Roofing company in Forestbrook, SC

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - New developments continue popping up in Horry County, some off busy two-lane streets like Forestbrook Road.

However, very few developers ever add plans for traffic lights to help residents get in and out of the development.

An Horry County spokesperson said when the primary entrance road for a new large development connects to an existing road, the developer is responsible for installing the traffic signal and any other roadway improvements that would be needed to mitigate traffic.

While there are plans to widen and realign Forestbrook Road in the coming years through RIDE 3 funding, hundreds of new homes continue to be built right now.

Residents living along the roadway fear this once quiet backroad is turning into the next Carolina Forest Boulevard.

Recent traffic counts at Arcadia’s main entrance on Forestbrook Road showed that signal installation was not warranted at that time, but these counts also showed that the signal warrants are expected to be met in the future as Arcadia continues to develop.

“With the way it’s growing, they really need more traffic lights,” said Marie Young, a county resident.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation says there is a traffic signal planned for Arcadia Parkway and Forestbrook Road.

Since the agency maintains Forestbrook Road, installation of the traffic signal is subject to SCDOT approval. That would typically require traffic signal warrants of minimum traffic volumes from Arcadia Parkway.

Those who use the road daily said the traffic continues to back up on Forestbrook Road which is blocking residents from getting in and out of the new development.

Horry County resident Bo Ives said this was a similar issue Carolina Forest faced for years until the county finally widened the road in 2019.

“We want a signal where we live, but we don’t want to be stopped,” said Ives.

Ives has become very active in the road development process in Horry County serving on both the RIDE 3 and RIDE 4 advisory committees.

He said one reason you don’t see a lot of traffic lights is cost and maintenance.

“It’s about $200,000 per signal plus you add the maintenance and operational costs,” said Ives.

A left-turn lane is currently being installed on Forestbrook Road at the main entrance to Arcadia by the developer’s contractor.

The contractor’s schedule for this work shows they’ll be substantially complete with this work in June.

The planned widening work for Forestbrook Road is also incorporating this new turn lane into the final improvements.

Young works right across from the new development on Forestbrook Road and said that even when trying to leave work it can be difficult to turn left toward Highway 544.

“Recently it’s been backing up a lot,” she said.

Since construction on Forestbrook has not yet begun, Ives said there is still time for residents to reach out to the county about any concerns or adding new traffic signals along this growing roadway.

“When you’re in a community where there’s no other way to get out but turn left it’s sometimes the only solution,” said Ives.

Currently the Forestbrook Road widening project is on schedule according to the RIDE 3 dashboard.

The county still has yet to announce when construction will start on the $90 million road improvement project.

Stay with WMBF News for updates.

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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) — Waiting at the carwash, a Grand Strand woman scratched a lottery ticket and won $2 million, the largest top prize ever offered on a South Carolina Education Lottery scratch-off.

“Unbelievable,” said the winner.

She told lottery officials that she was running errands with her Mom, who wanted to stop at the Coastal Petro on Burcale Rd. in Myrtle Beach for a Powerball ticket for last Wednesday’s $268 million drawing.

She ran inside the convenience store to get her Mom a ticket and a $2,000,000 Colossal Cash scratch-off caught her eye. She bought herself the $10 scratch-off.

Their next stop was the car wash. She was sitting by the vacuums when her boyfriend called and asked her to get him a Powerball ticket too. She decided to scratch her ticket and use any winnings to buy his ticket. She never expected she’d win $2 million.

“I wasn’t feeling lucky,” she said. “I wasn’t having a great day, and I ended up winning the Lottery.”

Harry Patel, who owns Coastal Petro, says his luck changed that day too. After 16 years in business he finally sold a big, winning ticket worth bragging about. Before the $2 million win the largest prize won at his store was $30,000. And he’s telling everyone Coastal Petro is a lucky store.

“It’s a good feeling,” said Patel. “Our customers are happy for us and for the winner.”

The Lottery caught up with the winner a few days after cashing in her $2 million winning ticket. She has already paid off her house and is thinking about taking a vacation.

“I’m living comfortably, still working and life goes on,” said the millionaire. “And I’ve been back to the store and bought a ticket.”

Patel hopes others will drop by the Coastal Petro at 595 Burcale Rd. to try their luck as well.

“This won’t be our last big win,” he promised.

The Myrtle Beach player overcame odds of 1 in 2,640,000 to win the last top prize of $2 million in the $2,000,000 Colossal Cash game.

Coastal Petro in Myrtle Beach received a commission of $20,000 for selling the claimed ticket.

State Rep. Heather Crawford, who is married to Horry County Councilmember Cam Crawford, secured a $1 million earmark to create a flood bench along a lower portion of Socastee Creek to mitigate flood risk for Forestbrook residents.

This could reduce flood levels for 160 homes, according to 2020 documents from Horry County.

Myrtle Beach

The $1 million for the flood bench is a part of a two-step project that was proposed due to a study of the Socastee Creek Watershed, which occurred because of funding Rep. Crawford secured via an earmark in 2018.

According to Horry County Stormwater Manager Thomas Roth, the other step will be a culvert along McCormick Road, which will allow more water during flooding to pass, so it does not back up along Socastee Creek.

"By doing both, we would reduce the flooding in the Forestbrook area by a significant amount," Roth said. "By doing one, it would help. By doing both, it helps even more."

Myrtle Beach News

The study, conducted by ESP Associates, found that the two projects together could help mitigate flood risk for close to 500 homes affected by the 100-year flood zone.

"Flooding remains a top priority for me to help address the needs in our area," Rep. Crawford said. "So this funding is a big win for our community and for the Socastee area to help address flooding."

