City Council - Regular Meeting

Not there. Okay, we'll call the meeting to order. Ask the clerk to call roll. Mayor Baldwin here. Mayor Prom Thomas here. Councilman Collins here. Councilwoman Councilman Coin, sorry here. Councilwoman McCumbi here. Councilman Skidmore here. Councilwoman Wilbur here. Mayor, you have a quorum.

Okay. I need a motion to move into executive session to discuss a legal briefing regarding section 6-29-780 of the code of laws of South Carolina concerning the board of zoning appeals. Second have a motion and second. All in favor say I.

I. Eyes have it. We'll move in executive session. I'll See?

Follow How double Don't

So, we'll continue our meeting. Council met in executive session and no votes were taken. We will move into item 1C, continuation, a call to order, and we will ask uh Pastor Chip Holt, are you here? From North Myrtle Beach Vineyard Church to come up and lead us in the invocation. Thank you for having me here this evening. And uh let's let's pray together. Father, I thank you for this time. I thank you for this council, for the city. I ask that you would give us wisdom. I ask that you would give us clarity, compassion, as we face decisions and make decisions, God, communicate. I pray that you would be blessed and honored by what happens here in this room and in this city. that we would be known as a place that shines the light of Jesus. We thank you again for this day and this evening. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, we'll move into item two minutes. Uh we have item A is city council meeting Monday April 6, 2026. Item B, city council special call meeting Monday, April 27th, 2026. And item C, city council budget retreat Monday through Tuesday, April 27th through April 28th, 2026. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. A

motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. We'll move into communications. Um, item A is a recognition of the 2026 Citizens Academy graduates. Hi, I'm Angela West Morland and I had the privilege of spending seven weeks with a beautiful crowd of North Myrtle Beach citizens. They committed to coming every Thursday. I want to thank all the department heads. They got to meet just about everybody in the city and it was a great opportunity for all of us and we made a lot of friends, didn't we? But first, I want to start with who has the best job in North Myrtle Beach.

That's right. All right. As I call your name, come up, please. Um, and we have a certificate, a little gift for you. Kristen Baker. Stay up here for just a minute. Miss Barbara Campbell. That's all right. That's all right.

Connie Delaney. John Deski, William Fail. Gretchen Floyd, Sandra Griffin, Edward Hughes,

Kate Kennedy with bail sign. Deborah Lombardino. There she comes. Patricia Nent. Last week, Robert Roman Uh Keith St. Peter can't be here tonight. Kelly Suggs, don't think Kelly can be here. Donna Willis and Melanie Yarborough.

We started with 30 and this is what we ended up with and we appreciate it. I hope you learned something while you were here. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Okay, we'll move in to item B is uh department monthly reports for March 2026 are available online. And now we'll move into announcements by mayor and city council. And I do have one announcement. I'd like to recognize our fire chief Billy Floyd um who's retiring. And I believe this will be the last city council meeting that he'll be at

in this seat. Anyway, yeah, I got Yeah, I got you. Well, look, I appreciate all you've done for our city. You've been an incredible fire chief and you're very much appreciated.

Any other announcements by council? Okay, hearing none, we'll move into item five, consent agenda. And if it's okay with council, we'll take these four items together. Is that okay? Does anybody want to separate anything or Okay. All right. I'll read them by title. Um, item A is a resolution to approve mutual aid agreements for the 2026 Memorial Day Bike Week. Item B is a motion to appoint five appointments to the construction board of appeals. Item C is a motion to approve Ocean Drive Shag Club Beach dance party to be held May 7th, 2026. And item D is a motion to approve Junior SOS beach event to be held July 17, 2026. Are there any comments by council? So I think we discussed all of these u in prior meeting. And I believe we did. I know uh the mutual aid agreement for Memorial Day is just in case we need or other fire departments need or police departments need um assistance. We'll we all agreed that we'll help each other. And then of course we're appointing um people to the new construction board of appeals that was just uh installed. Um, Ocean Drive Shag Beach Club is kind of something that's held every year and then the Junior S SOA beach event that's held every year. Are there any other any comments by other comments by council? I move for approval.

Well, are there any comments by the public regarding these four items? Hearing none, I need a motion to approve. So move. Second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Eyes have it. We'll move into unfinished business. Item A is an ordinance second reading amendments to chapter 12, health and sanitation of the code of ordinance of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina banning smoking on public beaches. Is there a motion to approve? Second. Are there any comments by council?

Um I have received quite a few um emails and calls regarding this both for and opposing. Um, one thing I can say is this is more of a littering thing than it is a secondhand smoke thing for the beach. Um, you know, it's not safe for the animals. It's not safe for our environment. It's not safe for the young children that are crawling on the beach and picking these things up and putting them in their mouths. When I did the beach sweep, 90% of what I picked up were cigarette butts when we did the trash pickup. So, this is definitely a problem. Um, but I understand there are smokers and they like to come to the beach and they can't go all day without smoking. So, I wonder if we could carve out an area in the parking lot for smoking somewhere off the beachwalk and off the beach and put um trash cans, cigarette ashrays, something there for those smokers. It's something we can discuss, you know. Um, but that might be helpful.

