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GIAC Visions
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.
Click your choice below to view a particular page section.
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
Click
here if you wish to
skip ahead to Visions for South Carolina State Government.
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.
If you want to return to the menu for this page click
here.
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 and allowing reassessment only upon
a property's sale. This has been done!
-
Repealing or changing the impact fee statute* including:
- allowing impact fees for new
school construction
- 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.
If you want to
return to the menu for this page, click
here.
Visions Progress
through August 2007 --
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.
If you want to
return to the menu for this page click
here.
Visions Progress through August 2007: 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 reduced from 5%
to 3% in conjunction with property tax reform and are slated to be removed
entirely. All such sales taxes are scheduled for removal on November 1,
2007. (County sales taxes [1% for RIDE II roads 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). A referendum to add another
local 1% general sales tax to
remove property taxes on owner occupied homes due to school operating expenses
was rescinded by the courts because of alleged improperly prepared
information supplied at the polling places -- although it had been passed by
Horry County voters. .
- 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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