Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Good afternoon. Welcome to the March 3rd, 2026 Murby Planning Commission. Um, call this meeting to order. Start with roll call. Phil here. Shar here. Joe here. Danielle here. Paul here. Zeb here. Joyce is absent. And Bian absent. I'd like to have a motion for the minutes. February 17th. Make a motion for approval. Motion by Paul, second by Sher. All those in favor.

All those opposed. Motion carries. All right. Moving on. Matters of business. A 2850 park at 48th Avenue. Cameron.

Yes sir. This petition from the park at 48th Avenue North Pasa to annex approximately 8.7 acres off 48th Avenue North and to reszone from Ory County General Residential to Myrtle Beach R5 single family detached residential. Again, just as a refresher, everything bounded within that orange box on your screen will be uh is subject to the sanitation request. The PA did provide this plot showing all of the parcels involved in it. And I can quickly run through this again. This is the uh financial analysis by the uh financial staff of the city of Myrtle Beach. Looking at this annexation request as required by state um showing a total valuation of $10 million for the properties. Uh here the 75% threshold of property owners and total assessed value was met as part of this petition. Again kind of blitz through this slide and get the summary. Um the uh financial services department figured that the tourism development fee would grow by $16,967 um and would result a variational loss of estimated $16,920 uh per year. Only thing remaining there is the findings and facts for you all to base your judgment on. Uh as part of this process, the POA did send in some points of consideration that were emailed to you all and I hope you all have a chance to review those. Happy to answer any questions and this is subject of a public hearing.

Happy staff Cameron. This to me should be a policy established by by council as to how they want to handle this stuff. In the past we the city has wanted to close donut holes, but they may be moving a different direction now. Um, so I guess have you got any kind of indication from um from the city council as how they want to proceed with this? I have not. Okay. I mean because really any annexation of residential is going to be a a loss. Correct. Um but if we didn't annex residential at all, we'd have no residential.

Correct. So, um, but I think this is a policy that really ought to be established by council. I mean, we're we're we're going to recommend one way or the other anyway. So, it'll be council that ultimately establishes it. And I think maybe you will see that precedence from the recommendation that you all make once it goes to city council and they have that vote, you'll know the direction of feeling. But at this point, you know, y'all are a recommending body and as we talked through in the workshop, our role as staff is to provide the facts of the matter and for you all to vote your conscience on what you think is the best way. I can't guide you on that. Yeah. When we're doing a annexation of like a new new home community, we're getting the tap fees and that kind of thing coming in where we are not getting here. Right. Correct.

Which would help offset some of the loss? Yeah. Um Kim, is there a way to put it up on the screen as to what the donut holes are around there?

So, best way would be to look at the map in front of you at the workshop. It it was requested to look at all of the available doughnut holes in the city. um because of the variation of way the map kind of shakes out. Uh working with their GIS staff found that there's roughly 800 acres of land that is completely encompassed by the city um that's still available for annexation and that's not including like anything you see bounded by the inter coastal waterway. It's anything that's purely a donut hole. There's about 800 acres of land split up between various different types of zoning at the county. So that's kind of the best we could do on that one. It's roughly 800 acres. Um but again it it varies between the different types of county jurisdiction zoning.

Okay. Um so in the case that what we're dealing with today, we're looking out the 48th Avenue. Uh so we got the Bon property over there. That's a big big big acreage over on 38 and they were on 48. We're talking about the park on both sides and some of that area. The park on the south side's already in the city. Is it okay? Yes. Okay. So,

so we're talking about right there right there. Yeah. So, and then we've got around here this left. All this is in the city, right? Everything property I believe so okay so I mean we are filling in donut holes right here you know

any more questions for staff why would it be stone R5 uh that's the minimum lot size that we could fit with that one the minimum lot size is like something like 5400 square ft so R5 would be the most. I thought we wasn't using that no more. Uh it's currently a zoning classification that is on the books. Okay. Because it's like R5 got taken away from different neighborhoods when the reszone happened before. And that's why I was that was curious about the R5.

R5 is still one of our zoning designations on the book. And this is the zoning designation that would fit the the lots in there. There are some that would meet R seven, but uh the minimum lot that is in there is about 5,400 if I remember correctly. What's the minimum lot size required by classification? Huh? Classification. So, okay. But if we didn't have R5, what would be the minimum?

Seven. Okay. So R seven because I I do kind of recall that they were trying to we didn't want lots like less than seven or 8,000 square feet. Would the zoning reate change that? That is something that we're looking at is what's the the best minimum lot size for the city of reach moving forward. But again R5 is currently on the books today. But is there any R5 zoning anywhere in the city at the moment?

Yes. That's off. Mr. Jo, what is that? No, the other side. These are

anything else for staff? Um, if we did um bring it in as R5, all would be conforming. Yes. believe the applicant is in the audience. Yes.

Hello, secretary of the board of directors. Um Pam R's um so we've reviewed the information you guys sent out and we understand that you're not really in favor of annexing us based on financial. Um we understand that based on last meeting that pretty much going to be a wash to bring in 16,000 and um there's a TDF credit that's going to wash it out. So, we're hoping that you would reconsider that not just not solely on financial because if we are incorpor into the city, hopefully that credit will increase over in the future and hopefully we can end up you know make more money because our community really wants to become involved in the city. We have people that want to serve on the community board uh committees, city council, things like that. So, um and reviewing um it looks like we've met three out of the four requirements and I guess just goes back to the financial um and we had a gentleman Jeff Anderson doing his own analysis and um he sent a copy of that over if you want to look at it and um just feel like we could be um it would be a positive thing to be incorporated into the city. We have all of our owners there. We had five people that voted no to u go into the community. So we had 83% of the vote to be annexed. Um the other people that did not vote, two were um people who have basically use it as a second home. One voted no because she wants her trash picked up two days a week. And um then the other two are just basically silent. They didn't really have an opinion either way. So we're here to ask you to reconsider um based on are talking points and just not let this be

financial because we as a community we spend a lot of money within the city. We are surrounded by the city and if I'm not mistaken I think we're already in the city limits by that diagram we're just not paying the city taxes. Is that correct based on that diagram? Your property is within the municipal boundaries of the city of my le but you're not governed by the city.

Right. Right. And we've been very proactive with taking care of our community. Our roads are being taken care of. The uh county does take care of the roads. Um they were resealed less than 10 years ago. We take care of the drainage ditches. I mean, we just maintain the property. I don't know if you got the opportunity to drive through, but you'll see that it's we really take care of the community and we really like to be.

So, we want to pay more taxes if that mean that's what we're saying. No, we just And the other thing too is there's a lot of confusion when we have a lot of the um senior citizens in our area or community and there is a lot of confusion when we call for the police or for the uh rescue squads. First thing they ask is are you in the city? And if we say no, they said then you have to call the county and it just kind of gets bounced back and forth. that I'm just concerned that there was dire need for somebody to come that, you know, there's a lapse in time of trying to figure out who's who and not responding. So, we appreciate your time and your consideration and look forward to receiving a positivebody.

Any questions of us? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. This is a public hearing. If you would like to say something. Please come up, state your name and sign in. And we are going to have a five minute time. Anybody from the public want to say anything?

Come on up. sign. What does the matter? Um, my name is Stephanie Miller. I am here representing my mother, Elizabeth Menuk, who owns a unit in the cobblestone donut hole. And I was just curious as to why we were being addressed to show up at this meeting today. Uh, state law requirements, uh, we have to notify everybody who's within 300 ft of that property. Okay. So everybody draw the radius around anybody within 300 ft gets a letter just notifying them of this process.

I wasn't sure if we if she was being considered as well or not because I just recently had to admit her to a nursing home. So now I have to take care of any matters if that comes up for her. Just notify notifying process

and then not to poo poo anybody here but for purposes of emergency services um the city of Rach does have a mutual aid agreement with Ory County. So if there is an emergency, which has happened many times in the cobblestone units, Myrtle Beach is always the first to respond. Plus, in the Myrtle Beach condos, there is a police officer that lives in one of the condos there as well. So they do come. Like I said, there's no there's very little delay in response. Please address the board. Oh, my apologies. I was It's okay.

