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GIAC Visions

1/22/09 Update: Changed areas in S.C. Legislature Visions and Progress are shown in green text below. Updates, through August 2007, are shown in blue text below.

The GIAC overall vision for Horry County is to maintain its natural beauty where possible, to develop it aesthetically, and to protect the property values and quality of life of its residents, especially those neighboring commercial properties.

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Visions for Horry County Council

We hope that the Horry County Council will enact or initiate action on certain measures forwarding the interests of Horry County homeowners and their communities.  Actions that would promote the interests of homeowners, communities and the general population include --

• Pass an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance
• Require developers to supply or contribute infrastructure proportionate to a proposed development's share of the public facilities it requires -- to the extent that impact fees are not imposed that are adequate to do so.
• Impose impact fees to redirect some of the costs of population growth to those benefiting rather than to current locals  (statistical results across the U. S. show that population growth is costly, not an economic boon to the area as a whole);
• Provide more adequate buffering between residential and commercial areas -- Click here for detail (Footnote 1);
• Ensure that new structures do not loom over residences -- Click here for detail (Footnote 2);
• Establish new overlays, hopefully evolving the overlay concept to add improvements including community appearance boards to pass on designs including colors, and, at least, with no parking incursions allowed in the perimeter buffer -- Click here for background detail (Footnote 3).
• Zone all golf course areas so as to allow only use as a golf course or as four homes per acre residential single family

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Detailing Footnote 1. Providing more adequate buffering between residential and commercial areas.  As to more adequate buffering of single family residential communities from other new, especially commercial, uses, the minimum requirement is to ensure that headlamps from other usage areas not shine into people's living quarters.  This requires at least a four foot high opaque barrier to shield homes from headlamps such as SUVs.  It is desirable that the view of new commercial development be shielded, at least to eye level.  Two solutions suggest themselves -- an attractive landscaped berm or a wall surrounded by landscaping with provisions for adequate landscape maintenance

 The berm or wall would need to be at least four feet tall (providing the opaque barrier), and the landscaping planned so as to be spaced closely enough and to grow high enough to effectively block the view to at least a six foot height.  Fencing, surrounded by landscaping although economical, is too subject to deterioration or damage.  These requirements could be addressed with simple amendments to the landscaping, buffer and tree ordinance.   Click here to return to the bulleted item.

Detailing Footnote 2. Ensuring that new buildings do not loom over residences.  As to ensuring that newly built structures not loom over nearby single family residential communities, a reasonable approach is to require the distance between newly built structures and land used, or at least zoned, for single family residential be at least twice equal the structure's height. This requirement could be added to the Zoning Ordinance or in the Land Development Regulations.

Specifying uses as well as zoning is desirable in both instances because a particular zoning may allow mixed uses or may be owned by a common owner -- even though specifying uses is more difficult to enforce.  Click here to return to the bulleted item.

Detailing Footnote 3. Establishing Additional Overlays. The 501 Overlay, following the Socastee Boulevard Overlay, was the  first to allow parking incursions, the 544  Overlay does not.  The most recent 707 Overlay (with the concurrently passed Holmestown Road Overlay) inexplicably allows incursions into the perimeter buffer landscaping to within 10 feet of highway right-of-way (property) lines.  York County requires their buffer to be increased to forty feet if there is parking in front.  The Horry County Overlays that allow parking incursions into the perimeter buffer actually offer incentives for parking in front!  Click here to return to the bulleted item.

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Visions for S. C.  Legislature

Desirable South Carolina State government actions that would promote the interests of Horry County homeowners, communities and its general population include --

·         Capping real property tax increases to increases in the consumer price index and allowing reassessment only upon a property's sale.  The General Assembly has met the originally stated vision of tax increases simply being capped, but it still provides for a reassessment every five years rather than only upon a property's sale. Five year assessments are now capped at 15% and annual percentage tax increases that a local government can impose are capped at the increase in the consumer price index. At best, the combination caps the raise in the effective annual real property taxes to 3% above the annual increase in the consumer price index. Governments should have to function within the limits of consumer price index increases the same as individuals and companies have to.

·         Repealing or changing the impact fee statute* including:

- allowing impact fees for new school construction. Horry County has agreed to pay sales taxes to meet new school construction requirements. It would not have to if meaningful impact fees were allowed to be and were imposed.

