City Council - workshop

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you

Good morning. Welcome to our workshop and meeting of August 25th, 2026. September is right around the corner. Labor Day is a couple of weeks away. We've got fall activities. The weather is not there yet, but hopefully it will be soon. We have a workshop hour here. I know there are some executive session items, one item on the workshop. Mr. Manager, would you like to talk about Brittany Park, please? Are there Brittany Park people in the room?

We were here before you, beginning of June, this was Tony, about Brittany Park. Real quick, the first part of Brittany Park in the yellow is a city road. The second half, I think there's a, doesn't work, that's not yellow is where Tony and these folks live in a carriage home HOA that is not a city road. We talked about the history of how this became back in 2004, annexation, and how it got before us. And since then, we've been trying to, I think Council's conversation back in June was to see if there's a compromise, to try to figure out how to do this. And that's, we'll fast forward through all this. And what Tony and we've discussed is a maintenance agreement. where Tony and the Carriage Homes HOA will pave St. Thomas Circle, the part that is in the red here, just the road itself, not the finger roads, that the HOA would pave the roads. They have a quote from King Asphalt for about $46,000 to $50,000, and we would enter into a maintenance agreement with them. The maintenance agreement would be the city would take the maintenance of the road from back of curb to back of curb, and that is it. The finger roads stay with the homeowners and the HOA, and that future paving and road repair would be on the responsibility of the city. We would need to memorialize this because we're not going to repave a road for another 15 to 20 years. So we've worked with the city attorney to come up with an agreement that we can put someplace where folks will be able, who are sitting around the dais and are sitting in these chairs and new homeowners will remember or somehow have something in the file saying, oh yeah, we have this agreement. And that is it in a nutshell of the proposal. Any questions? I see Mike's looks on his face.

There obviously would be alternatives. We won't go there yet, but there would be alternatives. Go back to 2004, 2005, because I think there was a sort of a commitment to do this, and then it didn't occur at the end of the day. Can you explain what actually transpired in 2004, 2005?

The Planning Commission recommended denial of bringing the road into, or the annexation into the city limits because of the issue we just mentioned, the roads. City Council at the time voted to annex it and bring it in, and that created the confusion that sits us here today, where the first half is public, the back half is private.

Was there a commitment at any point to pave the roads?

Was there a discussion? I can't find any. We have not found any.

But these definitely are city residents at the end of the day.

They are.

And we could make their life easier if we just paved the road and called it a day.

It's a private road right now.

It's a private road.

There are a lot of private roads in the city.

I know there are. Would there be... Does the road meet our requirements for right-of-way width and access? No. And yet we do service it with trash trucks daily and put out house fires and all those fun things. We do.

As we do with other private roads.

Council?

This is a very unique situation.

Sounds like a good compromise.

This is a very unique, you know, there was concern about whether this is precedent setting. We kind of just talked about it a little bit. This is the only neighborhood I can think of that has this type of situation in it. The rest of them are all private, and private is private. But this one is a very unique, it's all self-contained, one entrance on the Gerson Parkway, in and out. It's a very unique beast.

sounds like a good compromise because in other situations and correct me if i'm wrong but we require the roads to be up to our standard to take them and since that's not going to be able to happen having them pave it to bring it up to the highest standard before we enter the agreement sounds like a really good compromise this is the best one we could come up with

Can I, we're also, we're not just paving the St. Thomas Circle. We're using King Asphalt and they wouldn't even take the job because it was such a small job. So we're also paving every finger road. So the whole community will be up to your standards, okay, at a cost of $103,000. we've been trying to get to this point forever. Because basically, it's not, you know, we appreciate the garbage and the fire department and the police department, okay, but we're also opened up to all other traffic. Like last week, we had three tractor trailers come through there. And these things do wear and tear on our road, and there's no way for us to stop it. We applied for a permit for gates at one time, and a permit was denied, understandably. It doesn't meet the criteria. But without a gate to stop it, okay, we basically lose the rights to our road because they're just open forever, and we pay for it. So I think this compromise would be wonderful. I'm just trying to explain to you guys, too, that we're not just doing St. Thomas Circle and leaving the finger roads to be an eyesore. We're doing the whole thing. And we're a small HOA. This 103 is a bite. 15 years from now, it will be worth it. It'll be worth it for the marketability of the homes, okay? I'm not gonna see it. Probably most of you guys aren't gonna see it either. That's why it needs to be memorialized.

It's a private road that functions as a public road.

Yes, sir.

Does the maintenance agreement contemplate the city accepting the roadways?

No, the city, when I was here the first time, I was asking for the city to adopt the roads, okay? And the gentleman, Councilman Chestnut, he remembered this situation, and he was remarking on it, and he's 100% right when he was saying, you know, it should have been a whole road or nothing. So basically, the The question is, it's necessary to do it. So that's where I'm going with this. Excuse me? Yeah, the roads definitely, I had offered in that, I said, if we can't take the roads and adopt them, then I was saying, what about an easement in perpetuity in exchange for the service on the road. And that's basically where we are right now, which would be great. It would just satisfy our needs and it would satisfy the city's needs.

Sorry, I had my phone off.

Thanks for the reminder. Are there other roads within the city that do not meet our standard requirements that are adopted and city-owned?

I'd have to find that.

I don't know.

I'd have to find that out.

Nothing's stuck off the top of my head. We didn't go down, we didn't research that question.

Anybody else? I agree with Dr. Connor. I think this is a very good compromise. I'd like to see it go through, I think.

Yeah, I would too.

The Office of the City Manager has, you know, They're balancing all this stuff trying to make this thing work, so.

As you said, 15 years from now, I'm not going to be sitting up here. No, I'm not. I'm not going to be standing here.