Letting the person who was knowing, but yeah, I have that kind of information as well. is um we did have a fire at Coverstone last year. Myrtle Beach was the first to show up. I'm also married to a battalion chief on the city of Myrtle Beach fire. So I'm familiar with the fact that even with the donut holes that there is a mutual aid agreement with Bry County that they would respond being the closer stations. Yes. I just wanted to put their minds at ease at that too that there's very rarely ever going to be a delay. Yep. Up to you. Thank you. Anybody else from the public have anything to say? Want to address the board?

Okay, not seeing any hands. I'm going to close the public hearing and come back to staff to the board. Anything else? Are we having any discussion or Yeah, if you have something to say.

You know, I think looking at this economically is um you know, there's a reason why I think the city hasn't wanted to expand it its boundaries past um certain uh the current kind of perimeter of the of the city limits because residential, you know, does cost the city more money than it brings in. Um however I think in the past the city has always encouraged acquiring the donut holes um for you know reasons that were brought up the the the difficulty sometimes between dressing teams county versus city um many people who are in the donut hole sometimes think they're in the city you know even when they're not um so I mean my inclination would be even though there is a loss here um I think it's you probably the best interest of the city to fill in these donut holes when time allows so that you know we are kind of all one city rather than a city with you know certain people excluded

but again that's up for city council I think the concern not not so much financial but that the city services are going to either lack in that neighborhood or somewhere else across the city because of the loss. We're not going to ever get that back. We're never going to get to even. So then that cost well long term, not tomorrow when we're here from now. Yeah. I mean I, you know, but I agree with what you're saying.

There's some synergies here, too. I mean, you know, the fact that we're already provided services, but I did notice that even in the analysis, it doesn't It doesn't even talk about the excess cost of pride police services and stuff like that which right now city's getting some money from the county for this it will not get that money going forward. Um it's just you know if these um I just you know in general I think from the policy perspective it's probably better to try to fill in the vote holes but you know I understand cause concerns but another alternative would be the set of policy where the communities who want to join have to show that their roads are in good shape you know that they that they've been maintaining you the city's not going to have to put a whole bunch of money in repave these roads um and uh and and you certain other kind of things that makes it less of a cost to the city to take it over. But again, that's a policy that I think needs to be established by council, not so much else.

I would agree with you totally. I I think we have a hole in in the city somewhere. I think it behooves the city from my standpoint to get that in within the city. Um they're already the city's already has a reciprocal agreement for fire and whatever. So I I agree with you. Any other discussion?

Somebody want to put a motion on the table? I'll make the motion. Uh, as I make it, I just want to clarify some of the people that's out there. In the last meeting, staff did point out this analysis had to be required because of the tight um process by what you went through. It's a 75% process versus 100%. So, they're required by state legislature to put together analysis they're made and it's very specific what type of analysis they have to make. So, they can incorporate a lot of things like had um put into the equation of extra value. So do want to recognize that and understand that that's the position staff had to be put in by a state regulation standpoint. So don't go go out there and think that they're doing something to try to do something that's not appropriate wrong. So I want to clarify and make sure you understand that. I make the recommendation we approve it and for the reasons why wise I think it the current comprehensive plan. It fits within the framework of the current comprehensive plan. Current plan is to close donuts. Had this been a uh land that had not been developed and somebody comes and says I'm post 34 lots and I want to incorporate into the city of Myrtle Beach, we wouldn't even blink an eye. I agree with what you're saying that it doesn't include some of the tax fees and other things you get with this. But you also at $500 per person is reality what it is. You cannot value the citizens in and of itself. The value of good citizens is beyond $500 or a few dollars here. That's about how all it is per person to to cost. So I see that as value. There's there is census value. There is census value because by having them in the city then this increases the population which census does create value to the city and certain things that they can do and as

has been stated they contribute to the city businesses well below the laws they can contribute to voting they contribute to serving so when you put all this together I think it totally fits in the congression plan that's the reason I would recommend Sir on to a recommendation to approve. I'll make a second to that. So motion by Phil, second by Paul. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed.

Six in favor, one against or seven in favor. Good. Motion carries. All right, moving on. Prefin 2602. Uh, this will then be forwarded on to city council for their deliberation and consideration. Um, this will be across the street later today. So, but it's concluded here with planning commission. Thank you so much for your time.

Can you put a note in there? Just say something along the lines. We look for some kind of polic All right. Good. Prefin 2602 3rd Avenue North and Flag Street. Kelly says request from Ford Shel applicant to subdivide approximately 42 acres on the corner of Third Avenue North and Flag Street into two lots of 87 61 square ft. Here is a location map aerial view zoning map. It's within muh and the plat with the minimum mu law area requirement as 6,000 square ft. I'm happy to take any questions. Applicants also here.

Any questions for staff? Any questions for the applic.

All those opposed. Motion carries.

Prefin 2604 48th Avenue office. This is Kaitlyn. This is a request from J Karen Parker. So divide approximately 2.88 acres off 48th Avenue North into two lots ranging from 87,919 square ft to 37,338 ft. Here's our location. We are on the previously annexed in parcel off of Wild Irish Drive. Here's our aerial view and our HC1 zoning. And then the proposed subf and then on the table you will see a letter given to us by frozen chief and it is a letter granting a variation permitting the subition and if you have any other questions our applicant is in the questions for staff any questions for the applicant can I get a motion. Motion to approve.

Motion by Joe, second by Paul. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion carries. STN 2602, the Edens of Pharaoh Square. This is This is a request from KQ Pharaoh Square to name a new drive near Agnes Way servicing seven multifamily buildings named Eden Lane. Here is our property right Agnes wing near Far Parkway and our aerial view. Here is a proposed site plan showing Eden Drive and that is all. You have any questions?

Any questions for the staff? Any questions for the applicant? Uh Eden is I guess obviously not take it and they sell it to us. This is a public hearing. Anybody wants to speak? Seeing no hands, we're going to close the public hearing back to the board. I move that we approve the name drive for the second motion by Zeb, second by Sharon. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to communication from staff. Pam.

Yeah. Uh, first one on the docket here is the bylaws discussion. Took the feedback in from you all from that last meeting. Um, so the bylaws are written up to the fullest extent I possibly could with all the feedback that you gave. Um, the only two other modifications that needed to be made are the appointment for uh, chair and vice chair will be done at the first meeting uh, concluding appointment. So that's typically the first in April. So that way we don't have any conflicts where someone becomes chair and then gets removed from the board for various reasons. And then also please take a look at the absence policy. That language has been modified. So that three no call no-shows within 12 months will be a should is an automatic recommendation from the board city council for removal and then six absences of notification where you let us know um is a may. So it's not an imperative that the board has to go to city council to remove someone but rather gives us the flex the board the flexibility to make those decisions as they come. So those are the last two outstanding changes to make to the bylaws at your request. Happy to field any other questions.

Who who technically are we supposed to notify in the event? Uh just a member of staff. Kim, thank you for your time. You're welcome. The absence policy will if this is passed will start today. We're not going back. Yeah. So the So just because you missed the last one, the discussion was do we start this do we start this now or do we go backwards and the board came to the conclusion that it was best to everybody's here. We agree on it moving forward and we just start looking forward. Thought that was the most fair solution.

Do we need a motion on this? Yes. I have a just a couple of questions on page two section three role of parliamentarian. Um I understand it. I think it's a good recommendation to do. I just want to clarify something. Um if if we as a planning commission have an item that we do need to seek um legal on and we'd like to have that as an executive session for us to be there and discuss. Does this preempt that from occurring if it was a call to do that?

No. So could you explain to everyone the parliamentary role versus saying we do have a matter that we all can agree to or we can't agree to the staff and we call executive session. How would it be different from this? Well, so the receipt of the staff attorney's opinion can be had in the meeting. It doesn't have to be held in an executive session on certain matters. So I wanted to include the option in there that it can be within an executive session or it's outside of an executive session. It doesn't limit it or preclude it in any way, shape, or form. I just wanted that flexibility to be written in there. And that was the recommendation that if we're not moving forward with an actual position of parliamentary to write up the prescriptive because the staff attorney is technically a parliamentary, how we go about a formal process of staff being asked by one of you to reach out to them and that can be in the form of either the executive session or not,

right? Which is good. and we all talk about that was that was one of the things that we put in there to give the attorney the option because it mainly comes to whether the attorney wants to speak to you in executive session or if it's something that he feels talking to you about in that open session more than likely it's probably going to be executive session most of the time but we didn't want to take that option away from from the city attorney but which still allows us if we wanted to call executive session for the city attorney be there and we agreed to it corrected that Yes. Yes. Thank you, Ken, for that.

