MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Myrtle Beach city leaders say they need to start looking to the future to prevent any more storm water problems in the city.

Ten years ago, fewer housing developments existed so there were fewer problems with drainage ditches that were already in place. As Myrtle Beach continues to grow, officials are looking into solutions and also figuring out where the money to do the projects will come from.

Billy Rivera is the property manager for a housing development off Yaupon Drive and for years he’s had storm water problems.

“You can see the pipe on the left is almost filled up and that means the water flowing through here which comes through the whole city down our canal cannot properly flow,” said Rivera.

Storm water runs right through the development and the property manager says it’s a plan that wasn’t completely thought through.

“I think there should be something in place saying they cannot build within certain feet, no matter what the law is because right now, all the builder did was build to put more money in his pocket when now we’re going to be spending $50,000 out here,” said Rivera.

City Assistant Administrator Ron Andrews told city leaders about the problem Tuesday and says Rivera’s property is just one of many ditches causing issues in the city.

“We have a number of those around the city now that we understand we they serve a public purpose, but they’re on private property, and we’ll ask the property owner do we have your permission to go clean out that ditch,” said Ron Andrews, Myrtle Beach Assistant City Manager.

Andrews says they asked the builder of Rivera’s property in the beginning if they could maintain it, but the builder denied them access and now the homes are too close for the city’s machines to come in and fix it. The city has put millions of dollars into the storm water projects in the past, but City Council has asked Andrews to bring them a new list of areas that need to be fixed.

“We’ll always have some issues. They’re not going to all go away, but we’ve got enough now that we can identify some more, probably another $25 million need, and we’re going to identify that, bring it to them, and I suspect we’ll do another referendum,” said Andrews.

Andrews says it will probably be six months before he’s able to get council that list. Right now, property owners are left to foot the bill to fix these canals and council is looking at rules to put in place to make sure the same drainage issues don’t happen again in the future.