council members joined Vaught in bowing to pressure from the development lobby to make the fee nominal. Those same eight council members voted to increase property taxes that same year by 7.5 mills, the maximum allowed by state law formula. Five of those eight council members will be up for reelection next year. Two others have already been replaced on council.
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Postal Way Rezonings – A Tale of Two Development Agreements

By Paul Gable
For several months, county taxpayers, especially residents of Carolina Forest, have been told that their Council District 3 representative, Dennis DiSabato, is supporting two rezoning requests on Postal Way, which will add approximately 1,654 new residential units to an already crowded area, only because the developers will pay the total cost of the new public benefit infrastructure associated with the two proposed developments.
The residents aren’t buying the fact that just because developers are paying for some extra infrastructure is reason to support the projects. Residents have voiced continued concerns that adding any more housing density to the already crowded area will only add more overcrowding to already clogged roads and schools.
Citizens opposing the projects, a number of whom were at the council meeting last week, have taken to voicing their complaints to council member Mike Masciarelli, whose council district is located across U. S. 501 from Council District 3.
Masciarelli attempted to give voice to some of the criticisms which he had heard from citizens during last week’s council discussion. DiSabato challenged Masciarelli as to why citizens from District 3 were calling Masciarelli instead of DiSabato. Masciarelli said maybe it was because they were looking for somebody who would listen to their concerns.
DiSabato is obviously in full support of the projects regardless of questions raised by opponents.
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County Council to Again Consider Amending Flood Ordinance

Horry County Council will again consider amending its flood ordinance with a view to reducing the height for building in the county’s designated supplemental flood zones from the current three board height to a two board height.
County staff and the county Infrastructure and Regulation Committee recommended the two board height in the original ordinance, but council bent to the will of group of citizens demanding the three board height, apparently in an excess of caution against the next flood.
The amendment would apply only to county designated supplemental flood zones, not to FEMA designated flood zones. The county added supplemental flood zones after the Hurricane Florence flooding events in 2018.
At the center of the issue is a plot of land sub-divided into 46 lots for development off of Hwy 905. The land was prepared for development in accordance with FEMA requirements. There were no additional county requirements at that time.
Then, Horry County Council passed a new flood ordinance establishing flood zones supplemental to the FEMA maps and requiring homes in those areas to be built a further three feet above FEMA required levels.

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County Council Vote Does Not Settle Issue of Development Height for Hwy 905 Sub-division

Horry County Council’s decision to not amend its supplemental flood zone regulations did not settle the issue that caused an amendment to be considered in the first place.
At the center of the issue is a plot of land sub-divided into 46 lots for development off of Hwy 905. The land was prepared for development in accordance with FEMA requirements.
Then, Horry County Council passed a new flood ordinance establishing flood zones supplemental to the FEMA maps and requiring homes in those areas to be built a further three feet above FEMA required levels.
Initially, the developers were assured by county staff members that the 46-lot project would be grandfathered to the requirements before the new flood ordinance was passed. Then, according to sources familiar with the issue, county staff reversed its position and said the new supplemental flood zone requirements would have to be met by this project.
Great Southern Homes, the developer of the land, immediately appealed the latest version from county staff to the Horry County Construction Board of Adjustment and Appeals. The county board found in favor of the developer, granting the appeal.

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County Council to Vote on Accommodations Tax Tourism Promotion Appropriation Tonight

Horry County Council will consider extending its contract with the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce for distribution of the 30% accommodations tax collections state law mandates must go for tourism promotion.
The extension will be for one final year. Next year a new contract must be negotiated by the county and it is hoped other direct marketing organizations will step forward to compete with the Chamber for this contract.
When the accommodations tax enabling legislation was passed by the General Assembly over 20 years ago, the provision mandating 30% of the revenue collected must be spent for tourism promotion was included specifically at the request of the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce and its CEO at the time Ashby Ward.
The Chamber was a struggling organization at the time with membership dues providing most of its operating revenue and a modest little white building on Kings Highway serving as its headquarters.
Accommodations tax money provided the Chamber with its first taste of a steady stream of public tax dollars into its coffers. Over the first decade of this century, ‘greed is good’ apparently became the unofficial motto with grants from the General Assembly added to those coffers and, beginning in 2009, the institution of the tourism development fee.