And the second item is um just to make sure on the voting of chair and vice chair. Um in our current um rules like just like we have today, we vote we we first get a nomination for a to approve a request. Um and we vote on that first. Then if it's not approved, then we look at is there alternative vote or how we want to hand them from there. And this here, it's if there are more than one nomination, it's kind of like, well, some oppose and some agree, we're going to vote them on all at the same time. We should take whatever we do one step at a time. Like, if there's a nomination up front, we take the first nomination, we have a vote on it, and then if that doesn't go through, then if there's another nomination, we vote on that or whatever it may be. I know you went through the state laws with this and etc., But I just want to make sure we do this, you know, correctly. Should we, if there's no nominations made, should we not first vote on that nomination first and then if it's not accepted by everybody, then if there's another nomination and we vote on that just like we do other type.

So you're saying they should be singular. Right. Well, I mean, you know, you say that the planning commission should first approve proposed nominees and then once you once you've establish the the approved proposed nominees, then you'd have a vote as to who you you don't vote on nominees. Yeah. I nominations are not a voting matter. The actual vote for the position is the vote itself. And if I can call the subsection H, the chair calls for a vote of one officer at a time. So, we're going to go through the nomination process of the chair and then the vote of the chair and then we'll go to the vice chair nomination and then vote for that. Okay. So,

I just making sure we got that. Yeah, I know you did and I know you had reached out and got some good advice and I just wanted to make sure understood it. So, that's good. Okay. Thank you. Excellent job. Can we get a motion on the table? You got something? I'd like to make a motion that we approve the bylaws as written by the second. Motion by Paul, second by Sharon. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Good job. Good job. You send us

I'll send you an update copy of the yellow highlights. Thank you. Moving to the land use element discussion. Uh, as Kelly had kind of kicked off the cultural resources element, Taiisha is tackling the land use element at the same time. Again, we're trying to be a bit proactive and get two sections done. Um, this one really we wanted to hammer because of the zoning rewrite that's occurring at the same time. So, getting a grapple on the land use and what we're doing with our land use within the city of Myrtle Beach is quite important to us. So, you

Yes. So, we'll be reviewing the existing and future land use and how land in the city is used. So I'm looking about two to four volunteers and right now I don't need a decision but for the next meeting so we can set up um two to three meetings um for the rest of the year starting in April. You say l are you meaning like like revisiting all the uses of the current various zones or currently right now Kimberly Horn is updating our zoning maps. So we will be working with the update of the zoning code. Okay. and setting up goals and policies so that the goals and policies that we decide align with the zoning code. The new zoning the new zoning code. Yes.

How much is the new zing code going to vary from the old one? Entire. That's coming up next. Yes. All right. This wasn't a scalpel. This was a flamethrower. Gotcha. So next meeting and we can all I'm lenient with time. We can meet after five or during work days. book just whoever decides to be part of the land use element we can all decide. Okay, that's next meeting we need. Yes, please.

Good. Good. So, are we going to vote on that at the next meeting? No, it's not. She's looking for volunteers for the committees that we do to help kind of almost like small working group to help progress that item forward. So, it's more of just a volunteer thing where if you want to, you know, give your time to that element to work with us through like the pillars and policy, setting goals and looking at the current map and and where that's going to go. Okay. That's what we're looking for. So, you're going to present to us where you think that that policy should should go at the next meeting. No, there there's nothing coming at the next meeting outside of, hey, I'm Zeb. I want to volunteer for this working group to help set these things in motion. So, do we have any kind of framework as to what the resetting rewrite is going to be? What what what all we're looking at? Um,

that's coming up next. I'm still a little bit confused. Okay. I'll I'll mean next this meeting or another meeting. The next item. Okay. So, um, and with that, I want to introduce to you all. This is Kelly Clipper with Kimley Horn. He is the primary, our contact point for the zoning rewrite. um he will do better justice to himself and his credentials than I ever will. And I also just want to recognize Kelly is still contracting with us to help us through this process as well. So, thank you, Kelly.

Just hanging out. Thanks, Cam. Good afternoon. What I'll do this morning a little bit more informal than uh this morning if you didn't you haven't had a chance to look at a couple things that we're doing. My name is Kelly Clapper. I am the Kimley Horn project lead for the review, the assessment, and the update of girls zoning code. Um, I'm going to be a little bit less blunt than what Cam just said as far as the pleasure was concerned. Um, other than to say thank you. Um, one slide I did not put in my presentation is one that I obviously that my office it's been all day already. Sorry. Uh, does not like me to use. Where is this visual of us throwing the baby out with the bath water? So, when we start to do some of this information, I'll tell you, I've got a team behind me that are land use planners, landscape architects, urban designers, traffic engineers, storm water engineers, and so we're going through this from a holistic approach. Uh, I'm going to save some of the bad dad jokes. Uh, if you're so inclined, you can watch this morning's presentation. I don't think you were there. got to hear firstand some of you all did with references to the Lorax to some other things but I'll just say that uh I have actually been a land use planner for over 34 years worked for a number of communities across the southeast over the last 21 with Korn my primary uh client base are serving municipalities so cities and counties and we review and the development of comprehensive plans and zoning Prior to that, I was Ken's counterpart in a little place called Georgetown, Kentucky, which if you see a Toyota Camry is made in Georgetown. Uh, so I came up through the public sector ranks again have been reading and writing and developing codes and doing the assessments like I said for that 34 years. To answer your question, uh, Zeb,

this is a total rewrite. Uh, we have gone through here and literally started doing an assessment. all of our team kind of looking at start asking a lot of the tough questions of the what what and why and more importantly why why and how because and you all know this having you know living through this current code it jumps between chapters it's got inconsistent terms there are subjective terms there's objective terms there's things that you start to look at when they were written kind of like you know Cam was mentioning certain things were addressed other things weren't so One of the reasons that, you know, one of one of the reasons we were brought in was to take a holistic approach to this and not just go, well, here's what we think and give it back to staff uh with our team. You know, we're actually been proposing a number of months. I've been working closely with staff and we're actually getting to the point we're going to start rolling out major sections to this plan here as the recommending body to city council. Uh you know, you all make review, recommendation, and comment. We're we will also be seeking some input from some of the boards as well. So, what are we what what are we talking about today? Uh you can see on the screen we're going to give you a quick overview, an update of of the process, uh the reorganization, uh potentially some new zoning districts that you can have in your toolbox, uh and then kind of going through the rest of these items as well. I will tell you we're kind of doing this in batches to where there are some core components that are being addressed and provided to staff for that input and then we're going to continue moving down that that process. First and foremost also realize that this has to be done by September especially with the grant. So that's the reason we are progressing and doing this in batches. So you're going to start seeing information coming out as we speak. When we were brought on, one of the things that we identified and kind of working successfully with communities all across the southeast, including

specifically South Carolina, was to look at and modernize the code, simplify the standards, make it to where, you know, not only staff, but this by citizens can read, understand, and apply the standards. Be very clear with definitions. Provide graphics that help illustrate those key terms. And I'll show you a couple of those in just a second. Also, the update of the use tables in our zoning districts. Uh, one of the things I will say is you got a lot of uses in here that don't even exist anymore. Um, so we need to make sure that we're addressing some of these items plus also trying to look towards the future. That is a critical component especially as Taiisha and the team are going through with the land use update element so that these two documents are going hand in hand. one informs the other, the other informs the other one back so they are in sync together at the end of the day. And then more importantly uh with what our friends end up doing over in Colombia, changing state law every so often, you know, there's definitely some things that are current currently moving through the process uh with regards to currency and some other things. So ensuring that we are being consistent with that the code of laws existing code as we speak is right now. You can see that you have all of these items uh including I'm not sure why it re numbered like it did. That is weird. Just noticed that. But uh when you start looking at this code, what you start to see is there's components in there regarding amendments. the board of zoning appeals, the community of apparence board, then there's sign regulations and then you keep going through and then zoning districts are back uh actually in chapter 14 before you even get to zoning districts to say what is the district, what can we do, you got to get through all of this component and then at the end of that is also additional items. So you're really bouncing between chapters to try to make sense of what's going on from a regulator standpoint. And at the

