Steve Chapman, Island Vista Property Management Owner, and Chairman of the Grand Strand Business Alliance Political Action Committee sent a letter out to rural Horry County residents yesterday.
Although Chapman never identifies himself as associated with the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s highly funded, most influential PAC, he does state the mailer was paid for by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Grand Strand Business Alliance helps fund the campaigns of Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune, U.S. Congressional Incumbent Tom Rice, U.S. Congressional Candidate Russell Fry, S.C. House Representative Case Brittain, S.C. House Representative Heather Ammons Crawford, S.C. State Senator Luke Rankin, S.C. State Senator Stephen Goldfinch, S.C. State Senator Greg Hembree, Governor Henry McMaster, S.C. State Representative Tim McGinnis, Former Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus, Horry County Councilman Tyler Servant, Horry County Councilman Gary Loftus, Horry County Councilman Cam Crawford, multiple Myrtle Beach City Councilmen and women, as well as, a bevvy of state elected officials across the state of S.C.
To say Chapman and his PAC are politically influential is an understatement.
Key Errors and Omissions In His Letter
Before the S.C. House of Representatives is a current request by Governor McMaster to fund $300 million in State Tax dollars for a connector road from I-95 to Highway 501 just west of Marion, S.C.
Should the state provide that funding, this project is shovel ready and could be completed in the next few years. However, currently, the back log for SCDOT new projects are running 10 years.
TRANSLATION: What this means is the phase of the road connecting to Highway 22 is, at minimum, ten years away. That phase is conservatively estimated to cost around $1.6 billion dollars. Other estimates have the real cost at $3 billion dollars.
The City of Myrtle Beach and the City of North Myrtle Beach have made conditional promises to pay some of those costs. Yet, those promises are conditioned upon the State of S.C. and Horry County Residents covering the bulk of the construction costs.
The conditional investment promises made by these two cities amounts to less than 10% of the interstate’s costs if the $1.6 billion number remains a true number ten years from now.
POINT BY POINT ERRORS AND OMISSIONS
Chapman States
- I-73 will provide a much needed hurricane evacuation route that will reduce evacuation time by six hours. Counterpoint 1: Not for those who vacation in Surfside Beach, Garden City Beach, nor Pawleys Island. The Southeastern Evacuation road projects funded by the RIDE program would be a much better investment. Counterpoint 2: Hurricanes typically operate like railway trains. They are slow in approaching the Grand Strand. Horry County has never had an evacuation problem as tourists and locals are provided multiple days advance warning of the approaching storm. To the contrary, locals have instead experienced long delays in being allowed back onto their properties.
- The completion of I-73 will reduce traffic on Highway 501 and Highway 9. Counterpoint 1: The connector phase currently being discussed for funding will increase traffic on Highway 501 for as many as 10 years minimum unless SCDOT agrees to place the construction of the Highway 22 stage of the project ahead of widening I-95 along the S.C. line and fixing miles of improvements needed along I-26. The traffic projected on I-73 dwarfs the current traffic on I-95 and I-26, and therefor those two interstates will take precedence for first need construction. Counterpoint 3: I-73 currently has no funding. Should the State General Assembly choose to fund the first component connector road, no other significant funding exists for the interstate. Counterpoint 4: Counties and municipalities across the state have come together and are providing funding to four lane Highway 9 from Rock Hill (Charlotte Metro Area) to North Myrtle Beach, S.C. This effort has the funding and blessing from areas like Dillon County, S.C. Dillon County opposes the connector road and its funding. Widening Highway 9 from Charlotte to North Myrtle Beach can be done for pennies on the dollar compared to the costs of constructing I-73 from I-95 to the beach. Charlotte, N.C. is Myrtle Beach’s number one tourist feeder city in America.
- I-73 will attract tens of thousands of year round jobs to South Carolina. The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce can produce no concrete data to confirm this statement. Myrtle Beach has no Deepwater port. The types of transportation jobs, like those in Charleston with I-26, are a direct result of importing and exporting goods from Charleston’s Deepwater port to and from inland areas across America.
What I-73 will bring about is the rapid development of housing communities in rural Horry County. Those new housing developments will then burden existing roads like Highway 319, Highway 701, Highway 905, Highway 9, Highway 19, the Old Nichols Highway, and Pee Dee Road.
Brochures to outside areas promising a short 30 minute drive to the coast will be mailed out of state, to potential home buyers ad-nauseum.
In short, I-73 is nothing less than a real estate developer’s, special interest project.
As a property manager, Mr. Chapman is in the real estate business, as are over 70% of all Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce members.
Please note: Tourism is a $3 billion annual industry in Horry County. Real Estate is a $30 billion annual industry in Horry County.
What is Myrtle Beach’s top industry? If you guessed real estate, then you concluded, as we did, that I -73 is a real estate developer’s cash cow, largely paid for by the State of S.C. and rural Horry County residents.