City of Myrtle Beach working on downtown zoning (update: Super Block zoning discussed)

TheDigitel Myrtle Beach estimation of the proposed FAME districts.

Update 7/3/2012: The City of Myrtle Beach is slowly but surely making changes to the downtown zoning to encourage new business.

The latest in that effort is a zoning update for the "Super Block" that will restrict homeless shelters and churches from taking up retail space. This will make some of the locations more liquor license friendly. Amy Vitrano has a great write-up and video package on the new zoning changes that will be voted on at the next city council meeting. More details are here. 


Update 8/17/11: The subcommittee formed to drive the downtown re-zoning efforts has hit a few legal snags.

Sidewalk encroachments like sandwich boards require special insurance and permits that no zoning exemption can waive without breaking a law or two. Additionally, the group had requested some latitude with the all-powerful Community Appearance Board. It turns out that even city sanctioned efforts can't escape the judgement of the volunteer based board. The Sun News has more details about what steps will happen next. Read it here.

For some back story, read the updates below.


Update 6/26/11: The Sun News has a long write-up about the new plan. 

They get reactions from local business owners and City of Myrtle Beach employees about the proposed changes. Read it all here. Interesting that there was negative feedback on the tentative name  of "FAME" for the area. What would you propose to call it? (Be nice.)

The Sun News Opinion Blog also has an editorial speculating on the various revitalization efforts the writer has coined as "Grand Strand 2.0". Read that here.


Update 6/21/11: The planning commission unanimously passed the proposal and now it moves on to City Council for review.

WPDE has more details here.


First Report: The City of Myrtle Beach will be hearing from the Downtown Zoning Subcommittee today about their proposed zoning districts.

We have created an interactive map of where we believe the districts will be (above).

The meeting is June 21st (today) at 1:30 p.m. in the City Hall conference room. According to the agenda

 Downtown Zoning:  Proposal by the Downtown Zoning Subcommittee to amend the zoning ordinance to create and identify boundaries of two new downtown zoning districts. to allow new signage options in the downtown areas, and to allow certain sidewalk encroachments without permit.

Lorena Anderson has much more information in today's The Sun News. Read it here.

Interestingly, they chose to name the districts after the F.A.M.E. festival. It sounds like it's mostly a change to sign ordinances to allow sandwich boards and sidewalk sales. But there's some other zoning changes in the proposal. Those things like, "auto repair shops would not be allowed to store vehicles outside" could be bad news in the proposal for existing business Eurotech Auto Repair

I still don't understand why the City's preferred approach to revitalization is always adding to the zoning and appearance guidelines.  Do you have a better idea? We asked the Open Community last week. 

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