MYRTLE BEACH--Many cities in South Carolina are hampered by annexation laws that don't allow them to expand into highly developed areas just outside their borders, a national urban expert says.

South Carolina's cities have lost tax dollars and the ability to improve their communities through loans because they haven't broadened their tax bases with the urban sprawl around them, David Rusk said Friday at the 63rd annual Municipal Association meeting along the Grand Strand.

Many cities in the state could be much larger if laws preventing them from expanding were loosened, Rusk said.

If Myrtle Beach could annex its urban area and grow into 101 square miles, it could compare to a similar sized city such as Savannah, Rusk said.

Columbia and Charleston could equal Tucson, Ariz., or Las Vegas, and Greenville could be nearly the size of Raleigh, Rusk said.

"This is what you might have been if you would have had different rules to play by. They are cities without suburbia," Rusk said. "They can pay for what they need to do by themselves because their boundaries are their real cities."

Mayors and city councils need to lobby legislators to ease laws to allow the cities to capitalize on the development, Rusk said.