BLAME COUNCIL

Wacky Horry Zoning Code Spawned Methadone Mess

The members of the Horry County Board of Adjustments and Zoning Appeals,
we're guessing, are dismayed that Circuit Judge John Breeden has thrust
them back into the nasty controversy over the methadone clinic proposed for
Fantasy Harbour. If board members are not also fuming at County Council,
which created the Looney Tunes zoning code they're expected to administer,
they should be.

For a few days, Breeden provided them judicial cover from facing the
political fallout of their approval, with only one no vote, of the
methadone facility last July. Week before last, he enjoined the board from
reopening the issue while he considered a petition to that effect from the
Greenville outfit seeking to open the facility, the Center of Hope Clinic.

Now that the judge has given the green light, the zoning board has three
options, all rotten:

Members can let the matter lie, provoking the wrath of local folks who
expect them to make the clinic go away.

They can reopen the issue and reaffirm the zoning exceptions they granted
the clinic in July, provoking the wrath of those same folks.

They can revoke the exceptions, provoking a lawsuit from Center of Hope.

Such a suit might or might not come out OK. The former gentlemen's club in
which the clinic would open is a little too close to the River Oaks
condominiums across U.S. 501, and to the Bridgewater Academy charter school.

A circuit judge might rule that the board was wrong to grant exceptions to
the distance guidelines. But it's just as likely a judge would deem the
exceptions reasonable, allowing the clinic to open.

If Horry County didn't allow drug-rehab clinics in commercial zones -
restricting them to a medical zone as Myrtle Beach does - this controversy
would not be happening. Center of Hope would have had to look elsewhere, at
the 82nd Parkway medical complex, perhaps, or near the Conway Medical Center.

This fight, at heart, is about whether it's appropriate to replace a strip
joint with a methadone clinic. We wouldn't have to trifle with such
ridiculous questions if our zoning code provided for hard-to-love land uses
while respecting the integrity of neighborhoods and businesses.