Growth Impact Action Committee

Effective Action - Be Aware and Be Heard

Because of the retreat, there will be only one regular Horry County Council meeting in February, February 17. 

Ways to Influence Change

The way to influence change is to get the attention and convince the incumbents, named in the "2003 Incumbent Contact Information" section below, of the desirability of your change.  The better your understanding of the issues involved, the greater the likelihood that your views will be seriously considered. 

Knowledge is power.  The separately titled  information sections below provide potentially useful information.  Your or your organization's representative's attendance (or television viewing of Horry County council meetings) at the times and places shown below provides timely information.  Remember that developers work with Planning continually.   They have presented their case over a period of time.  Therefore, if you are concerned with rezoning issues, it is to your advantage to understand what they plan as far before the final planning commission public input and voting as possible.  If you see a sign that a property is up for rezoning that may concern you, it is to your advantage to call Planning at 915-5340 for information, and if possible, attend or have a representative of your community association attend whatever preliminary meetings possible.

Remember that the vote from every member of a  body counts equally.  You want to get the attention and influence the vote of the member, if there is one, that represents you and you should be sure that you have communicated with him or her.  But communicating with them all is even more effective and reasonable at the county council and planning commission level.  Speaking or having someone else present your views whenever public input is allowed has the advantage that the entire body at least hears your views.  That can be a little late in the process, so earlier direct telephone conversations may be more helpful while assuring you have the other person's ear.  Doing things in parallel is wise.  Taking the time to write well reasoned letters can only help.  Emails, if they are carefully read, are most efficient for your time and that of your representative. 

There is power in numbers.  Encouraging others to also communicate personally with decision makers helps.  Meetings within your community, perhaps with an involved developer, can be very helpful in making those concerned aware of the details of an issue and the need for action -- and may influence a developer to alter plans to a community's benefit.  Petitions help.  Mass attendance at planning commission and county council meetings when critical issues arise tends to be very persuasive, especially if one of those who speaks to the body calls for all who agree with the speaker to stand.  Informative signs posted in a community a few days before such a meeting have proven quite effective in getting mass turnouts.

Again, when elections or primaries come around, remember that the vote from every member of a body counts equally .  The most effective thing to do in the long run is to vote for and otherwise promote representatives (in all Horry County districts) whose perspectives are such that they are likely to vote in accordance with your perspective.  In the case of incumbents, you have their previous voting record to rely on.  Take note if the heavy contributors to anyone's campaign are from those with perspectives other than yours.  A candidate's line of work or former line of work may also give an indication of his perspective and, if currently employed in it, where there might be conflicts of interest.  You can of course also talk with them individually to try to find out "where they are coming from." 

You may also attend candidate forums and try to ferret out what is said and promised to get votes from a reflection of their true perspectives.  This GIAC site provides some top-level information on individual candidates during campaigns, publishes your comments posted on the "You Talk" page,  and often provides an editorial assessment of candidates from the point of view of their perceived perspective with respect to the GIAC perspective. 

When elections or primaries are imminent, it is important to use your influence through your email lists, telephone or otherwise  to encourage others to vote, and then, or always, if you agree with the views on this site or feel the information presented here is worthwhile, to suggest they visit.

Click here to return to the top of this page.

General Information Sources and Public Meeting Schedules

Bimonthly Horry County Council Meetings are regularly held the first and third Tuesday of each month in the council chambers of the Administration Building of the Horry County Government and Justice Center at 1301 Second Avenue on the second floor -- directly behind the old courthouse.  All the county ordinances,  rezonings, and resolutions are heard and voted on at these meetings.  They start with an allowed thirty minute general public input section at 6:30.  You have to call at least a day or so before the meeting to get on the agenda for this general public input; call  Horry County Council administration at 315-5120 to do this and for other particulars .

Public input for specific items are called for throughout a meeting on second readings (usually) of an ordinance when the items first come up.   County Council meetings are televised and shown live on Time Warner Cable -- Channel 47 and Horry Telephone -- Channel 14. 

Monthly public participation Horry County Planning Commission Meetings are regularly held the first Thursday of the month in multipurpose room B on the second floor of the same building in which Horry County Council Meetings are held, starting with an allowed general public input period at 5:30 p.m.  Public input for specific items is allowed throughout the meeting when the items first come up.

Horry County Planning Commission Zoning  Committee Meetings are currently scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on the same day and in the same room that planning commission meetings (above) are held.  However, these initial 2004 meetings are scheduled for Friday January 2. The exact time depends on when the Technical Review committee meeting -- that starts at 3:00 p.m. -- adjourns. This is a preliminary meeting at which an overview of each rezoning is given by Planning Department staff so that the PC members can better understand each case before actually voting on it at the PC meeting.  Before going, it is not a bad idea to double-check that the time of a meeting has not been rescheduled by calling Planning at 915-5340.

Planning Staff briefs the Commission during the zoning committee meetings on those items that are on the regular planning commission agenda.  In general, public input is only allowed at the discretion of the chairman. 

Click WWW Links  to obtain agendas for the county council and planning commission meetings.  This GIAC page provides other links that you can use to find a considerable amount of information on Horry County, Horry County and South Carolina government, South Carolina newspapers, and related web sites.