The proposed cost of the benching project is roughly $1.5 million, but Roth said it could end up costing less than that. The projected price of the culvert is about $650,000, but Roth said it could cost more due to the COVID-19 causing material costs to rise.

Right now, the county is focusing on the bench project, and will work on the culvert after.

If the project's cost goes over $1 million secured, Roth said the county has budgeted for the cost as part of its capital improvement projects, which was a part of this year's budget.

While the Socastee area has dealt with flooding issues more and more since Hurricane Matthew, the Socastee Creek Watershed has a history of flooding. In the early '90s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made improvements to the watershed to reduce flooding for residents in a portion of the area.

The Crawfords have worked with county representatives to tackle these projects, and Cam Crawford added the different perspective he has due to the fact he's also experienced flooding.

"It does mean a lot to me, personally, because... I've been through it, and I've watched my friends go through," he said.

The study projects are not the only relief on its way to the Socastee and Forestbrook areas. The county recently announced the buyout program for homeowners in the Socastee area, which will begin open enrollment on July 12.

Additionally, the South Carolina Office of Resiliency was established in 2020 to mitigate flood risk throughout the state.

"All those things, when you put them all together, I think that they will provide significant relief to people in that community," Cam said. "You may not see it right now, but I think in the future they will, once these projects are completed."

While Forestbrook does have its own flooding issues, Roth said some of the significant issues regarding flooding occur on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway — the Socastee side.

"Although there are issues in Forestbrook — so don't get me wrong — there are issues there to be resolved," Roth said. "But there's more issues on the other side of Forestbrook, right off the Socastee Boulevard area."

Roth added the county is focusing on a few projects, as well, on the Socastee side, including improving the outfall on the end of Folly Road, which is known for notoriously high water levels.

"It is a battle that we have to attack on several different fronts," Heather said. "Unfortunately there's not one piece of legislation or just one thing we can do. There are several different things that need to be addressed. And it's all a part of the process that we're working on... as we work to address flood issues in the Socastee area and all around Horry County."

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — Plans to build about 850 new homes near the intersection of Forestbrook Road and Dick Pond Road are going through the approval process again, Thursday night.

The plans were approved by Horry County's Planning Commission on Oct. 3 last year, and Horry County Council shortly after.

STORY: Planning Commission approves nearly 900 unit development along Forestbrook Rd.

A spokesperson for Horry County said the developer made a small boundary adjustment, and that's considered a "major amendment," so it will go through the whole process again.

The project would build 654 single-family homes and 204 multi-family units near the intersection, to the corner of U.S. Highway 31.

The developer declined an interview but said over the phone that the amendment is very technical, and does not change the number of homes planned.

You can view the plans by clicking here, and looking at pages 62 - 67.

Still, neighbors living off Forestbrook Road are concerned.

A man living adjacent to the woods where the new development would be built said he is going to consider moving because of the project. He said he moved to his house to have the woods in his backyard, not new neighbors.

Others, said they are concerned about the new traffic that's going to come to Forestbrook Road.

Horry County Councilman Cam Crawford said he addressed those concerns last year when the council originally considered the project.

“When that whole project came up, I worked with the community over in Forestbrook," he said. "We held a big meeting at Forestbrook Baptist Church, which I helped to organize, to address some of these concerns.”

He said as a result of that meeting, they removed the part of the plan that would have connected the new neighborhood to Ocean Bay Road.

“We rerouted the secondary road, over onto Dick Pond Rd," he said.

He also talked about the Forestbrook widening project coming up, which would create 5 lanes there, between Highway 501 and Dick Pond Road.

He said he's working with SCDOT to start that work on the Dick Pond Road side, so it's ready for the new traffic when the homes are built.

The developer said he would like to break ground in the first quarter of 2021.

Horry County, S.C. (WPDE) — We spoke with some neighbors in the Hammerstone Landing community of Forestbrook while they were preparing for flood waters to rise. We decided to check back in with them.

One neighbor built a wall and says it worked and another neighbor is saying, "Enough is enough, I'm leaving."

After the Intracoastal Waterway flooded, the neighborhood saw water where they hadn't seen it before. Right now, the clean up continues.

Johnathan Ortiz built a wall around his house so it wouldn't flood. He says it worked and his home just had a few inches of water inside.

"I mean, we're still cleaning. We're still cleaning. We're working on the sandbags, taking off the sandbags," said Ortiz.

He says he plans to keep the wall up until hurricane season is over. The wall will go, but he's staying.

His neighbor, Ruby Carrillo, is singing a different tune. She's hoping this will be her last hurricane season in that home.

"It's very hard to have to try to just up and leave your home and stay in someone else's home. So, because of age-wise and in a couple of years thinking of retiring, it made me contemplate on wanting to sell," said Carrillo.

She's done saying, "Here we go again."

"Plus the water that came over my fence, which is a six foot fence," she said.

That water didn't get into her house, but it crept close enough.

"I had all of that cleaning up effort I had to do afterward and the money that goes into the clean up effort," said Carrillo.

Carrillo got a real estate agent: Laniece Mayfield with United Real Estate in Myrtle Beach.

"I've been receiving several phone calls...Like this and even worse," said Mayfield.

She and Carrillo sat down to start the process on Monday.

"The square footage, the amenities that are available with the property, things such as upgrades, things they have changed, things of that nature and we compare it to other homes that have sold in the area and begin to talk about a plan for marketing their property," said Mayfield.

While Carrillo looks for another property, there's one item on her list that's a must: "It has to have no flood zone near," she said.

Mayfield says some of the frequently asked questions by homeowners wanting to sell their homes are "Where do we start" and "How long will this take?" The answers both depend on a buyers preference and circumstances.

Many homeowners who didn't have the option to sell their homes opted to sign up for FEMA's buyout program, which some say makes it easier to walk away from your home.