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MYRTLE BEACH — A last-ditch plan to prevent the Grand Strand Humane Society from building a new headquarters in a Myrtle Beach-area neighborhood could go before Horry County Council as early as next month.

County leaders will discuss creating an overlay district that would prohibit the humane society from building an animal shelter on Waterside Drive near Coastal Grand Mall.

“They are still trying to stop us,” said Jessica Wnuk, the humane society’s executive director. “To be quite honest, anyone in Horry County should be concerned about this even if they’re not directly concerned about Grand Strand Humane Society. This sets a very dangerous precedent.”

The county’s latest push comes after the utility Santee Cooper agreed to lease about 8 acres on Waterside Drive to the humane society for 40 years. The nonprofit animal shelter intends to build a $6 million center on the site.

But neighbors have criticized the proposal, arguing that an animal shelter is not compatible with a residential area. Some council members met with Waterside neighbors on April 2 to talk about possible ways to stop the animal shelter. The overlay district was one proposal.

This type of zone would apply an additional set of standards to properties within a specific boundary, regardless of the current zoning.

But it’s unclear whether the full council would support such a move, which some leaders have acknowledged could lead to a court fight.

The site in question has held the same designation since the county first adopted zoning in 1987. Animal facilities are allowed there.

“To take this away from them is a taking, which leaves us liable,” Horry County Councilman Mike Masciarelli said.

County Councilman Tom Anderson pointed out that last year the council refused to rezone a Carolina Forest property for the humane society because of neighbors’ opposition. At that time, council members told the organization what they wanted.

“Our last instructions to the Grand Strand Humane Society were: Find another piece (of property) that’s zoned appropriately, and we’ll support you,” Anderson said.

Wnuk said it’s frustrating to continue facing opposition, though she’s trying to remain positive.

“That’s all we can do,” she said. “We have the support of the entire community on our side and we’re so grateful for that.”

The humane society takes in more than 2,500 animals each year and contracts with the city of Myrtle Beach to house stray, abandoned and abused animals found in the city limits. The organization also accepts animals from outside the city and serves tens of thousands more through its food bank and vet clinic.

“We routinely take in animals from all over the county, especially lately when the county shelter has been full and they have been turning animals away,” Wnuk said. “Those animals are coming to Grand Strand Humane Society. ... Every single day that they delay this project is a day that they are allowing animals within their county to suffer unnecessarily.”

The organization has been operating at three locations since a rat infestation forced the closure of its Myrtle Beach facility on Mr. Joe White Avenue in 2021. The original facility has remained closed to the public, but dogs are kept in the runs there. The veterinary clinic has operated out of a temporary structures next door on city property. Cats and shelter offices have been at the Tanger Outlets off U.S. 501 for a few years.

During an April 9 meeting with county leaders, Wnuk stressed that the humane society must continue its work.

“We simply cannot fail,” she said.

County Councilman Al Allen called the dispute a “no-win” situation for the council. He noted that while county leaders have created overlay districts in the past, forming this one would look “more reactive than proactive.”

“No pun intended, we don’t have a dog in this fight,” Allen said. “If council takes no action right now, the humane society is doing what council advised them to do.”

The overlay zone is being pushed by County Councilman Gary Loftus, whose district includes the Waterside Drive property. He maintains he’s siding with the residents, who have have asked him to do whatever he can to stop the construction of the animal shelter. They’re worried about increased traffic on their road, noise from barking dogs and decreased property values for the houses that line the Intracoastal Waterway.

“My problem is I feel for people,” Loftus said. “A lot of guys in my position don’t.”

Neighbors have also criticized the negotiations that led to the deal, saying they were inappropriate because the humane society’s board president is married to state Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, and Rankin is close friends with David Singleton, the state-run utility’s second vice chairman.

Luke Rankin was on the committee that appointed Singleton to the Santee Cooper board to represent Horry County in 2011. Luke Rankin and Singleton are also partners in Columbus Farms Realty Holdings, LLC, for land in Columbus County, N.C.

Neighbors have called the land deal a “blatant conflict of interest,” “unethical” and “outright scandalous.”

But Santee Cooper officials have maintained they hired an independent third-party law firm to review the transaction and the firm found no law or policy violations.

After state lawmakers voted March 20 to approve Santee Cooper’s lease to the humane society for $1 a year, neighbors said they would review their legal options.