end of the day, chapter 13, which shows up as right hand column, chapter three, supplemental provisions, that is your catchall for anything and everything that doesn't normally fit area. There's a lot of different things that in that chapter. So when we started looking at this, we started thinking what makes sense. So we look at chapter one. So we broke it out into kind of uh and this is something that we'll be pres presenting to you all for your input as well. What is the administration? What are the zoning districts? And then what are those design and development standards more specifically you know we talk about the who the what and the why. We talk about the districts and where and then things that you normally see that are actually getting implemented whether it's parking or signage or buffers along the way including uh additional components that you see right there with respect to lighting as well as standards of measurement. So how we actually define and utilize some of our development terms. One of the questions that you all were asking earlier as far as what are we doing with some of our districts? uh we started looking at a couple of different things and at the end of the day almost um it became very clear one you have a lot of districts you have a lot of zoning districts uh a lot of them are I'll say fairly similar in nature in the sense that uh you have similar standards as far as lot size and setbacks and things like that so does it make sense to continue to have the number of districts that you do especially on the lefth hand side

well let me stop you there because one of the reasons we have those districts is because they they create the minimum size of the residential lots

and we've got a bunch of I mean I've lived here all my life and we've got a bunch of traditional neighborhoods that that have certain size lots and if those lots are not protected to a certain size then we're going to have people come in and they're going to want to start subdividing lots and creating smaller and smaller houses in a traditional neighborhood that might have had a certain size house. You know, new communities have covenants and restrictions that are put in place to. But these these are older communities that didn't back before CCRs were even even ever done. If if there were restrictions put in place, they were done in the form of a deed restriction. So I you know I I guess my concern is is what are we doing to protect these traditional neighborhoods?

So good question. I will definitely say that what's on the ground is on the ground. It's protected. It's vested. It's grandfathered. The reason we started looking at some of the combination was the number of properties that you see that were in each of these zoning districts. And whenever we see a small number or small area that is we'll say isolated or something like that, can we start to look at something that is a little bit more consistent across the board? You know, at the end of the day, if the if this group and more importantly the city council says, "That's great, Kelly. We're just going to keep what we've got, we keep what we've got." So part of this was to assess and see where can we look at efficiencies, where do we have redundancies and do we have districts that literally are almost identical except for like one small piece.

That one small piece being the size of the lot, right? Not necessarily. I mean, what's the difference between R5 through R15? Other than the size of the lot, there's some setback setback. Okay. But again, that's also part of the traditional neighborhood concept. then you know the setbacks would change based on the size of the lot but it's not going to affect an existing structure that's on the lot

well you're going to it's going to be non-conforming but but but grandfather but what what I'm talking about here is a situation where you go down to Surfside you go some places in North Beach where they don't have zoning with a certain lot size um all these people from out of town do they buy these lots and then they subdivide them and they put up smaller houses you know u that do not match the character of the rest of the neighborhood because there I mean it's it's a you know it it's a way to make money. They buy a lot and and and you know being in the beach community like we are one lot so divided in two is worth two lots u for the most part. So I mean I think I mean if anything I think we need to go the opposite direction on this. I feel like, you know, um, we ought to be establishing residential zones that fit the communities.

So, and and and what's there now, I mean, to protect them. So, if you would kind of let me get through portions of this presentation. Also,

by one thing I was going to say is one, we definitely are keeping an eye towards those protections. When we met with Cam and staff, we did a tour of the city. We went neighborhood by neighborhood. We started looking at the districts and started to ask those questions as far as the lot sizes. context that we see here and are we potentially looking to create some some undue situations. If you start thinking about what's on the ground today and I'll say, you know, the 7,000 square foot lots, that's great. Um, if you took the 7,000s and start applying those to new projects or you go to 10,000 square feet or even larger, what you start to get into, and I'm going to use the sword, that basically it's sprawl. You're now starting to get residential or different types of development that are being forced to the outskirts. causes increases in city services. Yes, the city has the ability to say no, we don't want to annex, but at the same time, you've got development that would be at that point starting to look in the county that you have no control over. So, starting to look at ways of when I say creating a setup and a system of districts that are more conducive to the new development. Yeah, traditional neighborhood design and practices are built in. That that's inherent. Uh the area that we went to Cam, I can't remember the name of it where it had the huge trees that were just absolutely amazing. Uh going up northbound street,

Pine Lakes. Is it Pine Lakes up there around Highland Avenue Street? And and by the way, you know, if these lots are subdivided, those trees are gone. Not necessarily. I mean I mean, but in many cases they are. I mean, and if it's within I mean, once you subdivide the lot, if if those trees are in the area that that the house can go in, I mean, they're gone. I mean, those old trees are gone. They may have to do some remediation. I don't know. But, I mean, but but but that's one of the issues with subdividing lots. We're not messing with the golden mile. Okay.

And that's the other thing I was going to say, you know, we're looking at it also from what happens with uh the tree preservation and protection. We actually have enhanced protection measures and what the he has on books right now. So, uh, if we can keep going through this again, this is one more thing to that. There's a better chance that we're going to create non-conforming lots than there is that we're going to bring more lots into compliance. And to create non-conforming lots, that means that you've got a lot that is the size below the standard that we are now requesting. So, there's going to be a much greater chance that we're going to be creating non-conforming lots by actually putting a greater square footage possibly on some of the lots that are already out there.

Okay. I I guess we just need to see what what the proposed zoning is.

So, as we kind of keep going through the list, if you don't see something over on the right hand column, that just means that the nomenclature is staying the same. Uh some of this is re relooking at a couple of the existing districts uh or where we are changing like I said the nomenclature the two letter identification on a couple of these uh creating that uh but then that redevelopment district zone the RDZ that's one of those items that we've had considerable discussion with staff and also of is it is it spot zoning at the end of the day you say that last slide is putting is putting more into groupings than it is anything else.

We're definitely putting things into the groupings that are more akin to like land use uh discussions that Taiisha and the team are going to have from what's what's really residential, what is commercial, what's office, what's industrial. So, you're actually grouping together like types of of uses and terms. It's going to be easier for Charlie to also kind of start to look at, you know, is this a an industrial use with these four districts that we're talking about right now is kind of scattered as little hodge podge all across the board. And then also I'll say right sizing the residential component and when I say this because cabana, which I've got the example of right now, is grouped under residential. Let me actually go to that next one. So cabana and Horse farms are under residential groups.

Do you know what the cabana is? Yes. I mean it's I mean they we were created as accessory used for residential. They are non-habitable independent structures. They are associated with something else. They are accessory in nature but these are set up as right now implying certain things without looking through some of this as a residential entity or end user. Same thing with last time I checked, horse farms were not residential in nature. So again, starting to move the pieces of the puzzle around to create a little bit easier application for staff as well as furing staff. So would you cons continue to have a cabana district or would you eliminate?

Go back one slide, Kelly. If you look right there, Ze, we've got cabana sex is listed under our conservation okay requirement. So we are still treat probably probably giving you more protection than they currently have being under the residential because they've now placed them under the conservation section and we all know what the term conservation means. And so I think that's that's a good alignment with him. I see Kelly's point. I was in the same boat that you were until I kind of saw the conservation heading that it was placed under and that that was enough to make me feel all right about it. Okay.

I think it's Go ahead. just it looked to me like we were eliminating the cabana section that no district because there's no no district next to it. That's that's what I said and I was saying, you know, just because there's nothing that's carried over on the right doesn't mean we're eliminating that. It's only where you see the groupings uh like that multif family residential which gets into those three that consolidates it. Um but if there's not and you we'll actually fix this. No, your slide's right. See how on this one Z all these have a continuous line going across. Right? Go back to the other slide. You see now we've got

all these we've taken these five and condensed to three. We've taken these three and condensed to one. So whenever the lines just continue straight across, we're not changing the name to it. But on these where you see the kind of groupings together, that's where we're consolidating some of them together to come up with a different heading. So So in this case though with like single family residential, you got a medium and a high. So, those are the two new single family districts. And then we're going to have a I mean, you're saying we're going to have a pretty sizable lot minimal lot requirement at both the medium and the high.

No, I I think I we're we're getting lost in in this part of the the discussion. As Kelly pointed out at the beginning, our intention is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. What we're talking about right now is how the document is organized. He uh Kelly's giving you some examples about how this is what it looks like now and this is how we're going to make it more user friendly. We're not talking about what the lot size is going to be in this residential discussion. The policies are still going to be in place.