Yeah, other cities that have done that. I've seen where they've done that and certainly we'll have time to do that because this doesn't go into effect immediately. There's got to be some education here to educate not only our tourist and seasons already here. But I agree I agree with Jerry. I think the trash cans are a good idea to give them somewhere to go. I also think that this is a step in the right direction. I for anybody that has done a beach sweep, you know, the majority of what you pick up is cigarette butts. Um and I think it's important to have a nice clean beach for our residents and our vacationers. With that being said, trash cans. Dana, I know we tried trash cans on the beach that were weighted. From what I understand that they did work. I'd like to see as a city we try to get more of those trash cans on the beach so we don't have them blowing around in winds and and everything else. Thank you.

Are there any other comments by council? Getting to uh Jerry's point, I think she does bring up a good point is um I know it sounds almost ridiculous if you remember back in high school you had a smoking area and I don't know if that our uh walkway ends or you know somewhere up there that we potentially create a smoking area. I'm not sure we want them to smoke um because they're going to smoke now whether they go and hide in the dunes or they go back in the parking lot. Um that's the only issue. I'm just not sure the best way to handle that. Whether you try to go ahead and create a space smoking area, which sounds ridiculous, but we still have a lot of smokers, but that's just my thoughts on that. Whether we change things or add that to it, I'm not sure.

Smoking the car. That's a good solution. I see people smoking all the time with the windows rolled up and the kids in the back seat. I do too. Well, we got time to look at that because like I say, there's time there's some education period here to educate the public and um to know that this ordinance is being passed. Are there any other comments by council? Are there any comments by the public? Ple please come and give your name and address u and speak into the microphone so we can hear you. right here. Yes, sir.

Hi, my name is Dale Grimsley, 1402 Fox Hollow Way, North Myrtle Beach. And I'm a non-smoker, so I'm on your side. But how are you going to enforce this? The beach is large, big. You can't put city police out there up and down the beach all day. So, that's going to be a big problem, big issue. I understand. Thank you for your comments and we're looking into that. Certainly, we have beach patrol on the beach and if there's a complaint made, the beach patrol can take care of that.

Good evening. John Griffith, Cherry Grove, I' I've heard that comment about enforcement. Uh, but if we put laws out uh that were required enforcement, it wouldn't make sense to have laws. We have laws against speeding, people speed, laws against littering, people litter. I I think that the idea is is to express to the community, to our visitors, that uh we're not going to accept smoking on the beach. We want to keep our beaches clean. uh we want to protect our children, our our community members. Uh so enforcement to me is is a mute point. Like any law, people are going to break it, but the majority of people hopefully will do the right thing and we'll have a decrease in in the amount of smokers, the amount of cigarette butts, and that even even if you did try to enforcement enforce it, you're still going to have people just like speeding, just like littering that that are going to break the law. the the hope is that most of the people would follow it and so you'd have an improvement over time. Uh perhaps my grandkids would be able to go to the beach and enjoy the beach without smoking and and having to uh play in the sand without cigarette butts. So So to me, the issue of enforcement really isn't isn't a critical thing here. It's doing the right thing for the community, for for our children, grandchildren, uh for the beaches, the aquatic life. So thank you.

Thank you. Hi, my name is Pamela Gibson, 2609 South Ocean Boulevard, Crescent Towers 1. And um I live right on the beach and I live right next door to beach access. So I'm a little worried. We have a no smoking on our property, which is right there. I'm a little worried about people coming onto our property and smoking right there if there's no place for them to smoke. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say I.

I. All against. Eyes have it. We'll move into item B. Ordinance second reading. Amendments to chapter six, buildings construction related activities of the code of ordinances of North My Beach, South Carolina, revising the variance and appeal process procedures of the flood damage prevention ordinance to assign authority to the construction board of appeals. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. A motion and second. Any comment by council? As I remember this, they will meet as needed. That's right.

And it and it gives the people somewhere to appeal where we don't have that now. Yeah. And we discussed it in detail in first reading, but are there any comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say I. I. All against. Eyes have it. We'll move into item C. is a ordinance first reading amendment to the Gatorhole Plan Development PD district PDD revising TGI Friday's site to a new Chick-fil-A site. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second.

A motion, a second. Are any comments by council? Know we probably want to hear from the applicant. And I do know just to bring everybody up to speed, we we had one council meeting about this and we decided to take it to a workshop and we did get to a workshop and we went through that. So now we're back.

That's correct. Good evening. My name is Adam Nelson. I reside at 4201 Beach Creek Court in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Uh I am here uh like Mayor Baldwin said approximately two months ago. we uh presented to the council regarding uh our desire to relocate our Chick-fil-A um to the TGI Friday's site. And between uh that hearing and the workshop uh that was made available to us uh upon reflection, we found that uh some of the answers that we had to all's questions um were lacking. And so we have uh spent um much effort to uh ensure that when we present to you all this evening uh that we are prepared with uh more clear and concise answers to some of the questions and comments that were posed two months ago. Uh the development team is here with me this evening uh including our civil engineer uh Richard Scott and I will turn it over to him. Thank you.

