Southern route to Grand Strand troubles some property owners

By Katie Powell

The Horry Independent

August 28, 2008

Harold Brown has two tracts of land that have been in his tobacco farming family for decades, and the Southern Evacuation Lifeline route is slated to run through both of them.

“They said they weren’t putting it where there were houses,” Brown said. “They shouldn’t penalize us because we don’t have any houses on our property. We don’t want to develop it. Just because I’ve got forestland and farms, that doesn’t mean they ought to put it on me.”

Brown sent a letter to SCDOT this past year when they began taking input about the proposed routes. His land has been in his family since the late 1940s when his father bought the land for tobacco farming.

Brown said he doesn’t think there is a need for the road. He also said he doesn’t understand why the hurricane evacuation traffic has to go through Aynor.

“It’s already a bottleneck there, it’s just going to be more of a bottleneck,” Brown said. “I think it’s just for development. I don’t like it at all.”

Jimm Thompkins of Conway said he isn’t excited about the road in general, even though he recently found out that it will not come directly by his property.

“I think it’s going to bring a lot of noise, traffic and congestion to that part of town,” Thompkins said. “If it was going to come through my house, though, I’d be vehemently against it.”

Thompkins said despite that, he understands the need for the road, “If we are going to grow.”

Phil Hucks, who lives near Toddville Road and Pitch Landing Road, said one of the other route options would have split his farmland in half and separated him from his grandsons, who live close by.

“I’m pleased that we were spared, but I sympathize with those in the path of the preferred route,” Hucks said. “I still think it is a developer road.”

Hucks said the SELL will open up the southern beaches and Southwest Horry County to developers and ruin the rural areas.

“…we all seem to cherish them, but everybody sure is trying hard to get rid of them,” Hucks said.

Hucks said if the DOT really wanted to improve hurricane evacuation, its officials would have connected it with S.C. 261 in the Georgetown area “that actually goes somewhere,” instead of putting SELL traffic right back onto a crowded U.S. 501 in the event of an emergency.

Buddy Smith, who owns Res-Les Farms on Gilbert Road, said he recently found out that the SELL will thankfully be about three miles from his farm.

“I hope they are building it for the right reasons,” Smith said.

Res-Les Farms gives horseback riding lessons and boards horses, and Smith hopes that the SELL will bring a lot of people to their business.

“If we stop progress, we’re in trouble,” Smith said. “I know we need something. If it’s used for that [an evacuation route], that’d be wonderful.”

David Perry, whose family lives on Brownsway Shortcut, has been keeping up with the road’s progress and proposed routes.

“I’m all for the road,” Perry said. “Trouble is I want to know if they are going to build an overpass for Brownsway Shortcut or cut off the road.”

Perry said if the SCDOT cuts off his road, it will take him and the other three drivers in his household an extra two to four miles to get into town.

“With gas prices, that truly concerns me,” Perry said. “It’s a potential of $8,000 per year or more extra. My question is if they cut off the road, who is going to give me that extra gas money?”

Perry said he thinks the locals will be happier if the DOT puts a few more interchanges, such as at Pawley’s Swamp Road or Cates Bay Road.

Crystal Graustein lives off of Brunson Springs Road, and has written to every state official available about the SELL. The early routes cut off the corner of her property, but the preferred route is now about a mile away from their home.

“This route has nothing to do with evacuation,” Graustein said.

Graustein thinks that “it is ridiculous” to dump the traffic from the southern beaches right onto U.S. 501 where the Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach traffic will be meeting. She thinks it’d be better served as an evacuation route if it flowed into U.S. 378.

“It’s not about getting tourists out,” Graustein said. “It’s about getting them in.”

S.C. Department of Transportation project manager Michael Barbee said the SCDOT still has to do more road studies to decide exactly where overpasses and interchanges will be placed. Because Cates Bay Highway is a state-maintained road and has a decent amount of traffic, Barbee said there is a “high probability” that an overpass will be constructed to aid traffic in that area.

On the bright side, Perry thinks that possibly having a highway nearby will be “wonderful for business.” Perry sells and services copy machines and said it will put him in Surfside in 15 minutes.

He’s also concerned that if it is close by, there will be more road noise, and the location may seriously affect theirs and their property values.

“Would they take that into account?” Perry asked.

James and Doreen Mishoe live on Hugo Road, and are also concerned about the road’s close proximity to their home. They said they have been to the SELL public meetings, written letters and filled out comment cards.

“They said they would contact us and we haven’t heard a word,” Mrs. Mishoe said. “The officials don’t have us in mind, they have not considered us at all.”

The Mishoes have lived in Conway for more than 25 years, and purposely moved to a rural area so they could have their horses.

“Our whole way of life is changing now,” Mrs. Mishoe said.

Federal Highway Administration officials say there could still be “tweaks” to the final route as the Final Environmental Impact Study is completed.

Barbee said that in dealing with residential relocations due to road pathways, the SCDOT must abide by the Uniform Federal Relocation Assistance Act.

This means that they provide assistance in finding “equitable and suitable” replacement housing, as well as helping to find storage for displaced belongings.

“We understand that requiring someone to move is a hardship,” Barbee said.

He said that are required by law to give “ample notice” to residents living in the paths of major roadways to be constructed.

Barbee said the first thing that SCDOT does is to make sure they have the plans developed enough to know how much right-of-way they would need for each individual tract of land.

“Down to a tenth of an acre,” Barbee said.

He said they go to local courthouses and the tax assessor’s office to do research.

From there, they compile a database of property owner names and contact information.

“Then, we send right-of-way agents to begin knocking on doors,” Barbee said. “By the time we do that, we have done our homework enough to say how much our offer is going to be.”

Barbee said they also take into account things like the property’s fair market value when appraising it.

The Coastal Conservation League recently expressed concerns regarding development coming to the area once the road is built, but the SCDOT said aiding development is not the intent.

“This will be a controlled access facility just like the Conway bypass [S.C. 22]. The only ways on or off will be at interchanges,” Barbee said. “Our studies show that the road is not changing land use. The land use is changing because of growth.”

The preferred SELL route runs from just south of Holmestown Road on 17 Bypass over S.C. 707, U.S. 701 and U.S. 378. It runs parallel to the north of Pee Dee Highway and meets up with S.C. 22 at U.S. 501.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement says the road will affect approximately “114 relocations of homes, businesses and other enterprises.” It will also cost upwards of $600 million, depending on the final route.

It also says the preferred route will reduce hurricane evacuation time (in the year 2030) by 28 percent for Horry County