I don't have any issue with the compromise here. I agree with Bill and also with Debbie. I think it is a good compromise. But I do have a question. Just maybe somebody, Mike or Phil, the question of the gates. I mean, why would they, it's a private road, it's a private community, basically. The only thing that I've ever known about not being able to have a gate to your neighborhood was because it wouldn't be a private, it couldn't be a private road. But I was always under the impression if the road was to remain private, then it could be a gated road. Can anybody answer that for me?

It doesn't meet the stacking requirements.

Zoning Charlie's route can answer that question.

Okay, I'm just curious.

Good morning.

Per code, the city does not allow stacking in the right-of-way. So if they were to put a gate up, all the stacking would be in the public right-of-way.

It's not so much the gate, it's the stacking on Grissom.

St. Thomas Circle.

Basically, there's not even room where you couldn't put a turn around.

I'll get it. Basically, 60% or 70% of this circle is public already. Does meet our requirements?

Yes.

And the other part doesn't?

Correct.

Paving it obviously would improve our... trash service and fire protection access, all those fun things.

I don't have any problem with the compromise either. I agree with everything that's been said up here on the dais, but I would be curious to know how many other neighborhoods are in the same situation.

We can't find anyone in another neighborhood like this. There's a lot of private roads, a lot of cul-de-sacs, private roads, but the whole thing's private. This is a very unique, where the first half is public and the second part of it is private. I can't find, we've talked about it, we've batted it around, there may be something out there. We don't know where it is, if it exists. That's why I make this a very unique situation. If it was all private, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation.

There are reasonably new neighborhoods where the streets do meet our standards, and they haven't been deeded over to the city.

Some of them are coming. I know of one.

Anybody else?

Let's make it happen.

We'll start working towards a maintenance agreement, and I guess we'll need to bring that here, Will, at some point.

Yes.

Thank you.

all right thank you council do you have any other items to talk about during the workshop we've got some executive session items that we may be able to take care of here in the next 48 minutes you have anything else to bring up If you don't mind, we will do four executive session items. The following are invited to attend the entire discussion, in addition to City Council. Fox Simons, Will Bryan, Josh Brugger, Michelle Shumpert, Marla Bell, Meredith Denary, and Amy Neuschafer. The first item, motion to go into executive session to discuss contractual negotiations regarding the 21st Avenue PUD. Motion to go into executive session to discuss contractual negotiations with the promoter of Rockfest. Motion to go into executive session to discuss contractual negotiations with DC Blocks regarding use of the public right-of-way. And finally, motion to go into executive session to receive legal advice relating to pending litigation involving the police department. Is there a motion to go into executive session for those four items?

So moved. Second.

Mike and Debbie. All those in favor of going into executive session, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And we'll go into the back room, I believe. How's that?

My computer's.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your patience. We met in an executive session to discuss the four items that you heard about. Is there a motion that we met in executive session, took no action? Is there a motion to come out of executive session?

I'll move. Second.

Mike and Bill. All those in favor of coming out of executive session, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We'll take a break for 10 minutes, 11 minutes until the regular meeting starts at 10 a.m. Thank you.

you you

For those of you who grew up in North Carolina, it's 10 o'clock parking shop time. Good morning. Welcome to our regular meeting of the Myrtle Beach City Council on Tuesday, August 25th, 2026. If you'll please rise for the invocation by Jackie Hatley and our Pledge of Allegiance.

If you wish, you may join City Council in standing for a moment of solemn invocation. Almighty God, creator and sustainer of all that is or will ever be, accept our profound gratitude for this day and all of its blessings of life and freedom. We remember those who make a freedom possible and recognize it because of their sacrifice that our community can practice our shared and enduring values of varied expressions of faith, civic duty, and respect for all. We gather today to render our public service in a proper manner and perform our civic duties in good order. Therefore, we solemnly invoke divine wisdom and guidance in this day's meeting. Amen.

Again, thank you all for being here today. We appreciate your presence. We have an agenda to approve. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So moved. Second. Second. With the mics, please. Any discussion from council? All those in favor of the agenda as presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We have minutes from our August 11th City Council workshop and meeting. Is there a motion to approve those as presented?

So moved. Second.

Any discussion from council? All those in favor of the minutes for August 11th as presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Public requests, presentations, awards, and memorials. only one item today for a change and that's the communications and creative services staff update so we'll do that at this point hey city council patrick lloyd here with your communications update

Welcome to our incoming police chief, Fred Chambers. He joins us from Fairfax County, Virginia. His first day with the city is Monday, September 28th. Also, welcome to our new assistant city manager, Josh Kay. His first day has been moved up to Monday, August 31st. Hundreds of kids and parents came out to the annual back to school book bag giveaway at Patrick Mobile Home Park to receive their free school supplies. The Neighborhood Services Department hosted the back-to-school prayer walk. It turned into a prayer drive due to rain. There's a new crosswalk on 82nd Parkway. Public Works installed it at Nigels Drive to improve pedestrian safety. Park Park North is back open after crews closed it to install a new water fountain. They also fixed some drainage issues, so no more muddy paws for the pups. Pembroke Eddings Recreation Center hosted the kids triathlon. 37 athletes competed in the event. If you're a poet and you know it, there's still time to apply to be the city's next poet laureate. You can find the application on cityofmyrtlebeach.com. Public Works plans to begin taking down the 130 military banners on Harrelson Boulevard and Robert Grissom Parkway this week. Look for applications for the next round to open in January. Looking ahead, the fastest woman in the world, Melissa Jefferson Wooden, is returning to Myrtle Beach for the annual Kids Track and Field Clinic Saturday, September 26th. There are still spots available. Check the Myrtle Beach City Government Facebook page for the link to register. International Overdose Awareness Day is August 31st. The Fire Department's Opioid Response Team is hosting an event from 5.30 to 7.30 that evening to offer resources to those affected by substance use. It takes place at Chapin Park. The Waves of Praise Gospel Fest is coming back September 3rd through the 5th at the Pavilion Place. And September 7th is Labor Day and a city holiday. No changes to solid waste pickup that week. That's all for now. Hope you have a great rest of your week.