Good evening Richard Scott. Alamont Springs, Florida. Um, I do have a presentation that I will have to pull it on screen here. I may need staff's help. Thanks, sir. All right. As Adam said, we are proposing to we are we are in an existing uh shopping center here. Uh this is a site location. I'm going to zoom in a little bit here just so you can all quickly go through it. We know the site well. The Chick-fil-A is on this Sherry Drive here in White. Um we're proposing to relocate the store to the TGI Fridays that's currently abandoned um along Highway 17 north on that same Ashley Loop main road here. Just a quick comparison of the two sites. the existing Chick-fil-A site that's operating today um is on the right side of the screen and then the proposed uh new new conditions is on the left. Um Chick-fil-A is moving this location due to some you know constraint size constraints to this site stacking. If anybody's seen that before, there's issues with drive-through stacking. Um we're proposing this new site which will allow us to, you know, to uh separate the Chick-fil-A drive-thru from the parking situation. Um, and that's again to safe the safety of the customers and the safety of those drivers. Uh, to separate that. Um, just some quick high level things I want to highlight. Right now, we have people that are parking off site. We're trying to propose all of those people parking on the Chick-fil-A site and a safe way for them to get to the the uh the building. The new site we are proposing um will require us to add in a dedicated left turn lane from our uh traffic analysis and that's shown here in green. Uh we are widening that

driveway to add a left turn line. Just a quick breakdown of the traffic report. Um this was the big big uh item that we needed to explain a little bit further. Um we've done an analysis of the morning, midday, and night. Um we are improving the morning and the night. Um and we want to break down the the the uh the midday a little bit further here. Again, today there is an existing uh there's only existing two lanes. We're proposing three uh with that left turn dedicated. So with the morning we are improving it by about 13 sec about three seconds from 16 seconds. Um I've got some visuals here on the screen so you can quickly see what those car lengths look like from those from the traffic report. On the tops of the screen you're going to see the existing conditions. On the bottom you'll see the proposed um what we're proposing. And the reason why we're able to uh reduce the the average weight time from six 16 seconds to 13 seconds is that left turn lane. Um so I want to jump into the proposed conditions which for the midday which is the the worst peak time. Um so again this traffic report is breaking down the worst time of the year, worst season of the year, the worst hour. This is the the worst condition that we're looking at on the site. We're looking at about seven cars uh on average would be sitting here about three minutes. Um, without Chick-fil-A, it would be about two. Um, so that's what we're proposing here. Again, adding this left turn lane does allow for cars to get into that right turn lane and go straight and not be stuck behind all the those that are currently would be going left. Uh, and that's how we're able to uh minimize the impact of Chick-fil-A. And then again on the night condition, we are actually again improving one whole second um of the average weight time of of people at at this uh intersection. some solutions. Again, thank you for all the all the input that you've provided to us. We have provided some additional solutions from our first uh reading here. We've got way fight wayfinding signage that we're proposing, driveway

lane closure, and some signal signal uh work with DOT that we're trying to work with. So, the first item is we are proposing to kind of train some of the uh the the you know everyday customer, but as well that the tourists to show them there's other ways to go other than left. Uh again, as we mentioned, it's about seven cars, but it we do want to make sure that we can incentivize people to make right turns out of this development. Uh and so we're showing those at these three locations here, as indicated on the screen in blue. One of the the other items that we came up with with the help, we brainstormed this with the store operator. As we know, Chick-fil-A is as somewhat of an expert on traffic. And uh so what we've showing on the screen here, this blue arrow, um on the bottom of the screen here, we're proposing to close that southern driveway as needed during peak times of the year to allow further stacking and using this driveway, as you can see here by the arrows, adding about 300 additional feet. Uh again, the cars that we showed stacked to about here, we're adding significantly more than that. Um should it be needed during the the peak seasons of the year. Um, we've also pulled back uh and made made uh some changes to the site plan again at at a request to make sure that we can uh accommodate those right turns out of the drive-thru and improve that during the peak times. And lastly, we are trying to work with SEDOT. We've reached out to them to see if there's any improvements that they can do with the uh the signal timing here. I would like to quickly introduce the store operator, Jeff Cash, as I mentioned before. Um, just to give a quick uh description of why he needs this.

Hey, council. Uh, Jeff Cash, North Myrtle Beach. Um, again, just just want to thank you guys for allowing this to go to a workshop so that we could go back to the drawing board, make a few changes that I think uh improve the site, improve the site for the whole development. Um, and then two, just just to reiterate, you know, when we think about the chaos of Chick-fil-A today, uh, the chaos of Chick-fil-A today is it's really comes from the customer trying to get on our lot. Um, I think what we do a great job of at Chick-fil-A is we create some organization around them coming off of our lot. Um, and so we're talking about every 15 to 20 seconds, if we're doing our job right, and and we're moving quickly, you're going to see a car come out of that that lot about every 15 to 20 seconds. Uh, so when you take the the data that they just showed, 198 seconds would be the worst case scenario. Talking to our traffic engineers who who did the report and doing a little more digging, that's extremely conservative uh because it still has our existing Chick-fil-A in that data and the new Chick-fil-A, which I think is a very important point uh that we need to make. But still 198 seconds, if you break that down in into 15 to 20 second increments, the car stack's never really going to get above seven or eight cars. Um, and then I think just the last thing I would just say is I mean this would be a big deal not just for me but for our 125 employees at that location. I think for the city. Um, I think it's going to allow us to continue to grow. Um, and here's what I'll say. As the local on the ground operator, I want this to be a great experience. Uh, so we will do everything we can day in and day out to put traffic directors out there to move cones around to to make sure that people know there's there's other ways you can get out of that development. um in order to get to 17. So again, just want to say great, you know, super grateful for you guys for pushing it to a to a workshop and letting us go back to the drawing board a little bit uh and bring bring it back to you guys. So,

