Pay before you slow

Thursday's editorial urges Atlantic Beach to hold off on a proposed moratorium on commercial development until it secures money to finish its rezoning and master planning process.

Abandoned amid the soap opera of Atlantic Beach politics over the last two years is what could have been a great step forward for the struggling little town: the adoption of a new master plan to guide its development and long-hoped-for prosperity.

Crafted several years ago after a long public planning process, the plan was a triumph of collaboration between residents and developers in a town otherwise known for division. It preserves the town's essential residential status and its open vistas from the highway to the ocean - relatively rare along the Grand Strand, where the beach is often walled in by condos - while providing a coherent blueprint for redevelopment.

The plan was completed in early 2007 and adopted by the town, but Atlantic Beach's complex and antiquated zoning code needed a total rewrite to match it - in effect, to make the vision into law. The town hired experts at the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments, made a $30,000 down payment with a state grant - and then the town government imploded with indictments and arrests, leaving the rezoning to gather dust.

All during that process, the town had banned commercial development, hoping to ensure that (during what was a booming builders' economy) no major projects contrary to the town's vision slipped in under the old codes. Such a moratorium period is typical in major redevelopments, but when work on the rezoning halted in 2008, the town rightly abandoned the building moratorium, reopening the town to all comers.

Now, the town wants to resume the rezoning, finally implementing the lost plan and claiming a true governmental victory in a town that badly needs one. Accordingly, some town officials are considering restoring the moratorium. Though reasonable on its face, the town cannot yet afford it - literally. The town's $832,000 budget proposal appropriates no money to pay for the rest of the rezoning work, and Waccamaw officials say they have not heard from Atlantic Beach since the town's last administrative upheaval in May.

New Town Manager William Booker describes his budget as "conservative," reducing the expected revenue streams significantly to hold the town near last year's $550,000 operating costs while seeking new revenue to help pay off nearly all of more than $300,000 in unpaid debts lingering from years of mismanagement. His drive to reduce the debt is commendable, though we exhort the Town Council to demand monthly financial reports as to whether the town is meeting its income projections.

Hampering the town's effort to move forward, unfortunately, is a chronic problem it has no control over - unpaid property taxes. As of Wednesday, the town had $165,000 in unpaid property taxes - billed last October, due in January but unlikely to be paid until just before the county property-tax auction at the very end of the year. Among the overdue bills are names woefully familiar in town for this very problem: out-of-state developers Atlantic Beach Oceanfront LLC and Seventh Street Properties LLC owe a combined $48,833, La Casa Real Estate Development owes $33,539 and local development partners Amy Breunig and David O'Connell owe $13,265. New to the list this year are Pavilack Industries with $9,893, the landowning Kelly family's Five Points Development with $6,422 and the Tyson Beach Group with $5,985 - six groups who collectively hold more than 70 percent of the town's unpaid taxes.

With its largest beachfront property owners in arrears, the town is highly unlikely to see a major development proposal - making the moratorium mostly unnecessary. In the meantime, until the Town Council is certain that every cent of the rezoning project is paid for and has a concrete end date, Atlantic Beach should continue to encourage whatever small-scale commercial projects come its way.

Crafted several years ago after a long public planning process, the plan was a triumph of collaboration between residents and developers in a town otherwise known for division. It preserves the town's essential residential status and its open vistas from the highway to the ocean - relatively rare along the Grand Strand, where the beach is often walled in by condos - while providing a coherent blueprint for redevelopment.

The plan was completed in early 2007 and adopted by the town, but Atlantic Beach's complex and antiquated zoning code needed a total rewrite to match it - in effect, to make the vision into law. The town hired experts at the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments, made a $30,000 down payment with a state grant - and then the town government imploded with indictments and arrests, leaving the rezoning to gather dust.

All during that process, the town had banned commercial development, hoping to ensure that (during what was a booming builders' economy) no major projects contrary to the town's vision slipped in under the old codes. Such a moratorium period is typical in major redevelopments, but when work on the rezoning halted in 2008, the town rightly abandoned the building moratorium, reopening the town to all comers.

Now, the town wants to resume the rezoning, finally implementing the lost plan and claiming a true governmental victory in a town that badly needs one. Accordingly, some town officials are considering restoring the moratorium. Though reasonable on its face, the town cannot yet afford it - literally. The town's $832,000 budget proposal appropriates no money to pay for the rest of the rezoning work, and Waccamaw officials say they have not heard from Atlantic Beach since the town's last administrative upheaval in May.

New Town Manager William Booker describes his budget as "conservative," reducing the expected revenue streams significantly to hold the town near last year's $550,000 operating costs while seeking new revenue to help pay off nearly all of more than $300,000 in unpaid debts lingering from years of mismanagement. His drive to reduce the debt is commendable, though we exhort the Town Council to demand monthly financial reports as to whether the town is meeting its income projections.

Hampering the town's effort to move forward, unfortunately, is a chronic problem it has no control over - unpaid property taxes. As of Wednesday, the town had $165,000 in unpaid property taxes - billed last October, due in January but unlikely to be paid until just before the county property-tax auction at the very end of the year. Among the overdue bills are names woefully familiar in town for this very problem: out-of-state developers Atlantic Beach Oceanfront LLC and Seventh Street Properties LLC owe a combined $48,833, La Casa Real Estate Development owes $33,539 and local development partners Amy Breunig and David O'Connell owe $13,265. New to the list this year are Pavilack Industries with $9,893, the landowning Kelly family's Five Points Development with $6,422 and the Tyson Beach Group with $5,985 - six groups who collectively hold more than 70 percent of the town's unpaid taxes.

With its largest beachfront property owners in arrears, the town is highly unlikely to see a major development proposal - making the moratorium mostly unnecessary. In the meantime, until the Town Council is certain that every cent of the rezoning project is paid for and has a concrete end date, Atlantic Beach should continue to encourage whatever small-scale commercial projects come its way.