MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.-Officials in Myrtle Beach-like their counterparts to the south in Charleston-came up with grand plans as soon as they knew they would be stuck with a shuttered military base. But unlike the municipalities in the Charleston area-which quickly united behind a single redevelopment vision for the Charleston Navy Base-the city of Myrtle Beach and Horry County spent the better part of a decade at loggerheads over what to do with the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.
It took until earlier this year-a full eight years after the closure-for city and county officials to hammer out a compromise plan for the base, which is strategically located in the middle of the popular "Grand Strand" portion of the South Carolina coast. Under the agreement, the county will get its desired second runway for the commercial airport that now operates at the old base. In the meantime, the city will be able to go forward with a planned residential community on another part of the former base.
"I'm very encouraged," said Chad Prosser, the Horry County council chairman. "The compromise we've reached is significant because it really sets the course for the future of Myrtle Beach and the surrounding area. Had we continued with a stalemate, we would have lost a very big opportunity. But we were able to salvage it at the 11th hour."
To be sure, the Myrtle Beach area would hardly have shriveled up and tumbled into the sea had the agreement not been reached. Even though the base's closure meant the loss of about 4,000 military and civilian jobs, the 1990s have been one long boom for the family-friendly oceanside resort mecca. The population of Horry County-which includes the biggest chunk of the Grand Strand-has risen from just over 100,000 in 1980 to a projected 180,000 this year, and that doesn't count the 13.5 million tourists who frolicked in the area during 1998.
Between 1996 and 1998, gross retail sales in Horry and neighboring Georgetown County rose by almost a billion dollars, from $5.2 billion to $6.1 billion. Over the same two-year period, unemployment fell from 5.3 percent to 3.7 percent. And-in the state's leading economic indicator-the number of golf rounds soared from 2.1 million in 1988 to almost 4.3 million a decade later.
Indeed, signs of bounty-or, some would say, excess-are visible everywhere, from the massive theme-restaurant complexes that line the Highway 17 Bypass to the miniature golf courses that feature fire-belching dragons and lava-spilling volcanoes.
The main factor-aside from political egos-that prevented a unified base redevelopment plan was the fact that jurisdiction over the base was split. The land in question sat entirely inside the limits of the city of Myrtle Beach, yet the commercial airport within, which had shared facilities with the Air Force when the base was still operational, was owned and operated by the county.
From the beginning, county officials saw the airport as the key to the region's growth. Myrtle Beach is the only major South Carolina city not located near an Interstate highway, and the nearest major hub airports are hours away in Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C. With vehicular congestion worsening in lockstep with the incoming population, the airport seemed doubly important. "Air service is critical to the region, there's no question about that," said Robert J. Kemp, Horry County's director of airports.
Not surprisingly, air service has been growing significantly every year. Between 1991 and 1998, the number of annual arrivals and departures more than doubled. Eleven airlines now fly into Myrtle Beach, including flights to and from Canada and the Caribbean; officials are currently trying to lure direct golf charters from the United Kingdom. To handle the increasing traffic, county officials sought a second runway and an upgrade to the airport's aging terminal. From the county's perspective, converting an air base to an expanded civilian airport seemed a relatively easy technical challenge.
By contrast, city officials wanted to turn the site into a mixed-use development. Plans were drawn up for a theme park (an all-American analogue to Disneyworld's EPCOT center) as well as such features as hotels, resorts, a research park and a "new urbanist" planned residential community. City planners liked the mixed complex because it provided a model for a new style of uncongested urban living, while politicians appreciated the theme park's ability to turn the city into a year-round tourist haven, rather than just a seasonal destination.
"The development would serve as a model for the city and county as they both tried to accommodate growth and fight sprawl and development," said Jack O. Walker, the director of the city's planning department. "These kinds of opportunities don't come along very often."
The debate between the city and the county at times turned "caustic," in the words of one participant. Not even a multilateral panel created by the state-the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority-could curb the dissension. "Our role was that we recognized the two jurisdictions-Myrtle Beach and Horry County-and told them, 'If you guys ever agree, we'll do it,'" said the authority's executive director, Thomas C. (Buddy) Styers.
The nut of the problem, officials say, was that if the city went ahead with some of its development plans, the airport would have a difficult time making the expansions it said it needed. For instance, some of the new homes would have too small a buffer from the jetways, and takeoffs and landings might be forced too close together for pilots to operate safely in bad weather.
One major break came when the theme park's financing fell through. Fatigue also took a toll.
Eventually the two sides returned to the bargaining table. In late 1999 and early 2000, the city and the county hammered out a compromise: The city would build some of its new housing, and the county would build its second runway, cushioned by some extra breathing space.
"I think we just didn't develop a Plan B as thoroughly as we should have, because of the competing visions," Styers said. "It is better now. We are working together."
County council chairman Prosser agreed, calling the agreement "a watershed." "We were at a point in the timing where the window of opportunity was about to shut, but we were able to salvage that," he said. "I'm very happy with the compromise. It bodes well for the airport and the community around it."
Looking back, Styers added, Myrtle Beach was hardly the only community to run into such power struggles. "I've spoken to many conferences on base redevelopment, and we're not the only community that had that problem," he said. "Every community has some degree of difficulty determining who's going to be in charge, and whose goals to pursue."
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