MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Over 200 homes are proposed to be built to expand the Belle Harbor neighborhood near Market Common, into phase four and five of a six-year phase plan that was approved in 2007.
Some Belle Harbor residents are upset the lack of preparedness on the part of the builders, and some businesses nearby are preparing for the extra business they could soon see.
Construction for phase three has already begun at the Belle Harbor neighborhood, but residents News13 spoke to are upset that the amenities already here won’t be enough for the influx of people.
“It’s going to be, from a mathematical standpoint, if everybody in the subdivision decided to go to the pool at one time, it’s impossible,” said Clarence Lewis.
Lewis was one of Belle Harbor’s first residents to move into the neighborhood.
Now, the neighborhood is expanding, but Lewis says that wasn’t what he signed up for.
“I didn’t know about the other homes across the street,” he said. “That is something I wasn’t told.”
Engineering consultants Thomas & Hutton submitted the proposal for phase four and five last week, that would subdivide 69 acres, adding 232 homes.
But, Diane Pencek, who moved to the area last year, says the amenities they have now just won’t be able to handle that many new residents, including the pool they have now, that only holds 50 people.
“Now, with 158 homes, that is just barely what we need. But, if all the, across the street, if all the homes come in with no additional amenities, that’s just unbelievable,” she said.
For Market Common business Dolce Lusso Salon and Spa, the new homes will be a positive.
“The addition to housing has just created more customers for us, and more people,” said manager Lauren Stefanski. “You know, people are always needing their hair done, colored, cut so I’ve definitely seen our business grow.”
They’re even ramping up the amount of employees to prepare for the influx of customers.
“We have a training program here, so we are continuing to hire more service providers and wanting to grow our business,” said Stefanski.
For the residents, the issue was tabled until the next meeting on December 17, and they plan to be there.
“We had had an HOA meeting, where, it was, the room was filled, people were standing up,” said Pencek. “There were so many people there to talk to the HOA rep and the Lennar rep, and over and over, they expressed their concern about this.”
The Lennar representative told Pencek and the other residents she would take their concerns back to Lennar and let them know what they could do.
Pencek says they haven’t heard back from Lennar yet.
News13 reached out to Lennar builders and Thomas & Hutton engineers and have not heard back.
Count on News13 to bring you the latest updates on this story.
