Impact fees topic of discussion in Horry County Council meeting

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) -- Horry County Council made a motion in Tuesday's meeting to defer the topic of impact fees back to committee.

The fees would be added to any new developments considered parks and recreation, transportation and public safety.

Council Dennis DiSabato proposed in a prior workshop to reduce the fee collected from public safety.

"We're pretty well funded in our public safety department," he said. "It is more on other types of infrastructure like roads and parks and recs."

Public safety includes police, fire and the emergency operations center.

DiSabato said he prefers to use development agreements instead of impact fees.

"I'd rather find some other type of enhancement fee and work and negotiate with the developers through development agreements what they're going to pay similar to what other municipalities in the area do," he said.

Council will discuss impact fees again in an I&R committee meeting on Nov. 7.

The county will also receive a flood insurance discount from FEMA. Council also approved a resolution to partner with several municipalities to come up with a plan to address the opioid epidemic.

Rezoning for a new Tidelands Health Hospital off of Highway 707 passed final reading, and an ordinance to allow Horry County to handle municipal elections for the city of Loris passed second reading.

Adrianna Lawrence is a multimedia journalist at News13. Adrianna is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and joined the News13 team in June 2023 after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2023. Keep up with Adrianna on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also read more of her work, here.