ATLANTIC BEACH -- Survey results show that a majority of property owners want to see Ocean Boulevard opened through Atlantic Beach despite how vocal several have been about not wanting to open the road.
Sixty-two percent of property owners who returned the survey said they think Ocean Boulevard should be opened to through traffic. The main reason given for opening it is to encourage development.
The results were released Thursday during the town's Planning Commission meeting. Despite the results, commission members decided to recommend to the Town Council to keep the boulevard closed.
The commission voted 3-1 to keep Ocean Boulevard closed, with Vice-Chairman Bruce Robinson voting no. Chairwoman Reta Trent was absent.
Planning Commission members decided during their September meeting to have a survey mailed to property owners to get their input on opening the boulevard before they made a recommendation to the council, which has the final say on the issue.
The issue was deferred to the commission after Councilman Donnell Thompson asked for discussion of the issue during a council meeting earlier this year.
"We cannot survive in this town the way it is," said longtime town resident and former council member Gloria Lance. "The road has been closed since segregation. How can the town develop? The town is bankrupt. People are suing the town left and right. ... If we continue with the closing of the town, we'll still be here another 20 years needing help."
Commissioner DarylStevens, who made the recommendation to keep the road closed, said he has a different vision for the town and how it can grow.
"There are other items in the town's master plan I agree with, but I don't see the same viability or attraction with being able to pass through there," Stevens said. "I think there is greater potential in other ways."
Several property owners have said they do not understand why the issue keeps coming up, particularly when the consensus has been that people did not want the road open.
But the survey results - which were tallied by the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments - tell a different story.
Thirty-three percent of the 101 responses said the road should remain closed, while the remaining 5 percent responded they didn't know. One of the main reasons cited to keep it closed was to maintain the town's identity.
"There's a great deal of passion on each side of the issue," said Mark Hoeweler, assistant executive director of the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments based in Georgetown. "That was evident from the comments."
Commissioners decided to have WRCOG - which reviewed plans to open Ocean Boulevard with them in July - administer the survey so there would be no appearance of manipulation with the results.
WRCOG sent out 249 surveys, of which they received 101 responses, 13 returned as undeliverable, and eight received after the Nov. 1 deadline. Partial surveys were also counted.
Hoeweler said there is $600,000 budgeted for the project in the Grand Strand Area Transportation Study's Transportation Improvement Program for fiscal year 2013, which begins October 2012. The project is also part of the town's master plan, which was adopted in 2007.
Officials with WRCOG would like to know before October 2012 whether the town plans to go forward with the project. If not, the money could be used toward another regional project, Hoeweler said.
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