Garden City is getting a major facelift. Extra parking is on Horry’s list of upgrades.
Standing on the Garden City Boardwalk on Monday, Horry County Council member Tyler Servant announced one of the most significant investments for Garden City Beach in the community’s history: a $46 million facelift.
The project, funded by the county’s hospitality fee, its impact fee and the American Rescue Plan Act, will redo more than two miles of Garden City’s roads and sidewalks. It will also improve drainage in the community and bury power lines underground to prevent damage during storms.
Servant told reporters he hopes to see the county break ground on the project by 2023 or 2024. In the meantime, the county has hired the engineering firm Stantec to design the project. Servant said he and other county leaders will hold a series of public input meetings.
“This vision has been here for a long time in this community,” Servant said. “It’s been a long time coming, and I’m proud that myself and my fellow council members shared this same vision, as well as county staff, to make it become a reality.”
‘Historic’ investment
Servant called the $46 million investment “historic.”
“I think it’s going to be huge,” he said. “Garden City hasn’t had a project like this, ever. The amount of money we’re going to be spending on South Waccamaw and Atlantic Avenue is historic.”
The project would realign 1.9 miles of Waccamaw Drive — the town’s main thoroughfare — from Melody Lane to the Horry-Georgetown county line. That realignment will allow the county to build more parking spaces along the road, install sidewalks and street lights, and build beach bathrooms.
The project would also realign 0.15 miles of Atlantic Avenue, which runs inland from Waccamaw Drive. A mock-up of that realignment also shows the three-lane road becoming two lanes with a parking lane and a multi-use path from the boardwalk to Waccamaw Drive.
The road projects will be primarily funded with the county’s hospitality fee, a charge on hotel stays, restaurant meals and event tickets. Other improvements, like additional parking spaces and beach bathrooms, will be funded with federal American Rescue Plan funds and county impact fees.
After settling a lawsuit with Myrtle Beach and other municipalities over the hospitality fee last year, Horry County leaders agreed to divide the county’s annual collection — around $15 million — into three equal portions. The county spent $5 million on hiring new public safety employees, a second was set aside for road projects like Interstate 73, and the third was set aside for other county projects.
So far, those projects include building an S.C. 31 interchange in Carolina Forest and improving the boardwalk in Little River. Servant added the Garden City improvements to that list.
The facelift for Garden City is a response to the county’s rapid growth and the increased threat of major storms, Servant said.
“This area is really really growing,” he said. “So really we just need to expand parking, allow more people to go to the beach and enjoy the natural resources our area has to offer.”
Public input sought
Servant noted that the county’s coastal areas are “no stranger to hurricanes” and that improving drainage and burying power lines “not only enhances the beauty but also (allows us) to be able to get things up and running faster following a storm.”
The county plans to accept public input on the project this summer and fall. Servant said that process would be done in conjunction with local businesses and resident groups to ensure community members approve of the project.
“We’re scoping the project right now to determine what we will be able to do, what the community wants versus what we can afford,” Assistant County Administrator David Gilreath said. “We’ll try to bring that together.”
The improvements to Garden City could increase business and tourist traffic in the area, Servant said, especially with improved sidewalks, buried power lines and extra parking.
“All three of those things,” he said, “are going to help business continue to succeed and put in a position to be successful, but at the same time allow our residents to go visit the beach and have extra beach parking.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Garden City is getting a major facelift. Extra parking is on Horry’s list of upgrades.."