Thank you very much. Up next are non-agenda items from the public. And the Patrick's are in the house. I don't know whether you've signed up to speak today or not. Madam Clerk?

David Ballard.

good morning good morning my name is david ballard and i am a business owner on broadway street um pixel fixer i've actually done some work for the city before um i'm right next to the yellow cap people that do all of the extra cleaning and stuff they've done a great job i come today because in the last few months My customers have made a couple things available to me, which are that they feel unsafe coming to the area. And I can only attribute that to a few things. There are people on the benches out front of my store, across the street. There's four benches, basically. And the people that are on them change so often. My customers are being asked for money, rides, cigarettes. You're talking mom with her kids, in and out on lunch, and when they call me back, they're like, hey, I need to come back, but there's, last time I was there, I was stopped as I left your store. Like, hey, stop real quick. And then they're asked for money, or a ride, To a mom with kids, that's very unstartling. If it was just me or somebody else, but that lady and there's an elderly lady at one time, one of my customers felt so bad that she actually gave the person a ride. So these are kind of the same people that are doing these things, but it does change. But just, you know, I come today to just speak for my customers and they're not feeling safe because the whole area has improved. And every day I advocate for my area that I am directly in to tell people like, hey, you know, the city is on a great job. Things have improved. I've been here six years. We've never had any issues. Like, it's gotten better. Like, come on down. Like, come see the area. We have new restaurants. Like, it's greatly improved. And then when they get there and they have that experience, it's like everything I've said is just... Con out the window and because now they've experienced it for themselves. And, um, I don't want that to be the experience, you know, like. I invested in the idea of being in downtown 6 years ago because I saw the. I saw the plans that came out and I was like, I really want to be a part of this. So. I've put money back into my building and signed a long-term lease. I want to be there and I want to see the city plans come to fruition and actually the area get better. But there's definitely some things that need to be addressed. I'm not saying anything bad about anybody. I can only speak for my customers. I'm only there from 10 to 6. I don't know what happens before or what happens after. But you guys have done a great job You know all things aside looking at the bigger picture Really? I am very excited as a business owner to see the improvements that are coming I know a lot of people would say nothing's happened, but I've seen it. You know I can see it happening so Just thank you all and nice to meet you. I've never been to a meeting like this before. I'm not very political and I don't usually get involved in things that go on. You guys do a good job without being policed. So to get me out here, my wife would say, probably means a little bit because I'm not one to get up and make a voice for something. But other than that, that's pretty much all I have to say about that. Thank you. Thanks David. Thank you. Thank you David.

Deanna Fryer.

My name is Deanna Fryer. I am a native of Myrtle Beach. I just wanted to share my experience and I sent some pictures earlier. I don't know if you've received them yet. I'm going to address the benches as well. I am a resident of Myrtle Beach, downtown Fifth Avenue North. I had the option several years ago. This home has been in my family for over 75 years. I had the option about 10 years ago to... tear down the home. It burned. I opt not to. I reinvested. And I have invested a great amount in that little space. And every day that I wake up and come to work, the site's not pleasing. I had my grandchildren in town this summer for two weeks. They were afraid to leave my yard. The pictures I sent, the only thing I can ask you to please consider is maybe removing the benches. They're not there for what the intent was. And that's really all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Ruben Hyman.

I want to commend Mr. Fox-Simons and the city on the new police chief that we have selected. I went to the meet and talked with each and every one of the candidates. They were some good candidates, but I think he made the right choice in selecting Mr. Chandler as our new chief. Thank you very much on that. What I'm here for is two things on the hospitality. One, I think that we need to address it. I know it's on your minds that we need to address the hospitality portion that goes to the property tax of the people who have property here in Myrtle Beach. And last year we had to take money from the city budget to contribute to some of that because of the hospitality tax had gone down. And it will go down again this year. And so we're gonna have to try to address how we're gonna do that. And so our own property taxes will not continue to go up. The other thing on the hospitality tax is that I think you have some control on saying what the money is spent as far as advertising by the Chamber. know of it if you don't have a say so but we need to bring back the families and one of the great things that we can do right now as far as using that money for tourism to bring tourism back up so the hospitality will come back up is to emphasize family kingdom as a great family place for families to come down and be tours and i hope you will take that in consideration and uh next time we'll talk about a topic that you know that i want to talk about thank you thank you reuben we did address the property tax credit so that we're not borrowing from peter to pay paul

the city also has been having conversations with chamber of commerce about the overall tourism development fee and hopefully there'll be some some positive news on that before too long so jennifer cecil patrick and family

good morning i'm dana painter this is my sister becky robertson and our parents cecil and barbara patrick we just wanted to give the city a big thank you you saw a quick picture on the communications thing of the highway 15 back to school bash we could not do that without the city of myrtle beach about 10 years ago neighborhood services approached us about having something in our community and it has grown from about 400 kids to we estimate about 1200 kids plus families this year We want to thank Neighborhood Services. The Special Events Committee met with us to make sure things were in order. The Convention Center provided tables and chairs. Parks and Rec Special Events gave us barricades to cut the grass. The Fire Department was there. We had some first aid needs, they were there. The Police Department was there directing traffic. Chapin Library has been there every year giving out books and signing up families with library cards. And we were on the Friday Facts. I'm not sure which department that is. But we especially want to thank the police department and fire department because many of the children in our neighborhood are Hispanic or from other countries. And they fear people in uniform. And these men and women get out there and mix and mingle with the kids and families and show them that they're safe. And that's very important because we've heard of kids hiding. Their parents teach them, the police are at the door, hide. And that's not what we want. So that's... That's one of our options. The biggest thing is we want our children to go to school the first day with all the required supplies and not be embarrassed. And thanks to the community of Myrtle Beach, that's happening. We purchased 1,700 backpacks plus supplies. What we didn't give out the first day, we gave 40 to United Way. We gave 20 to Alliance Apartments with the transitional housing on Mr. Joe White Avenue. impact ministries has a program with the carver street apartments they got 20 we gave 75 to phoenix rising race path and we also loaded all these groups up with pencils and paper and miscellaneous stuff and then each of the myrtle beach cluster schools were given what was left over but we just want to thank the city for helping us and allowing us to do it because it's a big community outreach and we had um I don't mean to take so much time. We had three churches, one school, eight businesses, and 23 social service agencies, and we had about 100 volunteers from the community. So we just want to thank you for letting us do that.

