MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – After the City of Myrtle Beach approved more houses for the Market Common district, people say they’re worried about parking.
“I’m here every day basically,” said Tori Lane as she met up with friends at Market Common Wednesday.
A student at Horry Georgetown Tech, she said she loves coming to Market Common after class… if she can find a place to park.
“Even the parking garages are always really full.”
A new housing development approved by the city could make it even harder.
“There is parking, but then there’s not parking sometimes,” said city planning director Carol Coleman.
She said right now there are no formal plans to add more public parking.
“All of the surface parking and the parking garages and then the on-street parking is everything we’ve got.”
Some say that’s not enough.
“It’s really a beautiful place to visit,” said Horry Georgetown Tech professor Marlene Melendez. “But if you’re circling around for parking half the time it doesn’t really want to make you come down here to shop.”
But Coleman said the idea is to walk, not ride.
“This was an urban concept, it was supposed to be an urban village,” she said. “Typically if you go to any city, you know like Charleston, or downtown Greenville’s really popular. Sometimes you may have to walk a block or two to get to where you’re going.”
One mom and daughter having lunch at Market Common said they usually don’t mind walking.
“But also when you have inclement weather or you need to get some place, in and out really quick, it’s hard when you don’t have close parking and have to walk so far,” said Sheila Ellison with her daughter Kinsey.
Coleman said there’s talk of expanding one of the garages or adding a shuttle lot near Barnes and Noble, but there have been no official proposals.
Another housing development in the works would add 16 homes to the back gate area of Market Common.
Developers on that will approach the planning commission for approval August 1, and Coleman said they will most likely get it.