well, Jeeoff, it was helpful that you met with us in pairs and threes. Yeah. After the workshop to discuss things, you know, even more, I have 100% confidence that you're going to do a great job. Thanks, Bob. I appreciate that.

It is this is very helpful. And I think you know Councilman Thomas asked it's going to be better or worse and we didn't get a straight answer uh in in the workshop. Uh but as we see now looking at this traffic study it is going to be better in the morning. It's going to be better in the afternoon. Potentially in the middle of the day there could be somewhat of a problem. But with the way finding signs and and you've shown where people can go and travel you look I know me if I'm going if I get in that left hand lane I I don't have a lot of patience. But if if the traffic's not moving pretty fast, I'm getting in the right righthand lane and I'm going to turn right and I'm going to turn around as quick as I can and head back out of that stoplight. And I think if you have the wayfinding signage, it'll help tremendously because you can turn right. I mean, that right, that left turn is where our big concern was. But I get you got the option and I like that you showed that and I appreciate you the time and the effort of of I know it's been a long process but we were concerned about it and

yeah I'm grateful you gave us opportunity to make it better. I I'm have confidence that the safety of your customers is utmost importance to you and you've shown that here and you show it every day in the circumstances that you are in now which are totally dangerous. So you are handling it very very well and no incidents and and I feel like you will do a great job moving forward. Thank you. Are there any other comments by council?

I have a few comments. I mean as y'all know at the workshop I probably had the biggest heartburn on on all of this. Um this does help. I do thank y'all for doing this. I think it is important now that I see that both Chick-fil-As are in this traffic study at the same time. I didn't initially realize that. Um the likelihood of having another restaurant that pushes out the volume that Chick-fil-A does is probably not likely. Uh a couple concerns I still have. One, I think it's real important to try to get the signal timing for the stoplight on 17. Uh the other thing is I still ha have big concern and that's why I pushed for trying to get a roundabout back around Walmart area because it's already a really congested um complex to begin with made sense that it's kind of hard to do that because of the delivery trucks that go to Walmart. So where you're pushing vehicles out to go right, I don't know how is the best way to do it, but to kind of educate them that making their way back to Second Avenue is probably not going to be better. Somehow they need to try to do a U-turn and get back to Ashley Loop because Second Avenue is a nightmare.

Um, do you hear that? At that at that sign that you're going to put there at the end of the street in front of the shopping center, is that one going to have two arrows, one going right and one going left? because that would take them either way. They could go right to go to 17 or they can go left and get back to the light. Yeah, I'll I'll I'll go back here to the uh to the driveway here. Um if you look at the bottom illustration here, we will have the right turn arrow as well, but there will still be the left. There's also that straight direction that can go across onto Cherry Drive. They could also take ETH. No, I'm talking about the I'm talking about the one directly in front of the shopping center that dumps out in front of Walmart. It will be both.

It will have both arrows. So, it can it's not limited. Yes, I think that'll help, Trey. Yeah, they can turn left there and go at that that intersection. But just remember, and correct me if I'm wrong, on the the Sherry um road or drive. I don't know if in the future they're going to be able to turn left at that stoplight at the Lady Star. I think is that I think they were going to some on 17 that was going to be only right. So you would have to only be able to turn right. You would not be able to turn left to get back on 17. That is the future.

Yeah, that is that is a pending in DOT safety median uh plan that they have the way they show it right now which may be something y'all want to talk to them about too. I know our staff's are going to be talking to them about some issues potentially we have, but they they're not going to allow a left turn out of 8th Avenue according to their current proposed plan. I have heard that. Yes. Thank you for that.

Are there any other comments by council? Are there any comments by the public? 30949th Avenue North. Um, what if I'm understanding correctly, the uh traffic study was done in October. Was there another one done after that? That's not peak season. Number one. Number two, back in October, you all approved Walmart uh to expand. And I don't know if you've been over there, but Walmart is expanding in front of their garden center and the four parking spots is blocked off for them to to uh have online pickup. So, whatever they've done have not included what Walmart is already doing. now. So, I don't see how you can go ahead and approve this when you don't take in consideration what Walmart is doing that you all approved.

Have y'all been over there to Walmart to see what they've done? I have. I think we all have. We all live here and they're working away. What's that? They're working away. Hopefully, this they're working away. But how is that going to impact what they want to do? Because now you're talking about taking the traffic right at Walmart, but Walmart has blocked off the parking lots. Mr. Cash, didn't I ask at the first reading that we had on this, didn't I not ask about that study and when it was performed and you guys said October, but that you took into consideration peak season traffic even though the study was done in October?