You might have a single family district with the the lower density or whatever two letters we're going to put over it. In another part of the code, we're going to have design standards for that. And if you're in this neighborhood, it might be different than what's than if you're in that neighborhood, but the zoning district will be the same. We're going to get into the minutia of the details of the actual regulations later. So, we're going to have right now we're talking about how the document's going to be organized, but but I think it's important to understand that. I mean, if we're if we're talking about eliminating all these different single family districts and and creating two districts, well, what those two districts are matters, right? I mean as to whether or not this is a I mean a good idea or not. But what what we're trying to do right now I mean

we're trying to broadstroke. This is an overview meeting. This is not the detailed meeting. This is the hey y'all we're about ready to get started on the zoning rewrite. Here's your first taste of it. The detailed more in-depth meetings are coming

in regard to this. This is just the broad stroke. We're looking for overall understanding not detailed specific understanding. right now that's going to come at the later date. And when that comes, we're not going to bring to you the whole ordinance at one time. We're going to bring to you these sections to talk about. Then we're going to bring you these sections to talk about. And that's when we can get more into the detailed conversation. But for Kelly to be able to get through his very good presentation, we need to view this as the broad stroke that it is. So again kind of looking at the existing use table what we've kind of identified and proposed. So getting back to that use groupings for staff's uh use getting into the individual uses and I'm just going to point on this screen with the co respective code sections and starting a little bit of a simplification of that table. Uh there's a lot going on with some of these uses. So we can actually get in there and redefine some of the use standards to be like I said a more generalized when I say generalized recognized type of use and then specific examples that as far as whether it's permitted and this is what this includes versus accessory at the end of the day. The last thing we we don't need is to have adnauseium. You know, I'm not going to say some of these because these are actually all being kind of carried over, but there's some uses in there and it literally gets into four different things and they're exactly the same. So why do we need that called out as a specific use in the line when it's when you roll it up and under the umbrella, it's the exact same thing. It's just this is this, this is this, this is this, this is this. And when you look at where it's permitted, it's exactly the same. When you look at the standards that get applied to it, it's exactly the same. It's a different way of thinking than what we're used to. Z kind of where you're at right now is the same place we as a staff were whenever we first jumped

into this. What we know is what we know and that's what we rely on and that's what we fall back on. Well, what we know hadn't been keeping everybody happy around here lately because of some of the decisions that forced us to make and some of the predictions that it puts us in. um we get we catch bad flag because why do we make that decision? Nobody likes it, but we did exactly what the code says. And so that's what we're trying to get through. That's what we're trying to correct. It's kind of hard to look at something different when all you know is one ordinance. And so that what you're going through right now is the same thing that we as a staff kind of went through when they first started talking to us. It's like hold now wait a minute now. how's this going to? And it sometimes took the second meeting for me to understand the answer. Um, but it's all coming together. It's all coming together and we're factoring into everything that we can on our approach. But so, I know where you're at is the same place that we were at as a staff because all the the only thing going through your head right now is worst case scenario. But that's how mine was,

right? And I mean, I understand that the the the reason to to to reorganize it and and and make it more logical and and and and and brief to the extent they can be done. I just don't know the effects of what you're proposing to change this.

And and again, when we are, you know, starting to refine and test this, if we have to expand some things out, we expand things out. You know, we we've got to go at it with a, like I said, you know, Ken, I'm going to use your quote, the broad brush. We've got to make sure we're looking not only what's on the ground today, what can be on the ground five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, and be able to adapt to those uses. Um, I'm going to give you bad dad joke number one. Um, some of you probably knew this or know this, but who here has ever played pickle ball? I have too. I play with my son whenever he's home from college. How long has pickle ball been around? Five years. 10 years probably about 20 years I think

1965

60 years created by a couple of guys up in Washington state uh as a former recreationist and other things I joke is like they obviously were orthopedic surgeons or chiropractors and physical therapists um but you know 60 years ago did we know pickle ball was going to be like it is until 10 15 years ago Now, is it is this going to are we saying we're going to call out pickle ball as a specific use? No. But when I'll give you an example. I I help write parks and recreation master plans. You know, there's conversion rates between uh tennis courts to basketball to pickle ball and all these other things. And a lot of the way we used to think about, well, we need five basketball courts per thousand people. you start getting that level of specificity, you start boxing yourself into a corner to where if you're not careful, you've painted yourself into the corner, you can't get out. But if you've got the ability to adapt and be kind of flexible in some of that, instead of saying basketball courts and some of these other things, we call them sports courts. Sports courts can include, but not limited to, and you start lining these things out. So the city in this case, you know, in the case what was the project I was telling you about had the ability to population. They have ability to look at geographies. They have the ability to look at trends and funding and still meet the standards. That's what we're talking about here. There's uses that we don't even know are coming down the pipeline. 10 years ago, data centers, everybody's like, data center, that was a call center, you know, whatever. Now, data centers again, now things are starting to pop up. So, we're trying to be as proactive as we can. Clean up, look forward, and look look way ahead. Uh we are talking uh as a group also about a the proposed downtown overlay.

So very similar to the area that we're talking about, I used the term five points this morning. Uh the mayor used the term uh Midtown. Uh but you know there's you know the area around Main Street and this kind of area this core area it's got a lot of character the old historic I'll call it portions of the city. So, we need to make sure we're we're adapting to those standards. And I know talking with with Kim and staff, we met with Jason Green. Um, you know, where does where do the regulations from that group fall as it relates to this and there's a lot more discussions that still have to to occur at this at that level. Um, but starting to look at what do the standards mean as far as design and development. How close should the buildings be to the street? How tall should they be by right versus special exception or special approval? Um, how do we measure height, which we'll talk about in a second? And then who has review authority at the end of the day? Is it CRC? Is it CAB? Probably going to be CAB. But again, TBD, but starting to lay those areas out as far as a different way of thinking. Uh, and I know you heard me say this this morning. Um, when you start thinking about some of the downtown components, uh, we we careers uh code. They had a great bad dad joke number two. Sorry ladies. Uh they had a great downtown district called the CBD 20 years ago. Who had even thought about CBD? Now it's like wait what? So we went back and we started asking those questions about what what was the historic nature of Greer? How was it founded? Where was it founded? And we created the downtown district called Greer Station based off of those original geographies and really kind of got back to that grassroots component of the walkable downtowns, the interconnected and the preservation of those existing historic structures. And there's new developments coming online. It needs to emulate that. That's the same types of things we're talking about here.

Open space and landscaping. Uh your code is okay. um one of my partners uh who is a landscape architect and arborist and we've been working very closely with staff, you know, public works versus some of the other groups that deal with some of the trees and things of that nature. So, looking at when we say minimum open space requirements, uh we're talking about active and passive recreation. Uh we're talking about some alternative ways of of of creating some of those spaces. uh low impact development buffering standards for some of the landscaping and provisions as well, plus those clear maintenance standards. That's one of the things that we see is lacking as we speak. There's nothing that says how you should and how long you should be maintaining this, especially from an approval standpoint. The other thing I'll tell you in just the realization is and I'll go through this in just a second, Brun Beach is not flat. you're relatively flat compared to some other places, but you've got a little bit of slope, you've got a little bit of of change. So, ensuring that as we're talking about some of these buffers, and I ran into this when we were working uh with Monroe, North Carolina, uh elevation changes from the road to the back of the property of 10 to 20 plus feet. So, if the building is is set down at the very bottom of the property, you're either having to bring that lot up or you've got landscaping that is you can't see anything or if it's the opposite, the landscaping is useless. So, ensuring that we have identified the landscaping and buffering components that also marry up with the land and the topography itself. Tree protection. Uh this has been a continued uh discussion. We've been having a lot of discussion to say the least. uh between uh landmark and or protected or I think we're actually we did have initially called them significant but we've settled on landmark and protected uh talking about