Thank you very much. We couldn't do it without you.

Yeah, and we already got a date for next year, Friday, August 13th. Excellent.

And Dana and Becky and Barbara and Cecil, we should be thanking you for taking such good care of the young people in our community and the families in our community. We want to make this... bigger and better for you. Councilman Lauder and I were both there for the event. It felt as big as last year. You're telling me it wasn't quite as big.

I think it was just too hot.

Just too hot. It was too hot. It was 100 degrees, basically.

But thank you all very much.

And maybe there are some ways that we can assist. So speak up. Let us know. We talked about providing some additional parking we don't own the land across the street but it's vacant at this stage so maybe we can work with some of the property owners in the neighborhood to provide some temporary additional parking to make it a little easier to handle all of that but we need to be thanking you in fact Council, while they're still here.

I'd just like to say, you really had to be there to truly understand what took place. 1,200 backpacks doesn't represent everything that took place there. I think the number of people coming through, I think they gave up trying to keep count on it after 900. And when I left at seven, 10 after seven, there was probably 400 plus still in that area right there that were collecting items or whatever for stuff they needed. Absolutely amazing to see the folks. When folks, you know, you hear about people lining up for concerts and like the, Black Friday and all that stuff, how they lined up for hours outside waiting to go in. I think the count was around 130 that were already in line like an hour and a half before they opened the gate to actually come in. And the photos you see, I think Mark's got a great video that would actually show what the numbers really were of just the total families that were in there. Absolutely amazing event. is a great event for the south end of Myrtle Beach especially. And believe it or not, there were a lot of folks from other areas of the town of the city of Myrtle Beach there as well. And I just want to personally thank my friends, the Patrick family.

Thank you.

Mayor, may I make a suggestion? Perhaps we need to put something in place and do a proclamation to the Patrick family for all their all the job given to our community over the years, not just the backpacks, but other stuff. We really appreciate you. Thank you, thank you.

We can certainly do that. And again, speak up, let us know what it is that you need to make that event bigger and better and more successful, please. Thank you for coming today. Thank you, Jennifer.

Cassandra Dixon.

Hello. So this is the first time I've ever done anything like this. My name is Cassandra Dixon. I live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I am actually homeless, but looking at me, you wouldn't think that I was. All right. So there is good apples and there's bad apples. All right. I understand that. where everybody else is coming from. Because, I mean, I look around and I see trash everywhere. So I know there's a lot of bad apples. And then Champlain Park, for example, I go and I'm like, y'all don't do that stuff, you know. They be smoking, you know, drugs and stuff at that park. And I'm like, there's children laying there. But me and my husband, we just hit some hard times. And it's hard to find anywhere to sleep, to be safe at night. But I am here today because I would like to talk about homelessness and what the council can do to help. Families and individuals in our community are struggling with basic shelter, mental health care, restroom access, places to sleep at night, and transportation. Homelessness affects everyone and the current resources is not enough. I ask the council to find more daytime cooling and warming centers, partner with mental health, mental and physical health groups, and invest in emergency shelter. or motel hotel vouchers so the homeless can have somewhere to sleep at night and take a shower so it will be easier to get a job we have we have the resources and the compassion to do better thank you for your time and dedication to our city

Thank you, Cassandra, for being here today. The demand far exceeds the supply. We know that. The economy shifted dramatically during COVID and post-COVID. Rents doubled, as we've talked about today. The tourism economy isn't as strong as it once was, and we're working to keep that alive. We have a meeting tomorrow, in fact, with Horry County, the other jurisdictions in the area, to talk about that sort of low barrier entry, low entry barrier shelter, that emergency shelter that would provide services to folks who just find themselves homeless at the end of the day. the prevailing thought is we don't want to sustain people in a homeless condition, that the sooner you can provide assistance, the sooner people will recover and get back to stability so if you can provide assistance in the first two or three weeks maybe they're homeless for three or four months if you don't provide assistance maybe they're homeless for two or three or four years and that's that's not a solution so we're aware very much that More people need services than are services available at this point, so we're working to provide that.

Well, I'm willing to help with anything that y'all need help with to make this city better, to try and get the people off of drugs. even those who don't want to get off of it, I think that there needs to be a way to, like, the responders or whatever, to, if you see something, you know, get them up and, like, take them to a rehab. I mean, that's what happened to me. I was made to, I am now six months sober. But it was, so... Yeah.

Thank you. Congratulations for being six months sober. Thank you. Jennifer.

Dana West.