• - changing the requirement that impact fees can only be charged for capital improvements with less than a five year life and a cost of $100,000 or more to allow their charge for all public facilities and equipment required to support a new development.

  - removing the requirement for a jurisdiction to repay "unused" impact fees (simply require that impact fees be set aside for the type of facility for which they were imposed)

  - basing impact fees on the cost of public facilities that were ascribed to being required to meet the needs for new development when they were built or purchased as well as those currently planned for that purpose, rather than exclusively on a capital improvement plan -- either deleting the capital improvement plan requirement or restricting its scope to only truly meaningful detail.  For details click "Capital Improvement Plan Alternate."
• Excluding established residents from paying impact fees on new homes or allow/enact measures to reimburse them (similar to the homestead exemption)
• Removing sales taxes on groceries. All such sales taxes are scheduled for removal on November 1, 2007. At this writing state sales taxes on groceries have been reduced from 5% to 3%. (County sales taxes [1% for RIDE II roads and hospitality taxes for specially prepared food such as sandwiches will remain in place])
• Equalizing property tax credits among Horry County  jurisdictions if the county were to ever choose to increase its sales tax.

*Click here for a more extended discussion of impact fees and attendant legislation.

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Visions Progress  through January 2009  -- Horry County Council

• Impact Fees -- Horry County Council has remained unwilling to institute impact fees, saying the S.C. impact fee statute is too burdensome.  It set up an impact fee task force that sought further information from the consultant group, Tischler and Associates, as to what changes could reasonably be made in the statute.  The only 2004 action of the task force was to recommend the wording for an advisory referendum asking the voters whether they supported the imposition of impact fees.  County Council put such a referendum on the ballot.  The construction industry allegedly spent in the neighborhood of  $150,000 to defeat the referendum via mailings, twice an hour radio ads, and a full page spread in The Sun News.  The referendum failed. Click here for further information on  impact fees
• Require developers to supply or contribute infrastructure proportionate to a proposed development's share of the additional public infrastructure it will require-- council has been negotiating voluntary contributions in many cases.
• Pass an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance -- this has been included as a steering committee recommendation in the final Land Use Element of the Horry County Envision 2025 Comprehensive Plan. It requires Planning Commission inclusion in its final recommendations and Count Council approval.
• Reconstituting the Planning Commission -- has been done and may be further reconstituted.
• Tightening Zoning Regulations -- since 2004, new zoning districts better restrict the number of uses allowed.
• Providing more buffering between residential and commercial uses -- individual zoning districts (some new) include buffering beyond that required in the landscape, buffer and tree ordinance, but, to this writer's knowledge, the desirable degree of opacity to a four foot height is not assured.
• Ensuring that new buildings do not loom over residences -- to this writer's knowledge, there are no general requirements beyond that inherent in some zoning districts, some overlays and specific county council actions.
• Establishing new overlays and overlay requirements including community appearance boards -- community appearance boards have not been included.
• Restricting golf course area uses to golf course or R4 -- the Deerfield North (Toski) Course was rezoned from R7 to R3, the Wicked Stick course was rezoned from GR to other residential and office professional classifications as agreed between Wicked Stick management and the Southwood Homeowner's Association.

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Visions Progress through January 2009: South Carolina State Legislature

• Changing the impact fee statute to allow, among other things, the imposition of impact fees on new schools or expanded facilities required to accommodate population growth -- SC Bill H3736 submitted in March 2003 to allow the imposition of impact fees on new schools: died in committee.

• Capping real property tax increases and allowing reassessment only upon a property's sale -- in November 2006, voters approved a constitutional amendment proposed by the legislature to put a 15% valuation cap on all  properties that have not been substantially approved or changed hands since the previous five year periodic reassessment.

• Removing sales taxes on groceries -- state sales taxes on groceries have been removed. (County sales taxes [1% for RIDE II roads, another 1% for new school construction and hospitality taxes for specially prepared food such as sandwiches will remain in place]).

• Horry County citizens voted to add a 1% general local sales tax to finance the construction of needed area roads (RIDE II).

• The S.C. General Assembly added a 1% sales tax to remove property taxes due to school operating expenses from homes that are the owners’ primary residences. Equalizing property tax credits among Horry County  jurisdictions for sales tax rate increases giving such -- the property tax credit approach was not used at all with the above state sales tax increase.

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