In light of County Council’s latest discussion, Wnuk said the nonprofit’s lawyer would do the same.

“It continues to feel like we’re being pushed around and pushed aside,” she said. “I don’t understand. ... We provide such a critical service to the county.”

County leaders plan to take up the overlay issue next month. Staff members will present council members with their options at the May 14 meeting of the council’s infrastructure and regulation committee.

If they decide to pursue an overlay district, they would forward that request to the full council.

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MYRTLE BEACH — Myrtle Beach appears poised to land another oceanfront resort.

For the second time in less than a year, city officials are discussing a project that would yawn from the oceanfront to the third row.

Myrtle Beach City Council on April 9 gave initial approval to a $120 million resort that’s expected to be built at 23rd Avenue North. A rendering of the resort identified the project as Hilton Garden Inn and Home2Suites.

Council members voted to create a special planned unit development area for the resort on 2.7 acres of land. A second vote is needed to approve the project.

Plans for the 255-room resort show a hotel that’s 24 stories. It will have a parking lot across Ocean Boulevard that is intended to be a mobile check-in and a 60-foot-tall parking deck with about 290 spaces on the third row.

Kelly Mezzapelle, a senior planner with the city, said the neighboring Boardwalk Beach Resort is 14 stories on the oceanfront and has a 25-foot-tall second row check-in building.

Jeff King, the developer, said the new resort’s plans call for swapping an alley on the north end of the proposed tower to an existing alley on the south end that would double the alley width to 40 feet.

The plans also call for the developer to allot 1.5% of the construction cost for public improvements.

Mezzapelle said the details of the improvements are still being ironed out but may include additional parking spaces on Withers Drive, providing for streetscaping from Ocean Boulevard to Kings Highway, and improvements at the 23rd Avenue North and Ocean Boulevard intersection to slow traffic.

She added the plans haven’t been finalized for changes to the street-end parking at 23rd Avenue North. She said 14 hybrid spaces will be eliminated for the tower construction. There are 20 public parking spaces there that garnered the city $30,000 in revenue last year. King has proposed having a landscaped area around the public parking spaces or converting the area into a park.

The city is still ironing out other details such as allowing King to place two signs on two sides of the tower as opposed to the one sign that is allowed in city codes.

Additionally, Mezzapelle said, there are 16 protected trees on the third row where King hopes to build a parking area. She said there are no landmark trees on the lot, allowing the developer the option of saving some trees and planting new trees at another to-be-determined location.

King said the resort will have about 28 employees and there should be ample employee parking spaces on the property.

The agreement calls for permits to be pulled within three years of adopting the planned unit development and for construction to be complete within three years of the permits being issued.

Late last year, City Council supported plans for a 267-room, 210-foot tall Margaritaville resort six blocks south of the Hilton Garden Inn and Home2Suites location.

The Margaritaville resort is planned for 17th Avenue North and Withers Drive. Plans includes a pedestrian bridge to connect the oceanfront amenity center to the hotel on the second row. The bridge will be over Ocean Boulevard.

In addition to guest rooms, Margaritaville will offer a gift shop and spaces for retail shops.

Could Myrtle Beach get a white Christmas this year?

Christmas snow, to most Myrtle Beach area locals, is the stuff of holiday movies. In fact, many northerners, fondly nicknamed “snowbirds,” migrate to the Grand Strand every winter to escape the deep freeze of their home climes. But for those living in the area 33 years ago, 1989 was a Christmas they will never forget.

Horry locals struggled to recover from Hurricane Hugo that year when the entire area was plunged into a deep freeze in late December.

On Dec. 22, The Sun News reported frigid temperatures. Still, it said, “anyone hoping for a white Christmas will probably be disappointed,” citing a regional climatologist who expected warmer temperatures to prevail by the holiday.

Then, that very evening, the snow began to fall - and fall - and fall.

From the evening of Dec. 22 through Dec. 24, the entire area was covered with almost 15 inches of the white stuff. Loris recorded 14.5 inches of snow, Murrells Inlet had 11 inches and the sands of Myrtle Beach were covered in 14 inches of the winter precipitation that would last well through the holiday as temperatures plummeted into the low teens - even single digits inland.

According to the National Weather Service, it was the largest snowstorm in history for the South East coast.

It was a true winter wonderland for area locals. In rural fields, youths hitched homemade sleds, of trash-can lids and old car hoods, to 4-wheelers and slung their buddies across the frozen tundra.