Good morning. And I want to start off with thanking you all for doing what you're doing with the city. The city of Myrtle Beach, we as a company, my husband and I, came in 2021. When we brought the company, we were at a location that was beautiful, that was prosperous, and we were really excited about being here and the opportunities and all the people that were moving here to Myrtle Beach. When we got wind of the Arts and Innovation District, we realized this was the place we really had to have our company. It needed to be here. The foresight was just amazing in what your plans are in doing with the museum. Everything about it is just absolutely incredible. So we invested a couple hundred thousand dollars and moved into the Arts and Innovation District, and we're on Broadway, so we're right down the street. So we have a beautiful showroom. And we're very, very proud. And it was an amazing move. It was amazing for us to be where we are. So we're very grateful. I know the homeless situation and everything is so hard. And what solutions do we have? What are we going to do? I don't know. What I do know is that obviously the city is paying millions and millions of dollars and investing all of this money into making this place just even more incredible than it is. There's some bad raps that people know about the city, and it is getting better, and it's getting cleaned up, and things are moving, and we understand it's a process, and it's a long process of building. and construction and the roads and all of that. And in our business, Milano Kitchen and Bath, is the type of business that you definitely want in the Arts and Innovation District. As the gentleman prior, his business is here, and I'm sure it's a wonderful business. So you want strong, good businesses that are gonna be in Myrtle Beach that are gonna really take it to the next level and make Myrtle Beach just be bigger and better in five and 10, 15, 20, 50, 100 years from now. The problem is, though, and I'm being very sincere and very honest, is that we are being very affected with my clients, our clients, not being able to feel comfortable and safe in coming into the showroom. And I understand, and I wish I could have a blink and something snap my fingers to have a solution of what to do. I don't know what to do. But it's very, very, very hard. As far as construction goes, we can deal with it. We can deal with it. It's like I'm guiding people through and getting to our showroom. It's okay. But when they're frightened to come into the showroom and it deters them, it's really, really, really hard. And I don't know if we're going to be able to survive. I will help do whatever to brainstorm, to do whatever with all of you, any of you, individually or as a group, of a solution or something that we can come up with. And it's not just my business. All on Broadway, there's a new business. There's a husband and wife, and they're just amazing. And they're opening up a gallery. And it's a great idea where they will have individual artists, which will have their little sections in this beautiful area or the beautiful showroom or gallery, excuse me. And so two clients that I know right off the bat heard about their place, talked to Ashley over the phone, were so excited about the concept of coming in and having their own spot. Another gal, she's got a high-end jewelry business, et cetera, et cetera. These two people in the past week backed out when they found out where it was. They said they can't. The lady that just backed out the other day said that she's going to deal with a lot of children and parents that are going to come in, and she's got very high-end jewelry, and there's been so much that's going on that she canceled the potential contract. The one before that also did that. So it's not just us. And in order for this... District to really really succeed you need good strong Healthy businesses to really make it work and we need help. I need to figure out something I mean we literally relocated from Florida to come here in 2021 to make a difference and we have and we have great clients and I'm so proud of that I'm so proud of the work that we do but in the move I don't want to say we made a mistake, because we did not make a mistake, but I want to figure out something that we can figure out together to make it work for all of us. There's a lot of money invested, and I don't think our business, my husband's and my business shutting down is gonna help, or the new business that just came in that's not even gonna get to open. I mean, it's tearful, and the whole situation is tearful, but I appreciate what's being done so far, and that's why we're here, but I really, really, really am willing 150,000% to help and do whatever I can to make it better for all of us.

Thank you, Dana. I did attend the grand opening that you had the other week. I know you did. This business is at the end of the street that City Hall is on, the end of the block that City Hall is on, so it's right down the street. Yes, I know. It was very nice to see you.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Jennifer?

That's it.

Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda this morning. We have one item on the consent agenda.

Yes, good morning. For your consideration, there is one item under the consent agenda. Resolution 2026-13 to accept the dedication of a certain roadway known as Bermuda Way North right away located within the park at 48th North Development. This is the neighborhood that the city annexed a few meetings ago, and this is just accepting the roadway. Super.

Council, any discussion? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Any discussion? All those in favor of the consent agenda as presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Moving on to the regular agenda. Jennifer, first reading of ordinance 26-52.

First reading of ordinance 2026-52 to amend section 12-181C of the City of Myrtle Beach code of ordinances relating to parking of mopeds, golf carts, LSVs and scooters.

good morning mayor and council before you is an ordinance to adjust um really addresses golf carts anywhere with their signage that permits them to park because currently the ordinance only allows them to park in designated parking places and this will fix what we've been talking about over the last month or two and essentially it's a actually pretty simple change it will allow them to park anywhere with their signage that permits them to park and If you want, I can go through. I know there's been some discussion in the community both at the last council meeting as well as the beach advisory. And so I can talk through some of the changes if you would like real quick. One of the big concerns I think you all have heard and I have heard is the number of parking places, some of the beach accesses. I think we probably set ourselves up for some of this because we were trying to maximize the space. And so when we brought the numbers forward, that was in an ideal world if everybody parked exactly like they should have with the ideal space between. And so when people saw the 35, they got a little bit scared of the number of golf carts that would park when in reality, We might have gotten close to that, but it probably would have been challenging to ever actually get to that. One of the other things I heard from somebody was, you're gonna allow 35 golf carts to park there, and I've never seen more than 15 there. I don't think it's all of a sudden gonna make 35 there just because we allow 35, and 15's all you have ever seen. That's probably what's gonna show up. And some of the feedback that I've gotten from each of you is to try to see if we could reduce some of the numbers at some of the locations where it was 35, 30, some of those. And so I have worked through with Brian Schmidt to try to bring down some of those numbers. I know in a conversation with one of you, one of the locations we were parking on both sides of the sidewalk that goes to the beach access. We're gonna reduce that, just park on one of the sides. And so you can see the numbers that are up here. We've gone from 35 at some of them down to 20. And so that's the reduction. And like this one right here, we're proposing to go on both sides. This is just an example. We're only going to go on one side. And so in the picture here, at 66, we're going to go on the left and the right. We're just going to go on the left side now if you're facing the beach to try to reduce some of the parking. And then... This one, for example, I don't have a pointer, but instead of allowing folks to go all the way to the end, we could put a barrier there to the end. It's parallel to the beach, and that would prevent as many golf carts from parking in the area. So those are some of the proposals to try to meet in the middle because that's one of the things that I heard consistently from some of the residents at the meeting at Beach Advisory was the number, and so we tried to compromise and bring the numbers down.

Thank you. This 65th, is that the one where the tree was removed and there's, I forget what the conversation was. Can you help me?

Yes. I have not been able to figure out what happened. She reports that there was a tree that was, sounds like it was right on the edge. She says it was hers. Sounds like maybe our staff took it out. I'm not sure of that. And part of the problem on that one is there is currently no physical barrier between the city right away or the city easement and her property. And so I think when it would get crowded, they would start easing over into her side of it. And so as part of this proposal would be putting a physical barrier there to keep them off of the residence property.

