North Myrtle Beach experiments with alternative parking plan

North Myrtle Beach is giving some business owners a new option as it struggles to provide parking for locals and visitors alike.

The city council voted Monday night to allow some commercial developers to pay into a city fund instead of providing their own parking, as is currently required. This parking option is only available to those who locate their shops in a special area from the shoreline to Oak Drive and from Second Avenue North to Second Avenue South.

The city would then use this money — about $25,000 per space — to build its own parking lots. Businesses are required by city code to provide a certain amount of parking spaces, and the number varies based on the type of business and the size. The lots created by the city would be open to the public, and ideally close to the beach, where the city’s parking crunch is most severe, North Myrtle Beach Spokesman Pat Dowling said.

“Our operating theory is that people may walk three or fewer blocks to the ocean or to the stores which are primarily in the east half of Main Street,” Dowling said.

City officials said public lots would allow downtown visitors to go anywhere, while parking in front of businesses is usually only available to the specific store’s patrons.

Mayor Marilyn Hatley said the fee in lieu system will be helpful for Main Street, an area the city has fought to revitalize.

“We are just trying to give an option for new businesses that may possibly want to relocate or have a new location on Main Street,” Hatley said. “Parking on Main Street is very difficult right now. It’s very hard to find a lot that has enough parking or a building that has any parking with it.”

Hatley also said the city may discuss implementing a similar system for developers on Sea Mountain Highway in Cherry Grove.

Harold Worley owns land in downtown North Myrtle Beach and also is an Horry County councilman. He said the option will allow new businesses to come into the city.

“We have some merchants that want to build with no parking, and that won’t work, and it’s not fair to the existing people who over the years have furnished parking,” he said.

George DuRant, the vice president of tourism development for the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, said his group is largely neutral on the initiative.

“We have looked at this thing right and left, and honestly, we really don’t have a position except to recognize that we have a lot of parking issues and it’s really only going to get more stringent,” he said.

The need for more parking is a frequent topic in North Myrtle Beach. City officials have voiced support for a capital option sales tax, or a 1 percent sales tax that would exclusively fund projects like expanded parking and finishing stormwater outflow systems.

That initiative, however, would have to pass the state legislature before North Myrtle Beach could present it to residents as a referendum.