Cars did playful donuts in mall parking lots.

On Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, The Sun News interviewed tourists who used the snow skis they’d brought for a planned trip to the mountains to ski down Ocean Boulevard.

The paper featured a picture of a 27-foot snow sculpture of an elf in Murrells Inlet.

But, according to those same articles, the arctic temperatures, snow, and ice created myriad problems for which The Grand Strand wasn’t prepared. The headlines from that week read: ‘Outages Bring Cold Home,’ ‘Snowstorm puts the breaks on shopping on Grand Strand,’ ‘Frozen water pipes put damper on holiday for some in Horry,’ and ‘Storm brings too much snow.’

Those stories describe people stranded during the holiday as the airport was closed, widespread power outages, and municipal workers missing Christmas with their families as they helped to treat frozen roads and dig stranded motorists from snow drifts.

According to Ed Piotrowski, Chief Meteorologist at WPDE ABC15, “It’s so hard to get it to snow around here that 99 out of 100 times it’s a miss.”

He says the reason the Myrtle Beach area so rarely gets snow is that the area must first have days of below-freezing temperatures combined with a low-pressure system perfectly situated just off the South East coast to draw in enough moisture for snow to fall.

But, “more often than not,” he says, that low pressure develops too close to our coast and draws in the warmer moisture that results in sleet or rain.

Tim Armstrong, meteorologist and climate program leader for The National Weather Service Wilmington, said “Although cold air occurs every winter, climate data from the North Myrtle Beach airport shows an average of only 30 nights a year with freezing temperatures recorded.”

Additionally, our area typically only averages one or two days a year when temperatures fail to climb above freezing and those most often occur in January and February, according to records.

Armstrong agrees the odds of snow are rarely in our favor in Myrtle Beach, “the long-term annual average snowfall is only 0.9 inches per year, however, most years have no measurable snow at all,” he reports.

However, last year the Myrtle Beach area got its first measurable snowfall since 2014 on Jan. 29, 2022 with an inch falling in Conway. The National Weather Service records that event here.

The National Weather Center is not predicting a snow event for the holiday this year because of a warming trend in December.

But, snowfall is still a possibility this winter.

Forecasters say that El Nino conditions have returned and that means a higher than average chance of precipitation through the winter of 2024.

Jordan Baker, a NWS meteorologist in Wilmington, says “there are some chances for chilly days and with the expected rainfall, if things, match up we could get snow.”

Those perfect snowstorm conditions that we had in 1989 are just not expected to line up in December this year.

But as 1989 proved, forecasters don’t know everything.

Classified in: Tourism and vacations, BusinessSubjects: PDT, CXP

Beachfront Resort Will Redefine Coastal City Tourism Landscape

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Holiday Inn Club Vacations Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort. Located on the stunning shores of Myrtle Beach, this purpose-built resort ? the first in a multi-phase development ? promises to be a luxurious retreat for travelers seeking the ultimate beachfront experience. Located directly across the street from its sister resort, South Beach Resort, this property is a testament to the company's passion for growing its presence in sought-after destinations, while also building on its 15-year presence in this burgeoning, coastal city.

To commemorate the opening, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held today to celebrate this milestone occasion that featured remarks from several distinguished speakers, including The Honorable Brenda Bethune, Mayor of the city of Myrtle Beach; Jay Caiafa, Chief Operating Officer, Americas, IHG Hotels & Resorts; and Spence Wilson, Jr., Principal of Kemmons Wilson Companies and Board Member of Holiday Inn Club Vacations Incorporated.

"To be here to inaugurate the Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort, is a testament to our unwavering dedication to delivering extraordinary vacation experiences in this amazing destination," stated John Staten, President and CEO of Holiday Inn Club Vacations Incorporated. "This resort marks the initial phase of a multifaceted development, and what a great milestone to be here today, celebrating the unveiling of this magnificent resort and recognizing the contributions of countless individuals who have made this day possible. With this resort, we have just another opportunity to continually revolutionize the vacation-ownership sector by being customer obsessed and focused on empowering our teams to exceed guest expectations."

Boasting meticulously designed villas, each offering breathtaking views of the pristine coastline, Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort sets a new standard for luxury and relaxation. Guests will have access to a range of amenities, including a multi-level pool, beachside activity lawn, private cabanas, and more, ensuring an unforgettable stay.

