Runway plan splits council: Some Horry County officials argue limiting expansion is shortsighted
Sep. 2--Horry County Council is slated to consider this week limiting the Myrtle Beach International Airport to a single runway.
The move is an attempt to cool tensions between the city and county, which have long been fighting over airport expansion, as well as limit growth of the downtown airport.
Critics, including Horry Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland, say it will handcuff the airport's and the county's future, when a second runway might be needed.
The resolution, sponsored by six of the 12 council members, instructs county staff to update an airport layout plan to reflect a 2004 agreement with the city -- namely, showing only one runway and room for up to 18 gates.
"Somebody's got to put the olive branch out there," Councilman Harold Worley said. "Arguments have been going on with Myrtle Beach for years. Some of them are so petty, they're almost childish."
Gilland said she would not vote for the measure, which she said would limit the county's opportunities 15 or 20 years down the road.
"We would be terribly shortsighted to take away that option," she said.
Gilland wants the runway to remain on the books to preserve the possibility of future expansion.
Marion Foxworth, one of the resolution's sponsors, said he does not think the airport should expand any further in the middle of downtown Myrtle Beach.
"We may need [another runway] 15, 20, 25 years down the road, but if we do need it and airport operations require a second runway, then the last place you're going to want airport operations is downtown," he said.
In 2004, the city and county agreed to stick with the airport's single runway. City Council members did not -- and still do not -- want the county to build either of the two additional runways drawn on planning documents, such as those submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration.
But there was room for change. The agreement says there would be no second runway -- or anything on the grounds to support a second runway -- without City Council's approval.
It also says any changes to the airport's master plan, the comprehensive, primary development document, need to reflect the 2004 agreement.
Foxworth argued that the airport layout plan, a rough outline of various structures at the airport, constitutes an amendment to the master plan and that the county needs to follow the 2004 agreement by showing a single runway.
Worley said he believes the resolution will not preclude a second runway in the future. If the public feels a need for the runway in the future, he said, the politicians in office at the time will make it happen.
Gilland said that would not be possible, because growth would spring up all around the airport in the meantime.
"The area will build up around it," she said. "If in 15 years the second runway becomes necessary for the economy of the area, we either couldn't do it or we'd have to buy high-rise hotels [to demolish]."
Also on Tuesday's agenda:
Discussion of gates blocking off all access to public roads at the intersections of Myrtle Ridge Road and Myrtle Trace Drive, Timber Ridge Drive and Forest Lake Drive; and Tibwin Drive and Gardner Lacy Road
A resolution to study development around the S.C. 9 corridor from the Waccamaw River to the intersection of S.C. 9 and S.C. 9 Business in Loris
An ordinance to allow County Council to vote to amend the effective date for salary adjustments for elected officials, other than County Council members
A height overlay zone in Garden City Beach
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Fast Fact
A resolution sponsored by County Councilmen Howard Barnard, Harold Worley, Kevin Hardee, Mike Ryan, Carl Schwartzkopf and Marion Foxworth would force the county to take all plans for a second runway at the Myrtle Beach International Airport off the books.
Contact LISA FLEISHER at 626-0317 or [email protected]
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