Yes, ma'am. they they built in the seasonal variance into the study um and that peak hour as well of that seasonal time frame. So it's it's in there. So your study is is based on the critical time of primarily July, late June and all the way through middle of August to handle the worst case scenarios. But your public works commission says it doesn't cover the daytime. A and their report is what they're saying is that it does cover uh peak seasonal traffic in the left lane, but it doesn't completely alleviate the midday queuing delay.

I think the report he was speaking of did cover the evenings, the midday, and the five o'clock rush hour or six o'clock rush hour. Well, that's not what it says. Could we get their traffic engineer to speak, please? Absolutely. Thank you. I'll bring up our traffic engineer. Well, this is uh this is Rob Wolfong. He's a local engineer.

I'm Rob Wilfong. Uh live here, work here, and do a little traffic engineering on the side. And uh I was here at the last meeting and saw a lot of that. And and you know, one of the questions that was asked, Miss McCy, was when the traffic study was going. And in fact, you know, that's really the worst question you can ask a traffic engineer because it's always the wrong time. You know, what about the school traffic? What about the peak traffic? Well, the good news is DOT and the NO, they put together, they count traffic twice a year. They count it in the summer and they count it in the winter. And they publish what they call annual average daily traffic. So based on those variations, they develop peaking factors. So you can take a factor that's provided by DOT times that count multiply and grow it or decrease it so it accurately reflects the traffic at that time. So you know that answers the question about, you know, when it was done because if we've done it in the summer, what about schools? You know what what about the the transit? And we know that here our traffic varies consistently. I think last weekend we had SOS and and it's just you do the best you can. And I think if you go all the way back to the very first slide that was up about where it is today and where they're going, you can look at it and see this is definitely a safety improvement. The Home Depot across the street had all this stuff inside of it. you know, they're taking up spaces with product, but people are parking over there. They're walking across the street. You see it all the time. So, you know, them moving, having a much larger footprint place to keep the traffic more on site is a good thing. Enhances safety considerably.

Okay. I guess my question is you all are saying that what you've approved for Walmart uh that was not considered in this will not have an impact. Is that what you all are saying? Approved on for Walmart was for an online for their online business and pickup. Now, I think one thing you might want to keep in consideration when you look at Walmart is currently they have one in construction up in in the Sunset Beach area. So right now primarily if you draw a circle where our our Walmart is around we're the we're the nearest one. They have a choice if you live in Sunset Ocean Beach on that but that way your options are to either come to the North Myrtle Beach or to go towards Wilmington or Leland in that area. So I mean I think that in the coming months as that particular Walmart and some of the other grocery stores that and other box stores that are going on coming online up there will have a reduction in the amount of traffic that we have from those from people that are coming across the line to utilize those stores. That's just a

Yeah, I know. But we're talking North Myrtle Beach. We're not talking I I understand 100%. If you look at what's there I have pictures of of what's all blocked off and I I just I don't understand how you can say that you can move forward with this project without taking this into consideration. That's what I'm saying. And thank you. And what it appears is that you all believe that it's okay. Thank you for your time. We've had a

a council meeting and a workshop on this and this is the second meeting. Uh but this is first reading. So we will have another u this will be on the next agenda for second reading. Are there uh any other comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say I. I. All against eyes have it. We will move into new business. Item A is an ordinance first reading amendment to the towers on the Grove Plan development district PDDD creating an oceanfront paid parking lot. Is there a motion to approve?

So move a motion, a second or any comments by council. I don't know if we can pull that up. I I'd like for the general public if they could see that layout. I think they would be uh probably feel pretty good about it. Additional parking there is not going to is going to be our friend. Put it shortly.

We don't have a lot of it. Can you get the larger perspective?

This page Okay. So, this parcel's uh existing. It's private and it's going to be a private privately owned and operated parking lot. Paid parking lot. Paid paid parking. Absolutely. So, and we need parking in this area. So

yeah, for the general public that's not real sure where this is. So this is about 20th Avenue, I believe, 21st Avenue maybe. And all right now, really all you have it's across the street, second row, and it's just a few golf cart spaces. Um, so I think it would be a good serve for the the area right in there to give them a little bit more option. I agree. I agree. It's unusual. I'm glad to have it. Yeah. Yeah, instead of building a tower. Any other comments by council? Are there any comments by the public?

Please come and give your name and address John Griffith 612 20th. I live right by there. I'm just curious, is that going to restrict the existing uh beach access there that the public has on the right side of of that empty lot? No. No. On the plan, you can still see the beach access if you look up. Okay. So, that's that's still going to be there. Yeah. Yeah. How many how many lots is that? 27.

It's uh as far as lots, I'm not sure. It's probably 90 ft, but I'm not sure. 27 spaces. 27 parking places. And where will people from that lot access the beach on that existing beach access or a new beach access? Can you slide that up? There's not a new beach access. So, it definitely be the existing access. They'll use that existing access point over in the corner where 15 and 16 are. Okay. Thanks. Are there any other comments by the public?