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Lazarus Appeals HCGOP Denial of Illegal Election Protest Amid Apparent Misrepresentation of Facts

Mark Lazarus has appealed the decision of the Horry County Republican Party Executive Committee to deny his request for a new runoff primary election for county council chairman.
A hearing of the appeal has been scheduled before the South Carolina Republican Party Executive Committee on Thursday July 14, 2022, in Columbia beginning at 6:30 p. m.
However, there is no legal basis for the SCGOP Executive Committee to hear that appeal.
The formal appeal document, prepared by Lazarus attorney Butch Bowers, contains apparent false statements about facts which render the entire protest and appeal process null and void.
The HCGOP Executive Party voted 40-5 with two abstentions to dismiss the protest on the grounds that it was not filed by the deadline mandated in state law.
State code Sec. 7-17-520 states, “The protests and contests in the case of county officers and less than county officers shall be filed in writing with the chairman of the county party executive committee, together with a copy for each candidate in the race not later than noon Monday following the day of the declaration by the county committee of the result of the election.”
Bowers did not file the election protest until 8:35 a. m. Tuesday July 5, 2022, in an electronic notification sent to and verified by the Horry County Sheriff’s Office.

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Lazarus Biggest Primary Loser Because He Couldn’t Fool All the People or Even a Majority

Now that primary elections are completed, the biggest loser can be identified as Mark Lazarus in his bid to regain the post of Horry County Council Chairman.
Lazarus went into this campaign absolutely certain that his defeat by incumbent Chairman Johnny Gardner in 2018 was an aberration and that he would without question win a rematch this year.
Lazarus had a funding edge of approximately 10 to 1 over Gardner when donations to his campaign and the three PACs who sent mailers or paid for television ads to support his candidacy are totaled.
A funding edge of 10 to 1 should be enough to win any race. But it wasn’t, mainly because Lazarus could not escape the load of baggage he carried with him from his five and one-half years as county chairman from 2013-2018.
Lazarus could not escape the fact that he called the county first responders “Thugs” four years ago. He couldn’t escape his tight ties with the local cabal, his willingness to spend local government revenue on Interstate 73 construction instead of local road improvements and the anything goes development atmosphere that was pervasive throughout the county during his time as chairman.
And the Lazarus campaign strategy of attempting to rewrite his history as chairman, then going negative on Gardner was awful. Blame that on his campaign consultant Walter Whetsell and his Starboard Communications.

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Council Member Bill Howard Cost His Constituents Two Years in Their Attempt to Prohibit Discharge of Fireworks in Their Neighborhoods

Horry County Council, at its regular meeting Tuesday night, referred Ordinance 155-2021, dealing with the establishment of “Fireworks Free Zones” in the county, back to the county Public Safety Committee for further study before considering third reading of the ordinance.
If the ordinance ever passes third reading, it appears inevitable it will be struck down by state courts because of the legally settled Doctrine of Preemption.
State law, section 23-35-175 (c), states “an owner, a lessee or managing authority of real property may establish a Fireworks Prohibited Zone by (1) filing a Discharge of Fireworks Prohibited Agreement with the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the subject property.”
The Doctrine of Preemption simply stated holds if the law of a higher government authority, in this case S. C. Code sec. 23-35-175(c), preempts the law of a lower government authority, in this case Horry County Ordinance 155-2021, then the law of the lower government authority is declared invalid.
Or, in this case, it appears the procedure for establishing a “Fireworks Prohibited Zone” in sec. 23-35-175(c) of state law preempts the procedure for establishing a “Fireworks Free Zone” in county Ordinance 155-2021.
Why has county attorney Arrigo Carotti not informed council of this probable result during council discussions of the ordinance?
It would seem stopping the ordinance now, since the procedure for fireworks prohibition already exists in state law, would be preferable to passing third reading of the ordinance only to see it struck down in state court after thousands of dollars of taxpayer money is spent trying to defend the indefensible.

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