Posted on Tue, Jan. 23, 2007

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Updated terminal proposal delivered

Myrtle Beach board members must review documents before Thursday's meeting on project

By Lisa Fleisher

The Sun News

A rendering of the planned new terminal for the Myrtle Beach International Airport

It took three men several trips to their SUV to deliver it all to Myrtle Beach: dozens of rolls of blueprints and about 60 pounds of books containing plans for a new airport terminal.

Architects dropped off the plans at Myrtle Beach's city services building on Monday for review by the city's staff and members of the Community Appearance Board.

The board will rule at a special meeting on Thursday whether to approve the $229 million terminal project.

"I'd better start reading tonight," said appearance board member Jeff Edens, who stopped by the building on Monday afternoon to start looking over the documents. "They've almost given us too much information. That's what we asked for, though, right?"

Terminal supporters say they need approval from the volunteer city board or the plan is dead.

Board members voted 6-1 to reject plans for the new terminal in December, in part, they said, because county representatives did not have enough information about the project and did not know the answers to several of the board's questions.

For example, representatives did not know the project's landscaping budget. (It's more than $2.38 million.)

County officials and engineers responded point-by-point to hundreds of the board's concerns that came out of three meetings from 2004 to 2006.

On Jan. 4, the board agreed to rehear the county's case for the terminal, and the county had until Monday to deliver its plans to the city.

After months of trimming the project to meet budget, terminal supporters have been trying to get the project passed by County Council and start construction as quickly as possible.

When the board rejected the project, supporters such as County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland were terrified that the construction price would go up. The lead contractor, Skanska USA, had only guaranteed the price until Jan. 17, Gilland said.

When the Appearance Board agreed to hold a special meeting Thursday to review the terminal plans, it insisted on reviewing the project as a whole. The county had been bringing the plans piece-by-piece to the board.

Then the county was able to convince Skanska to hold the maximum construction price through January.

Horry County needs approval from the Myrtle Beach board because the county-run airport is in the city limits. Community Appearance Board approval is needed for city building permits.

It can take months for developers or private property owners to win approval from the board on issues such as the color of buildings, the size of signs and even the effect of traffic on an area.

When ruling on the terminal project, the board said it primarily was concerned that the new terminal - which would have 14 gates - would create too much noise, pollution, traffic and safety hazards for residents of the former Air Force Base.

Board members have a plethora of new information to review, including updated design drawings and dozens of facts.

The new terminal will have nine fewer parking spaces than the current one. About 14 percent of vehicles on Farrow Parkway - the road that runs through the air base - will be airport traffic, the county predicts.

"It looks to me like they have got their work cut out for them," said Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes, who also stopped by to glance at the plans.