Hi, Trish Fowler, 912 Thomas Avenue. um with this parking lot, with others going in, with the recent parking lots that the city just built over the course of the winter, um with the increasing evidence that non-permeable surfaces are one of the leading causes of our beach erosion, beach erosion everywhere. Um have we considered requiring future parking um uh request to be permeable? Can still be hardcaped, but permeable for rainfall. this particular according to their site plan is existing gravel. So it would be so we're headed in the right direction on the drainage. Are there any other comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say I. I. All against. Eyes have it. We'll move it into item B, ordinance first reading, amendment to the Hope Point Plan Development District, PDD, replacing the previously approved town homes along Sanctuary Way with detached cottage style homes. Is there a motion to approve?

Second. There's a motion and a second. Is any comments by council?

Yeah, I have some. Yes. Um, got definitely have some concerns on the driveway links. Uh there if we look on staff comments um pardon me that you know typically that you know we've over the last several years we through trial trial and error more on the error side. We we pretty well established that that we need to have a you know minimum parking depth of 20 24 feet where a lot of these majority of these are proposed with 21 foot. Um and some of those are actually drawn to the face of the house not necessarily to the parking area itself because there is a small landscape buffer between the concrete or the whatever the pavement is and and the structure itself. Um other that that's my my primary concern. Um here's one other issue is that we've got uh certain different house names on here and but in within primarily two where there's multiple uh different floor plans that are listed within when within the uh the presentation and they are also showing on the renderings they're showing detached garages but there are no there's no space within that would allow for those on that

is the applicant here. Thank you, mayor. Um, and Councilman Cohen, I agree with your comments. Some of those we addressed at planning commission. Their approval was contingent on the idea that there are no detached garages associated with this product. If you looked, you'd probably recognize this is the same product that went in at Grand Dunes North. and dis

it is that's it's the exact same product and the depths I agree with you we've tried to establish that as a principle that that's what we would have the depths on these units are the same as were previously approved on the town homes I recognize that that was earlier in time so that's where the difference came from on those I think you understand probably more than anybody maybe Hank as well that in this market selling an attached product is very difficult there's not a market for that so going to a detached product that was already proven successful in Grand Dunes North was the reason for the product change here. So, and and I don't I totally do not I don't argue the concept sure

of it. It's just the concern on the on the driveway lengths that that keeps coming back to to kind of get us. Sure. And it works well until people move in. Agreed. I understand.

If Suzanne could you uh pull this up? I agree with Mr. point on this that the uh we fought that battle on driveway depths and the roadways and it's just uh it's really become it's not an issue on paper but if you unsuspecting buyer and you go by it and find out that I can't even walk down the street. We went round with this off of u Grand Doom's North area. I can't remember exactly which one, but and he said most people don't drive big trucks, but my truck won't even fit on that parking spot without sticking.

What's the Is that a 20 foot 22 foot road? Is that asphalt to asphalt or I I can't quite make it out. You can see what was previously approved a little further down. The driveways were the same length in the previously approved uh town home product,

which is 22 feet. But this was, you know, 20 19 2022, 2021, and I don't recall if those town homes if they had garages or they were just um they they did

they did have garages so they could pull in whereas these these homes. I mean, I saw some of them are 21 ft and there's no sidewalk. Well, I don't know that two wrongs make a right. So, well, I'd certainly rather see the single family homes than the town homes, but I understand this dilemma, too. Um, is there a way that uh maybe you could u increase these driveway links? I

I think the way design is to to shorten the depth of the patio on the rear, which is not a great solution, but it is a solution. And I think that the developer understands this is a concern. So if you made that a condition, I think they would learn to live with it. Well, it sounds like the majority council feels like that's the issue. And then um even if they needed to reduce the density a little bit, it wouldn't hurt our feelings. It wouldn't hurt mine. I can tell you that my normally when we go back into a PDD, we're normally doing that to do some density reduction. So that's kind of where I was going to go with that as well. Plus 30 town homes. Now it's 30 patio homes.

Correct. I get the reason they're doing it. But I would love to see. Yeah. And usually we have a constraint with the width here. The depth is the constraint we have. So I mean if you if that's the condition that council wants us to consider, I think that will be a favorable consideration. and we'll come back before our next meeting with both a reduction of the depth of that patio so we can slide the depth back to get you to 24 ft and a reduction in density. Are there any other comments by council so we could vote on this for first reading and then they're going to come back and address your concerns or any other concerns.

Do we need to make that part of the motion Chris? Well, whoever made the motion can amend it for sure,

but we're not quite there yet. We need to public have public We need to Anybody else on council have any comments regarding this change? Okay. Are there any comments by the public? Okay. Hearing none, would you like to change your motion to include that that the applicant increase the uh the width or the depth of the parking uh driveways and then also uh reduce density. Yes. So amending the driveway length 24 and the density. I second.