tree protection plans your code has some language in there now but it is it's fairly limited uh but what we've also talked about is how much of that existing tree area should be preserved because right now there's no requirement that any portion uh necessarily without going through the permits needs to be retained. Um, one of the things that we've looked at is also if we're going to have a, you know, a virgin piece of property, one, we need to be looking at the trees that are on the site right now, invasives, you know, exotics and things like that should not come into the into the mix. So, we want to make sure as we're doing this, and this is not yours tree table, but we've created a an opportunity for not only the right tree, but the right setting. You really have a live oak right next to a a sidewalk or a curb. The root system just does this. Pops it up. So, if you're going to do something like that, then you've got to make sure you've got tree wells. Live oaks don't like tree wells as much. Uh so, you've got some of those things and starting to look at is it a a canopy tree? Is it okay to have along a street? Is it okay as a buffer or in the parking lot? And more importantly, is it native to this area? You have a very also unique soil system here. What you have is not down in Charleston. It is not in Colia. It is not in career. So that's where my landscape architect and harvest friend and I are going through and looking at what trees can survive in the soils and more important the salinity that we have in the soils here. There's some good gobys, but making sure again that it's right size for this community. also starting to refine how we measure uh the landmark and protected trees. Right now, you've got a table that kind of goes all over the place, but trying to create a a little bit better, more uniform standard that would be

consistent with some other communities and also with uh Clemson and some of those resources that are out there that are already crafted that say here's how we really should be thinking about some of these at the state level. Again, when we start thinking about, you know, the tree protection and tree safe areas, we're not including the invasives, the exotics, and not all trees. We realize there's also some trees that are not necessarily defined as invasive, but they just don't fit. Um, so again, right sizing those components. Uh and then when we start thinking about the size, you know, making sure that what we're proposing is right for Myrtle Beach. Again, that kind of goes back to this whole discussion of is a landmark tree 24 in at DVH. How do we measure DVH? And what are some of those things that goes with it? Are protected trees? What's that list of trees that we want to make sure we're trying to protect? other than uh I'll say heritage trees which have a different designation across the state typically about 60 inches or greater you know the the codes and the and the measurements vary from community to community based off of that local preference standards of measurement. Uh again what we're trying to do here is to create a a system and a portion of this that is consistent. It's easily defined and more importantly has graphics so that somebody's picking up the code, they can understand when when Cam and the team are saying, "Well, this is what how density, this is density. This is intensity." Okay, intensity is a term that we use for non-residential development. Typically, it's based off of either floor area ratio or building ground coverage. How are we defining that and what does it look like at the end of the day? Building heights, which I'll show you here in just a second, how

and where we measure setbacks from because those things can be wildly different in certain areas. and then all the way through to even the lot types. Is it is it an interior lot? Is it a corner lot? If it's a corner lot, where's the front? Does it have double front? What if we have a lot that it takes up the entire corner? So, at that point, you have triple fronts, then what? So, ensuring that we give staff a very clear set of standards that say this is how we measure, this is how it's going to be applied, and not have it to where somebody has to go, well, we think and you start pulling stuff out of the air. Another example of our standards of measurement, how we measure height, you know, you can look at stories, you can look at certain uh elements that say, you know, hey, 35 ft, maximum of three stories. Uh some places will say, hey, just 35 feet. And I've actually worked with a community that somebody did a four-story building in 35 ft. not the best to say the least. So trying to ensure that we're creating a defensible defined standard of height stories and again how it's getting measured at the end of the day. Not joking when I say this. Sign standards are one of my favorites. You heard that this morning, too. Um I'm not an attorney. However, I definitely do look at signage from a couple of different perspectives. Having worked, like I said, in the public sector, worked with a number of city attorneys, and then more importantly, working with communities all across the southeast, I will tell you, every single community that I work in has a little different feel, flavor, and interpretation of some of the sign code regulations. Supreme Court 2015 uh landmark case was Reed, Reed versus Town Gilbert.

Basically the Supreme Court said you as a community can regulate how big the sign is, how you know how tall it is and where it can be placed. You cannot say churches get this, schools that get this, government gets this. That's content. Supreme Court weighed in and there's been a number of cases that come beyond that as well. There's also another landmark case that came through with city of Austin with on-site offsite advertising sites or basically billboards. So ensuring that the code that we're proposing meets that test. Now we'll be working with the legal team on that one. Uh but I will say that some of the codes language that you have right now is potentially I'm saying potentially because I'm not an attorney uh in conflict with the Reed case and simple. There's a lot of content that's kind of built into this. Uh so as part of this creating clear definitions, what are projecting signs? What are monument signs? What are window signs? What counts as a window sign? More than three feet behind the glass should count. Especially if I'm sitting there to be able to see fluorescent yellow with sail that goes across four windows, that's a sign. If it's publicly visible, we need to be thinking about it a little different way. How do we define and identify murals with or about content. Is that a different standard? How do we measure that so that staff has a very clear discernable type of standard as well? and then starting to actually take what you have which are things like you see on the left using the graphics uh and creating a uniform set of graphics that talks about and visually illustrates what are the different types of signs and more importantly oops what happened with this presentation

same one from this morning remember that slide Yeah, because you referenced the sandwich boards on this one. Yeah, the sandwich boards, the stuff on the right. I was thinking the stuff on the left. That's weird. Anyway, anyway, I had to convert this from a PDF, so it might have gotten screwed up in that process that I think that's why all the numbers at the front were wonky. Okay, so I'm sitting here going like, man, we really do better work than this.

So, again, starting to define what are the different types of signs and how those get measured. Uh I used the example today Dav County, Georgia where we're working. They actually permit uh you know certain types of signs, but they don't they permit A-frame, but they don't permit sandwich and vice versa. So it's like they're the same signs in this case, especially when you start reading some of the definitions. Again, those clear measurable standards. What types of what are the signs? Where can they go? And more importantly, how do we measure all of this information? Whether or not it's three rectangles or we can get a little bit more creative with some of the geometry that we see in science today. This is always a fun one. Review authority in the processes. So processes and procedures. So being able to identify and define who has the seat at the table. Quality of judicial of course is city council because that's the things we're looking at from annexations, the reasons, the text amendments, things that require that level of review, especially being consistent with state law. What items are legislative in nature? Are there certain things that can stop at this body or other groups or does everything need still need to go to city council? Uh there's a couple of things that you probably still want to keep thinking about from a legislative nature that go to city council, but those can be done. I said there's other things that don't necessarily need that. And then more importantly, trust your staff. Administrative approvals. Uh right now, you know, looking across a number of communities, looking at a number of jurisdictions, the number and the type and the level of administrative or staff reviews in the city of Myrtle Beach is extremely small when you compare to looking at some of these other things. Time is money. Money is time. I use that this uh say actually I said money is money. But you got to quality staff for a reason. Trust them. Set up the standards to where it's clear. It is

very understandable. These are the steps. This is how we measure it. And if we meet these criteria, let them go. Now, are we saying everything goes out the window? No. But there, you know, are there site plans or minor adjustments up to a certain percentage or certain things that staff can approve without it being, you know, causing a major issue? Yes. And, you know, looking at a couple of these things and kind of going back also of like looking at where does the community parents board fall into some of this. I know that's a a little bit of a touchy subject. Uh one of the things that we started to do also was to look at across the state with a select number of communities because you know state laws in South Carolina says that you you can't have a architectural review board. an ARB. Um, people call them different things, whether it's an ARB, a CAB, a DRB, a B, a B, B A. They're all the same as the definition kind of goes. One of the things that we looked at was how many other jurisdictions? And we've looked at, of course, Myrtle Beach, Greer, Greenville, Columbia, Mount Pleasant, Charleston, Hilton Head, Lexington, Spartanberg, Sumpter, and a couple of others. Does anyone have the level of review that the cab currently requires across the entire city? And yeah, small sample, but the respon I mean the things that we saw, no, Myrtle Beach has by far the broadest reach and review of a ARB or a CAB in this case than any other community.

That's intentional. I'm just throwing out there for a fact because we we see a number of things where you know by rights versus certain other things. Is it visible? Is it copyrighted trademarks? Is it internal to an industrial subdivision that not it's not along King's Highway and some of that? Are there instances where the CAB needs to have full review? Absolutely. Do they need to have review across the entire city? It's up to to you all in the city council. They don't have review over single family,

single family houses, but uh by right signs um actually I sat in this room and watched an application in the middle of an industrial park. Uh the sign met the height area uh standards and Charlie you think you know what I'm talking about. uh had the palm tree and the palm tree was didn't like the palm tree. Correct.