At the end of the day, with some reasonableness applied, we're still ending up with more parking spaces for golf carts?

Correct. Back to the first slide. I think taking it back to the first slide that's got the chart on it. There it is. Currently, and again, this is range, depending on how everybody parks that day. Currently, there's 198 to 228 spots. This would go up to 366 to 467. So it is still almost 100% increase. 100 extra spaces, basically. Correct.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Got a motion and a second. What are we actually approving here today? Can you explain the ordinance amendment, please?

Yep, so the current ordinance says that it's unlawful to park a golf cart, low-speed vehicle, moped, or scooter on any public property unless it is in a designated parking place. This will add a phrase to it that says that they are allowed in designated parking spaces for vehicles or in an area designated by signage for parking of mopeds, golf carts, LSVs, or scooters. And so in these areas where we are gonna permit the parking, it will be signed that they're able to park in that particular area.

And it will be signed for golf carts with decals? That's correct. So keeping it, not opening it up to large numbers of additional parking that would be not neighborhood friendly. Yes, sir. Any other discussion from council? Any discussion from the public? All those in favor of first reading to ordinance 2652 to amend the rules regulating the golf cart parking, et cetera, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Jennifer, resolution 26-14.

Resolution 2026-14 is to create a facade improvement program within the city of Myrtle Beach.

Morning, Mayor, morning, Council. So since our June workshop a couple months ago, we have taken Council feedback relevant to these two incentives that were proposed, dotted our I's, crossed our T's, starting off with the Myrtle Beach Facade Improvement Program. This is a city-wide incentive. Quick refresher, it's a 50% reimbursement, up to $10,000 of the total project cost. We have allocated funds of $150,000. I've received many calls on both incentive proposals thus far. So it seems that the business community is excited and ready to get these rolling. We have reviewed the both programs with eight different departments. So taking your feedback, we're ready to roll for a September 1st release.

Council?

Motion to approve. Second.

Any discussion? Go ahead.

I just think this is going to be great and hopefully offer some incentives for some businesses to move forward and improve. It's going to make the whole area, the whole city look a whole lot better.

This is good. It's citywide? The facade program is citywide.

Citywide.

Have we developed an application process? We have an application process. We will have this all over our website, apply to. It'll be simple, straightforward, and program guide, all of that information will be available online. We've already set up correspondence with Communications and Creative Services to make sure that if this is approved, that we get it out to the community efficiently and um in time to start on september 1. and this would be a one-year trial period because we've appropriated money for one year at this point both program proposals will be a one-year pilot yes sir or until the money runs out or until the money well they can come back and say it's so successful that we need to find some additional money that's the goal right there that'd be a good problem yeah yeah

All right, all those in favor of resolution 26-14 to create the facade, I'm sorry, public discussion, any comments from the public? Thank you. It occurred to me just as you were waving, Alex.

Again, I think it's a good idea. I just want to know, is there any collaboration with code enforcement or anything? Maybe like when the staff goes through and does the approval of the applications, if somebody's had some code violations, they would get a priority or something. Has that been considered as part of the program? That's all I'm asking.

idea it's a good question it is a great question and the short answer is yes so we have created an evaluation team consisting of planning and zoning code enforcement economic development communications and creative services I think I might believe and construction services so really all departments that would be involved in the process as it stands will be involved in this as well

I think when we discussed this the last time, there was some talk, a question about whether we're necessarily providing funding for the front facade. There could be other facades. And I think of Ocean Boulevard with the rear of the buildings that face on Chester, or Withers, rather, Withers, rather, that those facades definitely could stand some improvement at the end of the day.

That's exactly right. So more often than not, the facade is the front of the building, but in reality, it's public facing. So if that building is public facing in the back, then that would apply.

Okay, super, thank you. Any other comments from the public? All those in favor of 26-14 as presented, please say aye. Aye. Great, and it'll start September 1st. Any opposed? It'll start September 1? Yes, sir. Great, thank you. And you're here for the next one, Jennifer.

uh resolution 2026-15 to create a vacant storefront incentive program that's right so same premise um different parameters gotten phone calls expressing interest in this one as well it's much more limited we're targeting the art and c7 zoning districts for this pilot program this is to A reimbursement-based incentive to encourage reuse of long-term vacant commercial buildings within the ART and C7 districts of Myrtle Beach. This will reward tenancy infill in the form of building permit fees, plan review fees, inspection fees, and business license fees. Up to what dollar amount? Business license fees up to $3,000.

Is there a motion? Motion and a second over here with Mike. Any discussion from council? This also is a one-year trial. Define vacant for us, please. We had that conversation at the Myrtle Beach Downtown Alliance Board the other day.

So vacant means commercial floor area that is not occupied by an active commercial business or otherwise being lawfully utilized for its intended commercial purpose.

So a building which is used for storage by the building owner for whatever purpose, literally the owner has a purpose for it, but it may not meet our overarching goals if such things exist, that it would be qualified, it would be called vacant under this definition. Does that make any sense?

Yes, sir, that does. Anything where a resident public facing cannot go in and buy a good or buy a service.

I'm not sure that I'm on board with that definition of vacant, as we discussed at the MBDA meeting the other day, but this doesn't require anybody to convert a building from a non-public serving use to a public serving use, but it could encourage them to do that.

This does not require anything. This simply empowers.

And this is only for the ART and C7 zoning districts. Can you define those areas for me?

C7, specifically Broadway Street and the Arts and Innovation District right here. 10th Avenue, I believe, are the borders.

Okay, thank you. Any other discussion from council? Any discussion from the public? Yes, sir.

