CLINIC FIGHT AVOIDABLE

Zoning Dispute Highlights The Need For Repairs

A lot of folks went home unhappy from Thursday's meeting of the Horry
County Board of Adjustments and Zoning Appeals, at which a board
majority affirmed an earlier decision to allow a methadone clinic to
open at Fantasy Harbour. Most attendees wanted the board to rescind
the zoning exceptions that an earlier zoning board granted to the
clinic operator in 2002.

Board members rightly looked past the emotionalism of the crowd to the
absence of hard evidence that the clinic would be a
quality-of-life-threatening magnet for crime and drug-pushing. We'll
know soon enough whether the crime and drug-pushing fears of the
clinic's detractors were justified.

The more important question is what can be done to prevent similar
nasty episodes in public life. Two changes come immediately to mind:

Horry County Council should overhaul its zoning laws to channel
unpopular but legal forms of development away from commercial areas
where they don't fit in well. The current Horry County zoning setup
places too few commerical-zoning restrictions on such "undesirable"
development as methadone clinics, biker bars, sleazy nightclubs and
the like. If the county had emulated the city of Myrtle Beach in
channeling methadone clinics into medical zones, this incident
wouldn't have happened.

The council and/or County Administrator Danny Knight should ensure
that staff members support citizen-based boards that deal with
controversial issues more thoroughly and professionally.

Had staff members acquainted 2002 zoning board members with all the
ramifications of a yes vote on the clinic exceptions, maybe that board
would have reached a different decision. Moreover, the board's
rubber-stamp response to the inadequate staff research caused some
residents to conclude that the zoning board was trying to sneak the
clinic in under the public radar.

County Council, with Knight's assistance, should repair these problems
this year. Failure to do so would ensure that nasty disputes such as
this one remain inevitable.