Posted on Thu, Jan. 04, 2007

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Opposition to location comes as surprise to some

By Travis Tritten

The Sun News

The city's rejection last month of a new terminal at Myrtle Beach International Airport stunned many.

The county has worked on the terminal project since 2001. After various controversies, including ballooning costs and questions over the site, Horry County managed to drum up $58 million in state and federal funding and finally got a long-sought guarantee on the cost of construction at the end of 2006.

Horry County officials considered approval from the Community Appearance Board a formality in the final weeks of the process - a position the county now says was wrongheaded.

The county waited until after it had received a price quote that was guaranteed to submit the plans to the board for an actual vote.

The board rejected the terminal location on Dec. 21 with a 6-1 vote.

The working relationship between the architectural review board and the county goes back more than two years.

Airport staff, the county's contractors and the appearance board had three formal meetings on the terminal since 2004, including a meeting in 2005 when the terminal location was mentioned by the board as a possible problem, according city meeting minutes.

Still, looming CAB concerns over the terminal location remained unknown even to those working closely on the project - until the loggerhead exploded onto the public stage last month.

"I was really surprised because when we worked with them, they were always focused on the appearance of the terminal," County Airport Advisory Committee Chairman Bill McKown said. "Location never came up, never was an issue at any the meetings I was in."

The airport advisory board helped steer the project for at least two years and spoke with the CAB "several" times about landscaping and other aesthetic features of the terminal, McKown said.

"If they wanted a blue wall, we'd ask them what shade of blue," advisory board member Robert Bellamy said.

The location of the airport never seemed a big concern because the county and city settled the issue years ago, Bellamy said.

In 2004, the city of Myrtle Beach and Horry County buried the hatchet on a long-running airport dispute.

The agreement included the current terminal project location on the west side of the property, elimination of planned future runways, improvements to Harrelson Boulevard at the east of the airport and division of some city aviation funding.

"It seemed that if somebody didn't want to put [the terminal] over there [in order] to preserve the tranquility of Myrtle Beach, it would have come along way before now," Bellamy said.

_Staff writer Lisa Fleisher contributed to this report.