So the original coastal glass building, that's directly across the street from me. I actually met the gentleman that purchased that building. He utilized some incentive program that already existed to, I guess, refund some taxes. But he cleaned the whole building out. And I met him and I said, you know, like, what are you doing? He's like, well, I just bought it, you know, for tax purposes, but I'm cleaning it up to try and find a tenant, long-term tenant. He said one of the issues that he had was just getting it repurposed for like multi-unit. Right now it's just one big giant factory. It's got a triple ceiling, old crane system. And he said that he just, I guess he was getting some pushback from the people that approved that sort of thing. So he kind of just... shelved it, and I haven't heard from him or seen him, because my landlord has tried to buy the building in the past, and he had similar issues as well. So the incentive program might bring forth him to try and bring it up and add more business fronts to Broadway Street, which would be great, because right now it's just one big building, and there's just nothing happening with it.

And if I hear you correctly, David, we were resistant to the idea of making multiple uses out of it?

yeah because of it's just so old the building's so old and it just didn't meet code and in order to break it up into individual units he said that there was just it was just going to cost a an absolute ton of money for code and compliance that he just it was easier for him to try to find one person to rent the whole space than it would be for him to split it up into multiple spaces to then find individual renters at a more reasonable rate because you calculate the square footage for the area that says this is how much commercial spaces would cost you. I mean, he showed me his list of rent. It was like $30,000 a month for the square footage. That's really hard to find because, In recent years, the city has redefined code for use in the area, specifically Broadway Street. There's no more industrial. There's no more automotive. There's no more of those types of businesses that are allowed to operate on the street. So he's like, when I bought it, I figured I might be able to find somebody. But every tenant he was finding was... in one of those areas where it's not allowed. So it is limiting his ability to find somebody. And again, this is not my business. I have like nothing to do with it, but my business is directly across the street from it. So it'd be cool to see something that wasn't that. It's been that for six years, but I think it's been empty for over 20 years, like a really long time. I don't think they've been in business since like the 70s or something like that.

I would say I'm not so sure that... code enforcement and zoning has been resistant to helping. I think what you're explaining there is there's paths to take, but it's going to cost is to do that based on not just the City of Myrtle Beach's building code, but the South Carolina building code. So it's not really, I know we hear that all the time, but I think in this case, it's not they're resisting to help do something. It's just the fact that because the building's been empty for so long, there's probably a lot of things in there that are not up to code, and you do anything inside that building, I believe it's 25%, I could be wrong or more, then you have to bring that building up to the current building codes of today because at that time it no longer belongs to be a non-conforming building. I think that's going to be what we're looking at, sir, or the property owners are looking at.

Thank you, David, appreciate that. Devin, do you have anything to add on Coastal Glass specifically?

So that portion regarding planning unzoning is news to me. I'll go ahead and give Mr. Armstrong a call and let's get some clarification. countering that this is this is kind of that that step in the right direction of getting there that he has pursued historical tax credits um last i checked we were still looking for some historical photos to back to back that up and abandon building tax credits but This goes back to our June conversation about stacking incentives and the uses, right? So that's a conversation I'd be happy to have with Mr. Armstrong again, and let's see where he's at, and we'll get some clarification.

In that block or in those blocks on Broadway, there are at least two other buildings, though, that are being reused, repurposed at this stage, correct? Yes. Okay, great. Any other comments from the public? All those in favor of Resolution 2026-15, to create a vacant storefront incentive program, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you, and that passes. Thank you. Madam Burke, 26-86.

Motion 2026-86, to appoint, reappoint two members to the Human Rights Commission.

The Chairman recommends to appoint Carrie Heiss, I'm not sure that's the correct pronunciation, Courtney Connor Douglas to fill the unexpired terms. They are not on the committee at this point, Jennifer, is that correct? Yes, sir. So those would be new folks to fill unexpired terms that would expire next February 22nd. Council, is there a motion?

Motion to approve Carrie Heiss and Courtney Connor Douglas.

Is there a second? Second. Councilman Chestnut, any discussion from council? Any discussion from the public?

Both of these are Myrtle Beach residents. Yes, ma'am.

All those in favor of those two appointments to the Human Rights Commission, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. And they're appointed. We have another block of time for non-agenda items from the public. Anybody have something they wish to express this morning? Yes, ma'am. You got to come forward.

I just want to say that if anybody sees me like on the streets or whatever out there, just please don't judge me just because there's bad apples out there. I'm just trying to do my best to get a job. I be walking all the time from place to place. hey, are you hiring? I'd rather it be the old-fashioned way, you know, even though it's all online nowadays. But if you go up there to a job and let them know, hey, my name is Cassandra Dixon, and I am determined to work. I just think that there should be more... job to more help for the ones that actually wants to help the ones that don't want no help you know like just like if you go to a grocery store buy a bag of apples half of the apples are good the other half is bad you don't throw away the whole bag of apples do you you just throw away the bad apples. So I just think that the people that it's doing wrong is the ones that really needs to be put somewhere else.

Thank you, Ms. Hander. The city stated goal is to provide help that is actually helpful. So that's where we're headed, to provide help that is helpful and not hurtful at the end of the day. So thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Communications from city council and the city manager. Council communications, anybody from council?

I do have one quick question. especially downtown and everything, do we have any panhandling signs and where may they be? Panhandling signs? Or do we?

I don't think we have any panhandling signs.

I know we have any signs. We have regulations that prohibit aggressive panhandling that speak to the time and place and manner of panhandling. It is allowed in some places. It's not allowed in other places.

Yeah. I mean, I'm just wondering if we need something on Broadway, maybe, I don't know. That'd be allowed. We allow that in Myrtle Beach?

It's a First Amendment right, Mr. Attorney, I'll let you speak to that. I'm not an attorney, but there are places where you can ask, where you may solicit legally, and then we have, again, time, manner, and place restrictions. If I recall, you can't solicit handle near a bank automatic teller. You can't do it in a public parking lot. I think the boardwalk is an area where it's not technically allowed because of the special nature of the boardwalk. But if somebody's walking by you on a sidewalk, a general sidewalk that does not fall into one of those time, manner, or place restrictions, that asking for assistance is not prohibited at the end of the day. We also have a rule that, I don't think the county does, where you cannot solicit from the sidewalk into the street or in the street to passing vehicles. You can't do that as well here.