For information on impact fees and caps on individual annual property tax increases, click here.  To view the submitted "You Talk" comments, click here.

Click here to return to the top of this page.

Incumbent Contact Information

If you don't know, you can find who represents you at the county and state legislature level by calling Voter Registration (from Myrtle Beach, 626-1382) or click www.horrycounty.org/gateway and on the screen that appears, click the underlined text "My Neighborhood."   Detailed directions follow.

On the "Welcome to My Neighborhood" screen that appears, select "Street Address" (it should already be selected) and  click "Submit.  In the next screen that appears, type in your street address, pull down the zip code menu and select your zip code and click submit.  Then (and this is not so obvious) on the next screen that appears, I had to scroll down to see my street address underlined and spelled out as I had submitted it, click on that.  On the next screen that appears, select "Elected Officials."  Then, on the next screen that appears (again not obvious), if you scroll down you will see mailing address information on your representatives. 

To see the more detailed contact information on the representatives shown on this page, click the appropriate selection in the table below.

Horry County Council

If you wish to verify that the above information is up-to-date, you can click Horry County Web site from which it was derived.  Once there, to verify the County Council  membership: click "County Council" in the menu on the left side of the opening screen; on the top of the new screen, click Member List as indicated. Note: There have been instances in which an angelfire (our Web host) ad has totally covered off-site links such as this; simply clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the page has removed the ad so you can see the site itself..  Angelfire provides free web hosting on the condition that their ads are allowed on the site, but I will complain about this.

Horry County Planning Commission

Phone:     293-9300 (w)
           236-0068 (h)
           293-9301 (fax)

Appt'd:    07-01-2000
Exp:       06-30-2004

Phone:     918-7863 (w)
           249-5596 (h)
           913-5920 (fax)

Appt'd:    07-01-1998
Reappt #1: 07-10-2001
Exp:       06-30-2005

Phone:     756-2980 (w)
           756-0342 (h)
           756-2984 (fax)


Appt'd:    07-10-2001
Reappt #1: 09-03-2002
Exp:       06-30-2006

Phone:     248-5721 (w)
           397-5497 (h)
           248-5721 (fax)

Appt'd:    07-01-2001
Exp:       06-30-2005

Phone:     650-5540 (w)
           650-6681 (h)
           650-5540 (fax)

Appt'd:    07-01-2000
Exp:       06-30-2004

Phone:     357-2555 (w)
           293-5675 (h)
           357-6040 (fax)

Appt'd:    07-01-2001
Exp:       06-30-2005

Phone:     237-9824 (w)
           651-8511 (h)
           237-1096 (fax)


Appt'd:    09-03-2002
Exp:       06-30-2006

Phone:     358-3381 (h)
           358-6355 (fax)



Appt'd:    09-03-2002
Exp:       06-30-2006

Phone:     365-3842 (h)




Appt'd:    09-03-2002
Exp:       06-30-2006

Phone:     692-3200 (w)
Phone:     692-0577 (h)
bjs@landartcompany.com
bjs@ddcinc.com


Appt'd:    07-22-2003
Exp:       06-30-2007

	

Phone:     626-4812 (h)

hriley@sc.rr.com



Appt'd:    11-04-2003
Exp:       06-30-2007

	

Phone:     449-0589
	

Phone:     248-4214
	

Phone:     272-6768
	

If you wish to verify that the above information is up-to-date, click the Horry County Web site from which it was derived.  Once there, to verify the Planning Commission membership: click Departments & Services in the menu on the left, then under "Infrastructure & Regulations," click Planning, then scroll down to "Frequently Asked Questions" and beside "Who's on the Planning Commission," click see list.

Note: There have been instances in which an angelfire (our Web host) ad has totally covered off-site links such as this; simply clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the page has removed the ad so you can see the site itself..  Angelfire provides free web hosting on the condition that their ads are allowed on the site, but I will complain about this.

South Carolina House of Representatives             (Horry County)

If you wish to verify that the above information is up-to-date, click the South Carolina State Legislative Information.  from which it was derived. Once there, click "House of Representatives," then click "Alphabetically," and finally find and click the name of the representative for whom information is desired. Note: There have been instances in which an angelfire (our Web host) ad has totally covered off-site links such as this; simply clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the page has removed the ad so you can see the site itself..  Angelfire provides free web hosting on the condition that their ads are allowed on the site, but I will complain about this.

South Carolina Senate (Horry County)

If you wish to verify that the above information is up-to-date, click the South Carolina State Legislative Information.  from which it was derived. Once there, click "Senate," then click "Alphabetically," and finally find and click the name of the senator for whom information is desired. Note: There have been instances in which an angelfire (our Web host) ad has totally covered off-site links such as this; simply clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the page has removed the ad so you can see the site itself..  Angelfire provides free web hosting on the condition that their ads are allowed on the site, but I will complain about this.

Click here to return to the top of this page.

If you want to go to another GIAC page, you can use the menu at the top left of the page or click here to go directly to the roadmap page.

If you wish to contact us without the world seeing your message, fail to get a timely response or you do not get a confirmation when you submit postings, or want to be put on the GIAC e-mail list, click contact the GIAC web master.  Please use GIAC as the first word in your subject line, to help ensure your message is not inadvertently rejected as spam.