"The opening of Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort is a significant milestone for our city and its tourism industry," said Brenda Bethune, the Mayor of Myrtle Beach. "This resort represents not only a new destination for travelers seeking luxury accommodations and unparalleled amenities, but also a vital addition to our tourism landscape. As we continue to attract visitors from near and far, Holiday Inn Club Vacations has proven to be a great ambassador to our city by providing a welcoming place for families to stay while enjoying Myrtle Beach for the last 15 years, and its new Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort will continue to play a critical role in enhancing the overall experience for our guests."

Since acquiring the beachfront property in early 2022, Holiday Inn Club Vacations has been developing this brand-new resort. Since its initial phase is complete, Holiday Inn Club Vacations now boasts a total of 435 villas ? between Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort and South Beach Resort ? with nearly one quarter of those dedicated to Signature Collection, the company's luxury product.

Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort offers 152 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom villas, ranging in size from 746 to nearly 1,900 square feet, and all featuring patios and ocean views. Resort guests will enjoy direct beach access, a beachside activity lawn, multi-level pool, outdoor fire pit with lounge seating, poolside hot tubs, private cabanas, fitness center, Grab 'n Go marketplace with café, indoor and outdoor dining, poolside bar, indoor and outdoor activity centers, covered parking and an exclusive Signature Collection lounge.

For more information on Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort, click here.

About Holiday Inn Club Vacations IncorporatedEncompassing resorts across the United States and the Mexican Caribbean, Holiday Inn Club Vacations Incorporated is a resort, real estate, and travel company with a mission to be the most loved brand in family travel by delivering easy-to-plan, memorable vacation experiences that strengthen families.

Based in Orlando, Fla., the company has been a leader in the vacation ownership industry since 1982, when Holiday Inn® founder Kemmons Wilson debuted the company's flagship property, Holiday Inn Club Vacations® at Orange Lake Resort, next to Orlando's Walt Disney World® Resort.

Today, the Holiday Inn Club Vacations resort portfolio spans across the United States, and into the Mexican Caribbean, with the company's international expansion in May 2023. Throughout its history, the company has maintained the core family values true to its founding Wilson family, while aggressively pursuing growth, transforming its member engagement model and building an industry-leading team passionate about the guest experience.

Media Contact:Linda Beltran, Holiday Inn Club Vacations407.395.6340[email protected]

SOURCE Holiday Inn Club Vacations

News published on 8 april 2024 at 15:32 and distributed by:

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States--The award-winning Giant Crab Seafood Restaurant in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has a big, fat giant crab perched just above the entrance; affectionately referred to as “Tommy”, he leads the way to the overwhelming feast that waits inside and sets the world record for the World's Largest Crab Sculpture, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.

official website says.

"The real eye-catcher, however, is the big, fat giant crab perched just above the entrance. He’s affectionately referred to as “Tommy.” He leads the way to the overwhelming feast that waits inside!

"The Giant Crab boasts, I dare say, a “gigantic” array of as much seafood as you can imagine and is simply the ultimate choice in tasty buffet dining. It’s spectacular, to say the least, and will cause seafood lovers to moan with delight. In addition to broiled, fried and baked seafoods, mouthwatering dishes like Crab Imperial, stuffed mushrooms, Oysters Rockefeller, seafood strudel are found on the, I can’t help it …. “colossal” buffet. There’s also a Steam Bar that offers a “boat-load” variety of steamed and cooked shellfish including peel-and-eat shrimp, steamed oysters, mussels, clams and those much-loved crablegs."

Visit Myrtle Beach says.

"From the minute you see The Giant Crab, you know it's not just another all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. Sure, it specializes in serving seafood, but it does so in such tremendous, really, "giant" fashion with an emphasis on freshness."

Explore North Myrtle Beach says.

"With an emphasis on freshness, Giant Crab serves up over 170 buffet options including snow crab legs, prime rib carving station, hibachi grill, soups, salads, kid’s corner and more!

"Located in Restaurant Row, you’ll know you’re at the right place when you see Tommy, the 25 foot tall, 35 foot wide, 4.5 ton literal Giant Crab that welcomes you inside!"

Strange Carolina says.

"Word has it that one of Tommy's legs would fetch $24,056 at an average Myrtle Beach seafood buffet."

Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce says.