Well, hearing from our business owners on Broadway, I think, We need to evaluate that situation. The benches, public safety, Mike, can give some input into that to support those businesses.

I pass on Broadway a lot because of where I live. And I think part of our problem on Broadway, it's not a vast number of people that are doing this, but we have, for lack of a better way to say this, We have people that actually live on Broadway on the park bench, on our benches. And I think we need to address, one time before we address sleeping in benches in parks and at picnic tables and stuff like that, I think this rises to the occasion that I think we need to go back and readdress sleeping on a park bench at 10 o'clock, at night until 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock in the morning.

I think there are park regulations. I don't know that Broadway Street qualifies as a park.

Well, it doesn't. Let me just say this. When this ordinance was passed, it's been a few years ago now, and the reason we did this was because there were folks sleeping in the parks and everything like that. But you could But in the ordinance, you couldn't lay down on the bench and go to sleep, but you could sleep sitting up. You know, I'm subject to fall asleep. If I was sitting in the park, you know, I'm subject to fall asleep and take a little nap myself, but I'm not going to be there sleeping overnight. And I'm not going to have a shelter, almost a shelter built to sleep there on that bench at night. So I think we just have to reevaluate some of this. And I know I'm going to get a lot of pushback on this. And I'm used to that. It'll be all right. But I get it. Just like the gentleman said, my wife She goes to go into someplace and, you know, he said it. If it was me, it doesn't bother me. I'll walk right by it. But there are a lot of ladies and females that will be uncomfortable. There are a lot of senior citizens, male and female, that will be uncomfortable and may not even want to go into a place of business like that. I think this is something we definitely need to evaluate. I get it. I understand about homeless. Believe me, I do. But there comes a time we just have to make some changes.

That may be a subject that we can bring back at a workshop and review what is currently in the law, because I'm not sure that everybody is aware of that. But I go to the post office, have a post office box. You can't solicit technically on the post office property. That's not allowed. It's a challenging thing to enforce. You can't solicit in a public shopping center, Walmart, and yet there are musicians who in some locations solicit and have tipped things out that would not be allowed under our We attended the Municipal Association meeting in Greenville earlier in the summer. The City of Greenville, much as we have people on staff who provide opioid interdiction efforts, the City of Greenville, in partnership with the private sector and the United Way there, have two or three people who provide that sort of interdiction with people who are unhoused, the homeless population, so that they, much like our opioid folks, respond to calls and provide assistance to the folks who are experiencing an overdose or the fire, the EMS or our police department have to be there and Narcan them. We have four people, I think, on staff who would respond in those instances and help. The city of Greenville, again, working with the private sector in the United Way, has two or three folks who go out and make contact with people who are homeless as soon as they're identified as being homeless, existing on Broadway Street, for example, and seek to provide some services. And one more time, we've got a meeting tomorrow to talk about a larger issue as well. All right, anybody else? Council? I've got a couple of quick questions. Update on the Oak Street construction downtown?

Yes. The Oak Street, we started to inform people it's probably going to be delayed. They've got some issues, and we're working with CL Benton as well, which is then in turn going to probably delay the 9th Street portion that was supposed to begin in September. We're very well aware of the impact that that construction will have on businesses, so we are working with the contractor and internally still having conversations about minimizing the impact of those businesses as best we can, but it will probably not start in September as originally scheduled. Once we have a final new revised schedule, we will be communicating that far and wide when that time comes.

Will 9th Avenue jump to a different place on the schedule or will it just be later?

Most likely, most likely to later, probably next year in 2027, later half of next year is what we're looking at. We're trying to, again, trying to work with the contractor and everybody to minimize that construction schedule as well. It is least impactful for everybody as we can.

And we're on Oak Street, are we looking at another month? Where are we on Oak Street?

Month, I guess?

Probably another month.

All right. Speaking of parks and streets and all that stuff. You know, back in the spring, we start with the, what I'm referring to now is our market there, right there, Joe White, between Joe White and 10th Avenue. There are folks that have been there and they have been faithful. They have been there for better than 10 years. And I just got to tell you, we got to figure out some way that the vendors that are there, that people who want to go there and buy from them can have a place to park. My wife went Saturday. And, of course, she comes home and gives me a report every Saturday, as a good wife would, about how she had to sit in the traffic lane on Joe White until the parking space got available to go in there. And I'm looking over there this morning when I came to the council meeting, and the parking lot was vacant. And so where did all those vehicles come from that parked there on Saturday? So, and it's not like just, it's a lot of, some of the vehicles are city vehicles and some of them are construction vehicles. I mean, I think we've got plenty of parking behind what I'll refer to the old police department and the parking lot, you know, just south of the city hall. I think we've got other areas we can park these vehicles at. So people who, and believe me, there's a lot of people go to that market. I think we could find another space, places for these vehicles to park. Other than there, it takes up all the space for people who want to go there and buy produce.

I don't know why it would have been overly busy on Saturday because the parking behind City Services is open and complete, is it not? Yes. Okay. I don't know why. I didn't show up this Saturday. I showed up last Saturday. Speaking of that general parking area where the bus depot has been rerouted, there are growing potholes in that entryway across from City Hall. If we can patch some of those potholes.

We can certainly look at it, but I think that's on the areas that's going to be next on the list of being readdressed. So I'm not sure how much work we want to do. I know Coast is actively looking for another location. Take a look at the potholes.

And then there's a ribbon cutting this afternoon at 3.30 at Emerge for the new building there at Emerge on 9th Avenue North.

Yes, I believe there is.

3.30 this afternoon. Anybody else?

Motion to adjourn. Second.

We've got a motion and a second to adjourn. Thank you for being here today. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you. Have a great day. Don't melt.