By Tonya Root, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Oct. 23--No available money now for the third leg of the Carolina Bays Parkway could mean a showdown later between Burroughs and Chapin Co. Inc. and state Department of Transportation officials.
And the cost of S.C. 31 could increase considerably because of a planned development in the pathway of the final connection from S.C. 544 to U.S. 17 Bypass near Glenns Bay Road.
At issue is a 1,092-acre tract of land owned by B&C and Myrtle Beach Farms, where officials are poised to build a single- and multifamily housing community with a neighborhood shopping center on the south side of U.S. 17 Bypass. But transportation officials have planned the final connection of the road to go down the middle of the land.
Horry County Council conceded it didn't have the funding Tuesday night to purchase any rights of way for the parkway and in a 9-2 vote passed a resolution clearing the way for the property to be developed by B&C.
State law requires any property owner to seek an exemption from local government before developing the land once a highway or street is proposed. Tuesday's resolution allows the land to be developed as if there were no plans to build a road through it.
'This ends it,' said Pat Dowling, B&C spokesman. 'They either buy the property or they don't.'
B&C is working with another developer to build the community on the land, and Dowling said they think a better road for officials to focus on would be a U.S. 701 connection.
But transportation officials have planned the road and think its route will not change, said Berry Still, manager of the state Department of Transportation Road Improvement Development Effort.
'It all hinges on funding,' Still said. 'There's no money to do anything. It all boils down to having the money to buy now or buy later. We don't have the funding, and neither does the county right now.'
If B&C builds the community and funding comes through for the highway later and the proposed route remains unchanged, the scenario could mirror what happened with the second phase of Carolina Bays, which passes through the northern edge of the Hunter's Ridge subdivision and displaced 14 families.
Currently, the land has an assessed value of $14.2 million, Councilman Mike Ryan said. But B&C officials estimate after development its value could reach $54 million.
Such a high price tag would be out of Horry County's range, and buying the land didn't make sense to Councilman Harold Worley, who said the county already provides about three-fourths of the money for road projects from a hospitality tax.
The state Infrastructure Bank, which finances road projects through bonds, already is supporting $1.2 billion in Horry County road projects and has reached its limit.
Currently, the bank cannot sell any more bonds to raise money to lend to local major road projects.
Contact TONYA ROOT at 248-2149 or troot@thesunnews.com.
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