Uh but it met every aspect of the code and it was denied. It met it met the minimum standards. Actually was exceeding when I say exceeded the minimum standards in the fact that it was actually smaller than what you could have done. Uh and it was internal to an industrial park. I just you know that's that's just me asking the why questions. Again, at the end of the day, city council, this this is going to make a recommendation to city council. City council is going to say these items are going to go to city. These are going to go here and these are the standards and things looking at historic overlays, design corridors, things of that nature. Absolutely. But again, what what's what's what's kind of an overall overarching concern or consideration that you know is not being met at that point? Now, are we that every single industrial park sign should not go to them. If there are additional considerations that uh come about as far as what the sign is proposed to go above and beyond this or meet these other standards absolutely needs to go to the CAB and more importantly again if we're on Kings Highway if we're on some of these you know corridors absolutely especially knowing that we have a tourist based economy here but it's not just tourism you know you're seeing more and industrial and economic development. You're seeing more residential. Yes, you're still tourist based and tourism drives and it attracts and people see beach versus other places and they say this is the place I like.

So ensuring again we're not going to get rid of stuff just for the sake of getting rid of it. It's got to make sense. And with that uh Mr. Chairman, uh I will say that we are going to be bringing uh here in fairly short order uh specific uh recommendations through staff for the overarching table of contents, the districts, the use table, the use definitions with applicable standards, the standards of measurement and also the landscape and tree protection measures. And with that, I will say also that uh the batch following that includes parking, signage, uh and a couple of the other components including overlays.

You have any questions? One of the comments I'd have regarding what what you're going to be doing here is is to keep in mind that um we are a resort community, but that we don't want to just be a resort community. We have people who who who live here and who live in residential districts here. Um there's residential districts that don't allow short-term rentals. You know, um if if many people who move here would I mean if they had their choice they'd allow short-term rentals everywhere. Um you know it allows them to you know subsidize the cost of of acquiring property here but if you live here year round you know that's not something you necessarily want to have in your neighborhood. And you know we we have established neighborhoods now residential neighborhoods where you know where they were built you know with the intention of of having short-term rentals and we have others that historically have not been. So I I just, you know, ask you to keep that in mind. You know, the exist when you're looking at trying to condense all these into smaller districts and and and and add all these uses into maybe one particular district, but you know, we do have pockets here that are are different

and you're absolutely correct because like I said, the area to the north is not the same as the area in and around Washington neighborhood. is not the same as just south of the downtown. It's not the same as you go towards Market Common. Uh so yes, we we are fully cognizant of that. I mean, the thing I used this morning is it'd be simple and easy to say, here, by the way, here's Charleston's code or here's Georgetown's code. It works. Just go with it. That's not that is not Myrtle Beach. That's why, you know, and especially when it comes to short-term rentals, that can be a four-letter word and we understand that. And, you know, Cam and staff were kind enough to show us some of those pockets that we, you know, we meaning they have experienced challenges, considerations, and concerns with short-term rentals or other things based off of how some of these current regulations are established. We're not looking to open up short-term rentals. Um yeah, I I would say that certain things we know are hands off. Uh but again, that's where this body and the city council can come back and say we're okay with X in this situation.

I think one thing as a board have to consider too whenever we as a group came together on this. Um, we knew our code was outdated in some areas, a whole in quite a few areas. Sure.

So, we had to sit there and make the choice that we want to update our code to get us on par with everybody else that currently has their code. We want to modernize our code to get us up to par with everybody else and factor in some of the new things that are already coming down the pipeline or do we want to future vision our code? We decided we wanted to future vision our code and in the future visioning of the code that's where the broader strokes come into play. That's where the subcategories come into play cuz there are certain I remember whenever uh whenever Uber everything that none of us could probably live without right now. Whenever Uber first came to Myrtle Beach, me and Charlie rode around town, we were shutting them down. We ain't letting you come into our town. We're not letting you not be regulated. We're not letting you not have a business license. We're not let you not operate like a taxi cab.

Okay, that was the direction we were given. Okay, look where Uber's at now. And that's what we've got to think about. We've got to think about not only what we know is coming, but what has the possibility of coming. A and I AI scares the hell out of me. Okay? But it's coming. And through AI, there going to be new business ventures, new business ideas, new ways of doing business that we hadn't even thought about yet. We at least want to have a code that we can at least speak to those items on and not feel like we're in the stone ages trying to apply that type of code to the modern future that's coming. So that's the direction that Kelly was given by us is don't only get us caught up, not only get us prepared for what's on the horizon, but get us prepared for what we hadn't even seen or thought of yet.

Yeah. I want to take it one step further. I should have used this example this morning and I didn't. So, if you go to Walmart, you go to the grocery stores, you pull into a space, you pull in one of those mark spaces, you text here, and they bring everything out to you. Is that a parking space or a loading and unloading space?

Strictest interpretation of your code, that's loading and unloading. Completely different standard than parking, believe it or not. Again, start splitting hairs. What do you do with the cart areas where uh they all love to have the cart barns and cart corral and things like that. How do those get counted in the overall parking? Assuming that everybody's got more than they need, you're okay. But if somebody's at the bare minimums and next thing you know you've got corrals that are taking two, three, four, that's a problem. Outdoor display and storage of materials and goods. Some of your districts don't allow that. But yet, guess who some of your biggest uh considerations are with?

It's big.

The big box. Uh you know, if you go to Lowe's, you can't walk along the sidewalk. You can't use the fire lane. Those are the types of things we're also looking at because literally going through the code and going do you realize strictest interpretation probably how you're enforcing this is X. So again trying to think without being so overly restrictive to where it's you can't have outdoor display and storage Walmart and some of these other places but here's how we're going to allow you to do it. And those are good examples because as of yet, I mean, me and Charlie had to sit down and make some good interpretation sometimes in relation to some of those things that we hadn't got caught with our pants down yet, but they sagging in a few areas. I'll go ahead and tell you that right now. And so, we need to get that cleaned up and get us back where we need to be. And like I said, that's part of the modernizing part of it. And now, now he's getting into more of the future side of it as well. And I'll be honest with you, if if you've if you want to see something that's fun, sitting on one of the calls where the team is sitting down talking, I have to condense these two very clearly and articulate certain things. And you know, Ken's being honest when he says it took me two times. I think we had a couple discussion topics. It was like second, third. Well,

there was a couple of hell nos exactly in there, but I changed my mind on I changed my mind on them. And there's been a couple of hell nos. It's like n Kelly you just don't even go there because of you know whatever like works for us. Kelly great resource Charlie how are you going to implement and enforce this talking to these two young ladies right here what have you seen coming out of school that we now starting to apply some like you said AI scary thing I just sent you regarding AI and how it's going to change planning one of the things you're going to do is look at the standards for outdoor displays that's one of the because it's it's in your code right now.

If it's working, it's working. But I can say just kind of looking at the way the code is written and when you start running around town, not saying that Charlie's doing or staff's doing anything wrong. We just start asking the questions. Is this the way that you're interpreting and implementing this? I can easily see that. I mean, we make it work, but we can make it work better by getting the proper terminology, the proper things and it frees us up to do more things that are more important sometimes than to worry about how do we get this to fit. We like what it is, but our ordinance just isn't clear to us because it's something that our ordinance really doesn't address. So, it might be something newer.

And also, I want to be very clear in something else. This is not a reflection of staff. This is not an issue that they've caused or created. These folks worked extremely hard. They've got a lot on their plates to to review and assess a code is very labor intensive. It is very cumbersome. If you don't have the staff levels to accommodate something like that, these things do exactly what's happening here. Flavor of the day, something comes out with respect, we'll say signage. So you start going, you fix the signage portion, but then the one thing you don't forget to fix is the site triangle or the landscaping provisions. And the next thing you know, you've got inconsistent or standards that do this or they're hitting and then what is there an opportunity in going through this to um restrict or make the residential construction materials greater. So like no vinyl siding um that kind of thing. things that concerns me is some some of these neighborhoods that have gone in. What are they going to look like in 20 years and that's a concern, you know, especially along our corridors?

I think that's something that we can definitely look into. Yeah, there are some prohibitions at the state level with one and two family dwellings with certain types of things if it's not in a design district or an historic district or certain other conditions. But is that, you know, as one of my friends used to joke, oh, is is my beach going to become your final resting place. And I went that he actually said that when I was a George kid. Um be able to take care of that part.

Yeah. By the way, the historic dwarf side has got lava trees on all their trees 50 years old. They're beautiful.

