One Horry community will soon have more say about its growth. Here’s how they’re doing it

In a rapidly-growing place like Horry County, it’s rare that everyday residents are asked what they want that new building to look like.

But that’s exactly what’s happening in the Bucksport area.

Horry County officials on Monday kicked off what will be a months-long process of developing a community area plan for Bucksport, Bucksville and Toddville, a trio of neighboring rural communities about a dozen miles south of Conway along S.C. 701.

The plan will incorporate various zoning and design standards that will guide developers and county planners as new homes and new businesses are proposed for the rural communities. Other area plans in Horry County incorporate things like green space, walkability and lot size so that developers know they have to meet those standards before proposing a project.

And the plan comes at a crucial time for the communities: Developers are already eyeing the bountiful farmland along S.C. 701 for new subdivisions and the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, along with Grand Strand Water & Sewer, are set to open a new industrial marine park in Bucksport later this year.

That means new jobs and new homes are all but inevitable for the area. One new subdivision was scuttled earlier this year after residents opposed it.

The residents, though, via the community area plan, will have a say in future growth. Those plans — built on resident input — seek to codify specific zoning and other aesthetic aspects of building, essentially putting up guard rails for future development. In Burgess, for example, a community area plan helps regulate the density of new building and puts an emphasis on building and connecting sidewalks and preserving green space.

Bucksport residents who attended the first of the meetings for the community area plan on Monday said they wanted the plan to preserve the area’s rural heritage while also allowing for some new growth that could entice grocery stores and other shopping into the area. The closest grocery store is more than 10 miles away.

“Part of the plan would be where are the bounds?” Horry County Planning Director David Jordan said Monday. “I know Bucksport and Bucksville and Toddville are distinct areas but I would think that most of the ideas...are about the same: Let’s have good growth, limit it, S.C. 701 isn’t getting four-laned any time soon so it’s going to be traffic coming down.”

That’s how Debra Alston said she feels. She’s “ready for change,” she said, but not too much, too fast.

“(I support) 90% preserving it as the way it was,” she said. “I would love to see this area develop, but not too fast.”

Jordan on Monday said the process to develop a community area plan will take at least a year. That timeline breaks down like this:

• Month 1: The county Planning Commission forms a committee, and that committee meets with county staff.

• Month 2: The committee holds a public meeting and circulates a community survey.

• Months 3-5: County staff evaluates the feedback, existing conditions and data and drafts a plan. That can include site visits in the community, meetings with other governmental agencies, like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and focus groups.

• Month 6: The committee holds a second community meeting.

• Months 7-8: The committee and staff finalize the draft plan and circulate it publicly for feedback, for a minimum of 30 days.

• Months 9-10: Planning Commission reads and debates the plan, and accepts additional public input.

• Months 11-13: County Council reads and debates the plan, and accepts additional public input.

The plan is final once it wins three votes from the county council.

Jordan said such plans may take a long time, but give residents a strong voice against developers. He said developers may give input on the plan, but that it’s county staff and residents who actually make the plan.

“This is an area plan, this is y’alls plan,” Jordan said. “The developers aren’t part of it.”

Orton Bellamy, the outgoing county council member who represents the Bucksport, Bucksville and Toddville communities, said he’s helping residents pursue this plan to give them a say as developers start moving in. He said the plan will attempt to strike a balance between new growth and the area’s rural heritage.

“(The residents) are stakeholders, they’ll be making those decisions and we’re soliciting their input,” he said. “You look at commercial development, residential development and being able to look at supportability and sustainability. (We’re) trying to be a combination, a balance of rural and urban development.”

That balance is important to Joyce Phillips, who’s lived in Bucksport for more than 30 years.

She said she’s seen her community change over the years, and wants to see residents take pride in its history as new growth comes. She said she would like to see a grocery store in the community, and wants to see Bucksport return to some of its past glory as a self-sufficient community.

“I don’t have a problem with new growth but I guess when I look at Bucksport, what I would like to see is the pride we took in our community 30 years ago,” Phillips said. “I would like to see businesses coming to Bucksport. I would love to see something at least closer to Bucksport.”

At the same time, Phillips said, the area plan should prioritize the area’s rural history and preserve it.

“I like the makeup of it, the community sense,” she said. “I don’t want it to be so business-y (where) we’ve got people and businesses coming in that take away the hometown feel.”