Okay. So there's a motion and a second is and we'll take our vote. All in favor say I. I. All against. Eyes have it. We'll move into item C is an ordinance first reading amendment to the Pepper Tree Ocean Club plan uh development district PDD allowing additional building signage. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. There's a motion to second. Any comment by council? this is going to be painted. So, I mean, are we are we essentially going towards a I guess are we following in a classification of like a mural on this? Um,

so I think it'd be helpful to get Suzanne to talk about this. I know she talked about it during the planning commission meeting because I watched it and uh there was, you know, went back and forth about the size and whether it meets the mural size and the size of the signage and all those things. Yeah, we we discussed it quite a lot at plating commission. Um there was some concern about the size of the ocean club text and that being an advertising component other if it was just the turtle. I don't even think this would really be here before you, but um the ocean club part and the applicant definitely made it much smaller. It did go the whole width of the the blank space there before, but um seemed like a the happy medium for planning commission.

All within the mural. It's a Yeah, it's a sign because of that text. Yeah. So, do we know are they changing their name? It's still going to be this sign is still going to be by the road that says pepper tree and this is just an added aesthetic. Yeah, that Pepper Tree Ocean Club sign that you see there would would remain. It's just the ocean club uh would be on that blank spot. And the applicants here, she can address your questions.

I can clarify the pepper tree part. So, Zandia owns several with the Lour projects and Pepper Trees in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. It's here. It's in Florida. So, basically, you have Pepper Tree Atlantic Beach, Peppet Tree Ocean Club. And all they do is just emphasizing that this is peppry of ocean club and that's basically where that they're not dropping pepper tree.

Has there been any consideration to oppose the paint maybe doing that with a with a tile to give it more opposed to doing it primarily the turtle uh opposed to doing paint on that to doing it out of a colored or ceramic like tile. That would give it some more inf infamous It'd look better. Yeah. So, it'll be it'll be slightly it's a painted, but it is they kind of take the stucco and they raise it just a little bit to paint. So, it has so it does have like a little bit of depth to it. So, that at the point that

because the the paint's good for probably about five years before the before the the fade, you know, our environment starts taking advantage of it. would be nice to have to have a little bit little bit of depth and emphasis on that raise the stucco on the building just a little bit just enough to kind of give it like a 2D effect but yes but mostly it's painted and Suzanne this does fall in their sign allowance it doesn't go over the sign allowance

it's a a PDD so they don't they can ask okay thank what the planning commission asked them to do from the original. Yeah. Are there any other comments by council? Are there any comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say I.

I. All against. Eyes have it. We will move in to item D is an ordinance first reading to chapter 23 zoning of the code of ordinances of North Beach, South Carolina adding places of worship to be allowed in uses in R2A. Is there a motion to approve? So move. Is there a second? Second.

There's a motion, a second. Is any comment by council? Uh where did this um come from or who who is asking for this or this is something staff this was uh brought up to us by Nation's Homes. I believe it was out there in the um uh what's the name of that? Yeah, the Sand Ridge track. Um they uh and it and it pointed out a a discrepancy in our zoning ordinance. some some years ago when the R2A district was created, it it was just an oversight that houses of worship were were not listed as a permitted use in the R2A where it is in other zoning districts. So, this is just kind of bringing that into consistency with other zoning districts, but it it took an applicant coming in asking about that out at the Sand Ridge track um to uh to point out that that was an oversight from many many years ago.

Okay. Any other comments by council? Any comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say I. I. All against. Eyes have it. We'll move into item E, ordinance first reading amendments to chapter 23, zoning of the co code of ordinances of North Beach, South Carolina, correcting terms for the board of zoning appeals. Is there a motion to approve? Motion. Second. There's a motion and a second. Is there any comment by council?

Mayor, I'm going to recuse myself on this one if you don't mind. Is there any comment by council? This basically a housekeeping item was brought to our attention and we we're cleaning it up, fixing it. Any no comment by council? Is any comment by the public? hearing none. We'll take our vote. All in favor say I. I. All against. Eyes have it. We'll move into item F, ordinance first reading amendments to chapter 23, zoning of the code of ordinances of North Beach, South Carolina, solidifying staggered terms for the planning commission. Is there a motion to approve?

So moved. Second. The motion is second. Any comment by councel? Doing the same thing we just did on E. That is correct. Any other comments by council? Are there any comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say I.

I. All against. Eyes have it. So, we will move into public comment. If there's anybody from the public would like to address council, please come to the microphone, give your name and address, and we have a threem minute time limit. this. Hi, I'm Christy Hinton at uh 710 33rd Avenue South in North Myrtle Beach. I haven't heard anything on the topic of short-term rentals in a while, and so that's why I'm here today as we approach tourist season. The city of Charleston's short-term rental ordinance articulates the North Myrtle Beach single family home residence concern and I'll quote city council is mindful of the importance of maintaining the residential character of city neighborhoods absent appropriate controls on the number, the manner and the places of operation of short-term rentals. Neighborhoods stand to be harmed by undue commercialization and disruption to the primary and overarching purpose of a neighborhood being first and foremost a residential community where people actually live and not a place of transient occupancy. For those of us who are watching our neighborhoods hollow out into shells of transient occupancy, we do not find tour buses dropping off 20 adults or city buses that drop off 20 children at the house three doors down from my house to be residential activities. These are commercial volumes of transiency and residential zone neighborhoods. When I have to call our North Myrtle Beach police four times in a three-day period due to noise and complete obstruction of a lane of traffic by

