Posted on Fri, Jan. 26, 2007

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City panel requests more work on airport

County to vote today on next step for embattled proposal

By Lisa Fleisher

The Sun News

TOM MURRAY/The Sun News

County Council Chairman Liz Gilland (center) listens with County Administrator Danny Knight (left) and Bob Kemp, the airport director, as the Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board asks the county to continue working on the airport terminal plan.

A proposal for a new terminal at the Myrtle Beach airport is again teetering on the edge of failure.

The Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board decided Thursday not to approve or reject the project - but rather asked the county to keep working with them on the design.

Board members said the county did not give them enough time to review thousands of pages of plans, which were delivered to the city on Monday, the last possible day.

The Horry County Council is set to vote today at noon to decide the project's fate, but Liz Gilland, the council chairwoman, said she felt that the council would turn it down.

The review board's decision came after a nearly six-hour special meeting where the county, represented primarily by attorney John Weaver, pitched the project and tried to answer questions that board members have asked over the past few years. The county needs the city board's approval to receive building permits.

Right after the vote, Gilland walked out of the meeting at the Ted C. Collins Law Enforcement Center, initially saying she thought the project was dead, that she didn't have enough fight left in her.

But after speaking with Weaver, Gilland said she might try again.

"I am very tired and discouraged right now," she said. "I need a good night's sleep, and maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow."

Weaver said the county now has several options:

Vote the project down;

Vote to spend up to $183 million and start building the terminal, and hope that the county can work out the differences with the board;

Delay a decision until the Appearance Board makes its decision.

Weaver said he was not as concerned about a delay because construction costs have been stagnating after a long period of rising rapidly.

Gilland said the county also has a fourth option: Sell the entire airport to the city.

"We can offer the airport lock, stock and barrel to the city of Myrtle Beach, and let them worry about it," she said. "It's got their name. It's within their city limits."

Tom Leath, Myrtle Beach city manager, said he did not think the city would benefit from owning the airport.

"From my standpoint that would not be an option," he said. "There's no reason for the city to get involved in the airport ownership business. I don't see why that would be a good thing for the city."

The City Council would have the power to make those decisions, and some council members reached Thursday night thought it was an interesting prospect.

If the terminal is not built, the county will not pay up to $6 million to extend Harrelson Boulevard from U.S. 17 Bypass to U.S. 17, Weaver said. That could be a key cut-through in an area with few connecting roads.

Also, Gilland said she feared that the county would find it harder to get money from federal and state officials for future projects. The terminal project has secured $43 million in federal funds, and Gov. Mark Sanford said he would work to steer $15 million toward the project.

"They don't like to have it thrown back in their faces," she said.

The meeting capped a monthlong crisis for the county, which was thrown into a tailspin after the board initially rejected partial plans in December.

Board members feared the new terminal was too close to thousands of new homes planned for the former Air Force Base next door and would create too many problems such as noise and traffic.

The Appearance Board has broad discretionary powers, more far-reaching than most such volunteer boards in the state. The city code charges them not only with making sure the design looks good, but also that it fits in with the surrounding community and helps further economic growth.

Large projects often take months of meetings to get the board's approval. This was the first time the board had seen completed plans for the terminal, though they have held two workshops and a meeting on parts of the project.

Larry Bragg, chairman of the review board, said he was disappointed with what he called a "stripped-down" project. It has been pared down several times since it was first proposed to keep costs down.

Board members agreed earlier this month to hold the special meeting to review the entire project.

Architects and engineers working for the county only finalized plans on Monday, and board members and city staff members scrambled to review thousands of pages before Thursday's meeting.

"This was probably the most tremendous time crunch the staff was ever forced to endure," Bragg said.

Weaver presented drawings of design changes that had been made following the board's recommendation and gave responses to the board's previous questions.

The developers building thousands of homes on the former Air Force Base do not think that the new terminal will hurt their projects, said Buddy Styers, executive director of the base's redevelopment authority.

A representative from Delta testified that noise would not be a problem at the new terminal, for several reasons, including the fact that jets are becoming quieter.

About a half dozen members of the public addressed the board, some in favor, some against.

Former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, who had been a long-time airport supporter and who has been very critical of the board in the past, said he had a change of heart.

"Building this airport's a mistake," McBride said. "I think it's a tremendous waste of money."