North Myrtle Beach leaders were uninterested with a property developer's proposal to annex 30 acres into the city for a new neighborhood.
Shep Guyton, who represents the owner of a property off Highway 90 on Coates Road in unincorporated Horry County, called for a public workshop with North Myrtle Beach City Council in hopes that council would annex the area into the city for a residential development.
The mayor and council members were not on board with the idea due to a lack of public safety in the area.
According to public land records, the parcel of land that Guyton wanted the council to annex is a little over 30 acres and currently has a home on it.
Guyton and the developer, Handfield LLC, were working with the owners of the property, Billy Coates and Joseph L. Coates, to form an agreement with the city of North Myrtle Beach to annex the land into city limits and build over 100 single family units.
“It does impact North Myrtle Beach whether it’s in the city or not,” Guyton said. “It makes more sense to be in the city and controlled by the city than it does in the county with no controls even though these folks will still be using all of your services, using the beach, using all the amenities.”
Since no council member liked the idea of annexing the Coates Road area into the city, this proposal will likely not be on any future city council agendas.
“Unfortunately, this is bad timing simply because of the EOC and the fact that we do not have a fire station in that area,” Mayor Marilyn Hatley said at the workshop.
Other council members agreed with Hatley saying that there are just not enough public safety resources for the area off Highway 90 to support the construction of new neighborhoods.
“If we had the EOC out there, it might be different,” councilwoman Nicole Fontana said. “Everybody knows I am an advocate for public safety and making sure they have what they need and they don’t have what they need.”
The city announced plans to construct an Emergency Operations Center on Champions Boulevard about three years ago, but this did not end up happening.
“The North Myrtle Beach Emergency Operations Center is being designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. The North Myrtle Beach EOC was approved four years ago prior to the pandemic and prior to inflation," said City spokesperson Donald Graham. "The City of North Myrtle Beach is still planning on construction but stopped the bidding process at the suggestion of the architects because of supply chain issues and inflationary costs.”
Hatley said that council’s current focus is in filling donut holes, which are unincorporated areas that are surrounded by land that is annexed into the city of North Myrtle Beach.
“If we keep annexing stuff, we’re gonna create another donut hole and for me, I think right now it’s important to kind of slow down,” councilman Trey Skidmore said. “I’m just not excited about it.”
The proposal could likely go before the Horry County leaders next.
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