And a lot of those, especially when you start looking at either trees with their sizes, the that we're looking at. Uh we're trying to make it I'm not going to say it not as easy to remove some of those trees, but understanding, you know, what's the value and it's not just a one for one replacement. Uh it's better to actually utilize existing trees on the properties, whether it's buffers or whatever else. Uh retain those trees on site versus we'll say tearing out a 16 inch something and going back in with 82 inch trees. know there's consequences with multiplier at that point. like can you design around this and all this goes back to my example I use today with you know grandkids nieces and nephews why why why why and not just okay which staff doesn't do that but at the same time it's it's the regulations are extremely open-ended in these cases

I did notice I mean like you look at older developments um with that have different elevations in and and they kept the trees and one of the reasons they were able to keep the trees because they were willing to develop different elevations. Um I think correct me if I'm wrong but I I think our current code discourages they want everything at one elevation for you know they want parking lots that are all level or relatively level as opposed to um you know different um you different elevations for parking and that does limit your ability to keep old trees

and there's there's design ways around that. Uh I'm not going to say, oh, you just stick a tree stick in a tree well and it's going to survive. You've got to be a little bit more creative and intentional with the grading, making sure you don't have, you know, you've not added one to two feet of cover in and around the root system. Uh that you're not redirecting all of the storm water now into that tree area. So, there are designs that you can do to to make those tree wells and those tree protection areas work as well. And there's also state laws and things like that change that come into play. Like I go back to the example of they did an infield house. Just pour a house down and and build a new house on the lot. That lot had to be 4 ft higher than every surrounding lot based off the new FEMA laws. Um neighbors weren't too happy. But I mean that was the new federal law that came into play and dictated to us what we we do what we do until somebody bigger tells us different. The federal government says this is what we had to do and that's what we have to do, you know. So, there's a whole lot of there's more there's more factors than I even realized that come into play whenever you're doing a zoning a zoning rewrite.

The alternative is you could have floodp proof the building, right? What now? You could floodproof the building in order to get around the elevation. I know that's what Charles that's been an option that has been there forever and nobody in the city of Myrtle Beach has ever acted upon it. The only floodproof building that we have in the city of Myrtle Beach is a little 10 by 20 building down there on the corner of Third Avenue South at Ocean Boulevard. I know it's expensive.

Other questions or thoughts? Last parting comment as you all are now starting to think through some of this, get comments and ideas to staff. reach out to Cam and say, "Hey, are you all looking at X? How are we appro approaching this?" So, because we meet every two weeks, we get correspondence back and forth. We're sharing information and ideas. So, if there's something that's pressing on your minds as far as are we going to limit the size of or of a sign or recalculate how we're actually looking at that ask staff

and say that we meet with them every two weeks. We as a staff, we meet every we meet every week in regard to this. And to follow up on what he said, I'll take what Austin brought up as a comment about the type of material on siding. If you've seen something like that somewhere else, if you've just seen a location where you know that's a requirement that they've got, let us know where it's at. Find any information that you can in regard to it. Get it to us. We'll look into it. North and Conway. I know I think maybe more like an email or something. can do that. Anything else?

Thank you all. Thank you so much. Does anybody have any questions? Good. So, are we are we going to How are we going to review this? Are we going to you going to It's going to come to you in big bunches. That's the honest to God's truth

because we've kind of got a yes, this is a year to this is a 12 to 18 month process, but we're even trying to proceed at warp speed to kind of get ahead of that because that's how bad we know we need this. But we but we are if we need to slow down, we'll slow down. Um, but now right now we're trying to get something on the books to to quite honestly not only make our jobs easier, make everybody else's life easier because now we've got better explanations to give them where they can actually understand and we can show them what it means instead of having to interpret to them what it means. I know you want to stay big picture but I do this I guess will I wish I been prepared to give you the section where I read it but in the current code and this was done back in 2014 I know codes have been amended since then and I understand all that but in there it stated I think it was with landscape code or something like that that uh properties had up to two years to conform to the new code. Um, of course, things continually change, change, change. I don't know how codes have kept up with the changes, but a lot of them didn't really follow suit with that. What happens with this code? Is it the same type thing? You have to have a certain amount of time. I know it's in certain areas you have a certain amount of time you'll do code, but is this released in the people that should have already done it? They gonna have now two more years to apply to a different code. How does that work? The

answer to that question is everybody's got a boss. Everybody's got a boss. I don't disagree, but everybody's got a boss. Understand? And that's a that's an aroundway answer. That's an honest answer.

Well, and that's part of what you he's come across with the codes. A lot of the reasons these codes have been overlaid and done is because depending on the who is in charge, there might be a group that wants something done a certain way and maybe you peacemail that in there or fix that and you're peacemailing that fix that. You peacemail that fix that and there's not the big vision of keeping it consistent and that's where you get that's why we're doing this. Exactly. And hopefully that's can be the outcome. As you know, there's individuals that have individuals opinions, too. So, it's going to be an interesting opportunity.

You said so earlier, Kim. Is are you new zones or you're talking about maybe subdists within districts? Is that the idea? You explain that, Kelly. So, kind of like what I just want to sit down. Sorry. Easier shot. Uh it's a little bit less formal.

We're casual. Yeah. Um, you know, like Kelly was saying, you know, one, are we wed to one sizefits-all? No. If there are sub areas that have specific standards, yes. If it again, makes sense. And when we're working with staff and they go, how does this apply in this neighborhood? And they go, we got to we got to take a half a step back, we will. But, you know, it it we can take it a couple different ways, like you were saying, Kelly, with subdists or certain design and development standards that goes with that. uh or a completely different approach to the district itself. There's going to be you say kind of if this then that scenarios that play out in

So how you design can dictate what we enforce? I mean what about what's already designed? What's already in place? has a lot of divisionaries in the city that don't even meet current. They exist now for a lot size. Nonformity is nothing to be nothing to be afraid of in the city of B. It's already everywhere.

We're going to have a lot of nonconforming anytime you do rewrite typically like you keep on referencing neighborhoods. A lot of those neighborhood lots don't even know it as they exist now. I mean we're that lot as it sits right now is existing non-conforming we apply and it still meets setback requirements but it it doesn't meet the maximum size of that lot I mean doesn't meet the minimum size of that lot

that's where the lot of record stuff comes into play if we've got a lot that doesn't meet it's R10 that doesn't meet 10,000 square feet we're not going to say you can't build a house on that because it's only 9,000 square feet but we're still going to make you adhere to the R10 setbacks basically what you're looking at whenever you're putting minimum lot size, minimum lot widths, and all that stuff, you're really talking about new subdivisions. Just because we don't have a lot of land in the myrtle in the city of Myrtle Beach to be doing new subdivisions, doesn't mean that we're still not going to write the code the same way that you normally would. Um, one of the other things that we've been thinking about a little bit is, you know, what's going to be a big thing coming for us in the future is infield development. I mean, I've seen more of that in the last five years than I did the first 15 I was here. Um, I think on Big Drive, I think we've got four four or five four or five tear down rebuilds right now.

Yeah. On Beach Drive. We're looking at almost the L where you start looking at 76 77th. Yes. 77th or you're starting Beach Drive is almost done. Now you're we're starting to go up the avenues, right? That's not us. That's someone's coming in. They bought the property. You're looking at property, but they want a different house. That's the lot that they chose to build. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that's going to happen. And then some of it was like they came in, they said, "Well, I want to add on to the house I've got."

Well, if you add on to the house you got, I got to kick you in a new thing to stand. So, you got to elevate your whole house and redo your whole house. So, it's better for them to go ahead and just tear it down and rebuild. And so, again, we don't we don't have a clean pallet in the city of Myrtle Beach. It's one of the things that we told told Kelly and they're they're trying to factor that in the best that they can. Um, but yeah, it's uh last time I said is everybody looked at me kind of crazy, but change brings about change and that's what we're getting ready to experience and change is getting ready to bring about some change. Well, I think I think what we're trying to do is make sure it's it's a positive change as opposed to just changing,

you know. Uh change is like art. It's in the eye of the beholder. What one man deems to be negative, another man made to be positive and vice versa. In regard to that, I mean, I never thought I'd live to see a day where we were improving subdivision of 40 foot wide lots, but we did, you know. So life, that's what makes life beautiful. Tomorrow is not going to be like today. Any other communication planning commission? Motion. I move we

second. Motion by Zeb. Second by Danielle. All those in favor. Reading a journ.