Senior Housing: Senior facility plans eyed in Myrtle Beach
The former Ocean View Hospital site could once again become a place for care, this time for senior citizens only.
Seaside Property Development Group of Concord, N.C., wants to build a 240-unit care facility with assisted and independent living, a nursing home and more for elderly residents on the 7-acre site, and it will ask the Myrtle Beach Planning Commission today for some zoning amendments to support the plans.
Felix Pitts, Seaside’s agent for the requests before the Planning Commission today, said there’s no architect on board yet and the development is still in the planning stages. If the requests are granted, it will allow Seaside to move forward.
He said although the zoning permits a tower, Seaside doesn’t want to put one there. It wants to work under a 65-foot height requirement, so it will not block neighbors’ views. Because the units are planned for residential care, there will be no transient rentals as there would be if the site were developed into vacation condos.
There would be 60 nursing home beds, 80 assisted living units and 100 independent living units in five-story buildings, Pitts said.
Though the land is already zoned for health care facilities, the company is asking the Myrtle Beach Planning Commission to recommend amending the zoning to include additional elder-care uses and parking requirements for those uses to provide guidance for off-street parking and to add a new category to the tree-protection clause. The property owner is also asking for additional density to make all forms of continuing care possible.
“Yes, we’re asking for additional density, but it’s for nursing home beds or an assisted-living unit. It’s actually about 100,000 square feet less than had been proposed for the [former] tower projects,” Pitts said. “I think it’s one of the more compatible and desirable uses someone could propose for the site.”
This isn’t the first time new properties have been proposed for the site. The hospital was torn down in February 2001 after languishing since the 1970s. In 1999, a developer began pre-selling upscale condos in The Venice, which was planned for the spot. Not enough of the $465,000 condos could be sold to make the plans a reality.
In 2003, another group put forth the idea of a shopping, office and condominium complex similar to Charleston’s Market Street, called Tuscan Square.
Those plans called for condos priced between $200,000 and $300,000, plus shops and offices and a free-standing restaurant in the middle.
Residents were fine with the residential use, but did not like the idea of shops or offices, saying commercial uses were eroding the city’s neighborhoods.
City staff members are in favor of the project, but not in favor of allowing public rights of way for private parking, and want to make sure landmark and protected trees on the property are not destroyed.
“The site has always been in holding for a nursing home,” said planner Allison Hardin. “It’s got some massive trees. They are great. The developer also wants to save the trees, too.”
She said the development could include some commercial uses, but only those that support the care facility, such as a small gift or flower shop or a small convenience store, and the development would also require kitchen and dining facilities, but not a restaurant as had been included in plans for other developments on the site.
The commission will also hear a request from downtown business owner Bill Prescott today. He wants to install a 160-foot “Skyscraper” ride on his property on Third Avenue South and Ocean Boulevard near the Family Kingdom Amusement Park.
He is asking the commission to recommend the 15-foot setback rule for amusements be changed to 10 feet for rides taller than 80 feet. In his application, Prescott says 15 feet is too restrictive.
Hardin said the setback provides for 15 feet of open space around all rides, structures and amusements, and that city staff members do not recommend changing that rule.
“We need to be able to get a fire truck and ladder in there in case we need to rescue someone,” she said.
by LORENA ANDERSON for The Sun News
