North Myrtle Beach is waiving building permit fees after nearly 1,700 properties were damaged by Hurricane Ian, causing an estimated $13.1 million in repairs, said city spokesperson Donald Graham.
North Myrtle Beach property owners are usually required to pay building permit fees for any repairs or construction, but in light of the Category 1 storm, those fees are being waived for storm-related damage only.
“Typically, after a major hurricane event or major storm event, those fees have been waived,” Graham said. “The $13.1 million is strictly for the structures within the city and that does include the [Cherry Grove Fishing] pier.”
That dollar amount does not include the price of repairs for the beach erosion and damage to the sand dunes that the storm caused in multiple areas along the north strand, Graham said.
He also said that the Cherry Grove area sustained the most damage from the storm followed by Windy Hill, then Crescent Beach, then Ocean Drive, then Barefoot Landing.
“Forty-seven percent of the damage was in the Cherry Grove area,” Graham said about the 1,659 damaged properties.
Guillermo Peralta, owner of a damaged property in the Cherry Grove area, said that the fees being waived was “definitely helpful.”
“It was just typical flood damage like flooring, dry wall, stuff like that,” he said. “We were expecting it.”
The size of the fees that are being waived depend on the type and price of repairs that are being done, Graham said.
“The fees are based on the amount that the repairs will cost. So a less than $500 repair is a $15 fee, $500 to $1,000, it's a $30 fee, $1000 to $50,000 is a $30 fee on the first $1,000, and then $5 for every additional 1000 square feet of repair work,” he said. “So it starts to get a little bit complicated. For everything between $50,000 and $100,000 of repair work, it's a $275 fee, and then $4 for each additional $1000 afterwards.”
City employees from the Planning and Development Department come to assess the damage and determine whether such damage is storm-related or not, Graham said.
“When the permit crews, or the inspection crews go into check to see how the repairs were made, if they're up to code and meeting all the code requirements, they'll be able to tell if someone made repairs or did something that was storm related or not,” he said. “But then there's also just honor code. The bottom line is that the city is hoping that people won't take advantage of the situation but the crews when they go out, they'll be able to tell at that point if something was done as a result of the storm or not.”
Rick Elliott of Elliott Realty, said that his properties in the north strand only sustained minor damage.
“We didn't have any major issues other than some of the pools had sand washed in from the ocean, which put the pools in disrepair,” he said. “We have to spend some time to get that fixed, clean those back up and get them back hopefully sooner than later.”
Elliott said it was “very gracious” of the city to waive the building permit fees for Hurricane Ian-related damage.
“I'm sure that will be temporary, but every little bit at this point helps,” he said. “It is much appreciated.”
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