their cars, then our police are reduced to regulating commercial activity in residential neighborhoods. I'm offended that their expertise and their skills are not being employed to reduce the drug trafficking in my neighborhood or preventing the theft of my neighbors cars. If we start with the proposition that government restrictions should be narrowly tailored to provide the maximum freedoms to its citizens, then I urge city council to start with residential zone single family homes that are not subject to HOAs. Addressing the non-HOA single family homes will address the bulk of the residents complaints about transient over occupancy and peace disturbance while allowing HOA properties to continue to be regulated by their HOAs. If the city borrows language from other cities in South Carolina, there's a greater likelihood that we would adopt language that has already withtood legal challenges. Charleston has exemplary language that can be adopted. We, like Charleston, need a cap or a limit on the number of short-term rental permits allowed in residential areas. Maybe even if we cap it what it is today with a goal of it declining over time as owners chose to get out of the short-term rental business. North Myrtle Beach residents what what Charleston residents want. Neighborhoods where people actually live, not a place of transit occupancy. Charleston has mandatory minimum dedicated off- streetet parking spaces that are tied to occupancy limits, not to bedroom definitions that are circumvented. North Myrtle Beach needs maximum guest occupancy. For example, Charleston short-term rentals are capped at four unrelated people. We need something similar to stop the tour bus commercialization of our neighborhoods. I've run out of time, but I appreciate your consideration of the Charleston limits and the occupancy limits of unrelated people in our short-term rentals in our residential

areas. Thank you. Thank you so much. Any other comments about the PO?

Good evening. Randy Gardner, 626 Bay Street. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. I'd like to comment on the proposed 2627 budget. Many of us who reside in Old North Myrtle Beach cannot understand why our taxes need to be increased after such a significant increase in property value that resulted in an increase in net revenue to the city from an increase in property value taxes. Homes that were valued at 180 to 200,000 are now valued at over 500,000. Many of us were already living with tight budgets before our property values went through the roof. And the resulting increase in taxes is really hurting us. And now you're asking us to pay more. the folks increased our taxes without our choice to expand a sports complex. And I've had no luck in finding a retired couple who have interested in running a soccer or ball field. Secondly, those of us living in Old North Myrtle Beach had never been asked by referendum or otherwise if we wanted the city to cross the waterway and start aggressive annexation in the first place. If the annexations had not occurred, the city would not have had a need to increase taxes to support public safety. For example, we would not have needed fire stations five, six, and seven, and the associated fire equipment and manpower to staff them. The additional police, public works, and sanitation equipment personnel that are necessary to provide city services across the waterway. So, what additional public safety needs are there in Old North Myrtle Beach? If the money is needed to support the annexations, please be honest and tell us so. And do we really need to spend hard-earned taxpayer money on such overzilious public safety equipment at one time? Several of you ran for office and two of our your goals was to slow the growth in transparency. Elections were held in November of 25 not heard until this evening. I want to give you credit for that. Any comments, discussions, or planned workshops to have city staff address the growth problems. City council members, if you stop the growth, you'll stop the need for more money. In closing, can you please help us folks of Old North Myrtle Beach? We cannot deanex, so please reduce the amount of the proposed tax increase. Remember, we

will very likely have county and school tax increases coming our way, too. And maybe push some of that public safety spending out over the next five years. Please, please slow the growth. Your residents cannot continue to afford to keep supporting it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Are there any other comments by the public? Hello, I'm Ray Collins, 611 21st Avenue South. And uh I'm glad to see we have someone here from the police department tonight because last year in front of my house at from 2:00 in the morning till 4:00 in the morning, there was mayhem. There were two police cars parked across the street from me and I walked out and asked them what they were going to do about all the noise. By the way, uh let me read this from the city. It says, "The maximum permissionable sound in emitted from commercial property, private property, public rightway, or from city property when measured in accordance with section 12-73 shall not be in excess of 60 dBA." And I just passed that because I got a little sound meter right here on my uh phone. And when I when I asked the policeman what he could do about this noise, this is what he said. There's nothing we could do about because these people are in their cars. If you're going down, it says you can't even race your engine. And that's all they do all night long coming up just in a few weeks. We like to call it black bike week. Some people call it uh the uh sports bike week. Doesn't matter what you call it. It's too noisy. And I know um Mr. Baldwin, you you said it. We're going to take care of that this year. I sure hope so because it is a pain in my behind when I'm trying to sleep at 2 3 4:00 in the morning and there's a party out in front of my house that I didn't ask for. Thank you.

Thank you. I will clarify though. I didn't say we're going to take care of it. What we did was we passed ordinance uh on short-term rental effects on other properties or residential our residents that live here and we're still working on that to this day. We do have issues. we are addressing them as best we can. Are there any other comments by the public? You also that ordinance it's about cars that are blocking rideaways for the police and fire department as well. So they this year they'll be able to tow those cars without any question. Are there any other comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll need a motion to adjurnn. Is there a motion to adjurnn?

Motion moved. Motion a second. All in favor say I. I. Uh the meeting is adjourned. Thank you.