COASTAL OBSERVER

A convenience store will get an electronic sign and a fitness center will get a gentler slope on its roof under a pair of variances to the design standards for the Highway 17 corridor.

Georgetown County has prohibited digital signs at businesses along Highway 17 on the Waccamaw Neck since 2014. But the owner of the Sunhouse convenience store on Bypass 17 at Pendergrass Avenue told the Board of Zoning Appeals last week that rapidly changing gas prices meant his store struggled to compete with larger chains.

“If gas prices changed once a day or once a week, it would be OK,” said Shri Kamma, president of Sunhouse Petroleum. “Especially in that vicinity, within two miles gas prices change three to five times a day, and that’s where we are having a hard time.”

Sunhouse bought a vacant convenience store on the site in 2021. It sought a series of variances to renovate and expand the existing building, all of which were denied in 2022.

Kristal Infinger, the county zoning administrator, said the variance request didn’t meet the four criteria required by state law since the store is already in operation and the design standards apply to other businesses. Approval could set a precedent, she said.

Employees at the new store have to change the gas prices by hand. Kamma showed the appeals board a photo of one employee with blood on her face and a cut on her hand. In June, they said they wouldn’t change the prices as often as the competition.

“They’re getting hurt, and I can’t insist on them changing the prices if they’re getting hurt,” Kamma said.

Vas Vundavalli, who operates the store, told the board that it takes 10 minutes to change prices on the sign and one employee can’t run the store and change the sign. He also said the manual numbers are breakable. The 7 broke last month, meaning the store had to set its prices with just the 6 and the 8.

There are digital signs at the Refuel and Circle K stores a mile north at Bypass 17 and Wachesaw Road. They were in place before the county ban on electronic signs. The 7-Eleven store built at that intersection in 2023 uses a scroll sign that changes the gas prices mechanically.

“They have a different budget,” Kamma said, telling the appeals board that it would cost Sunhouse an extra $120,000 to install a scroll sign.

7-Eleven is owned by a Japanese holding company. Circle K is owned by a Canadian conglomerate.

“Circle K is the culprit because they change anytime,” Kamma said. “We have to spend the $120K to get the scrollers or just deal with it.”

Board member Marty Farrell questioned the cost of the scroll signs. “It just strikes me as high,” he said.

Kamma said he could provide the sign company’s estimate. “Scrollers are custom made, that’s why they cost more,” he added.

He told the board that he wants to install an LED sign and that it would only be used to display gas prices. It won’t display advertising messages.

The board approved the variance 4-2 with Sharon Melton and Farrell opposed.

“I don’t like changes in the corridor. It’s already been established and maintained for 25 years,” he said.

Farrell was the lone vote in opposing a variance that will allow the owner of American Fitness, Colby Utt, to build a gym off Bypass 17 near the county line with a roof slope of 2:12. That means it will rise 2 inches for every foot of width. The county’s design standards require a 6:12 pitch over half of the roof area.

The gym will face Carson Avenue behind the Ortho SC medical building, but it will be visible from the highway so it must meet the design standards. 

Utt asked the appeals board to allow a 1:12 roof pitch in July. It deferred a decision to allow his designers at Earthworks to come up with an alternative.

“The higher the pitch, the higher the peak,” said Steve Strickland, owner of Earthworks. “We don’t want an extremely tall building sitting next to Ortho SC.”

In addition, he said that a steeper roof will reduce the ceiling height on the upper floor of the two story building, where a track is planned above the perimeter of a basketball court on the ground floor.

A 3:12 pitch would provide 6 feet, 11 inches of clearance over the track, but Strickland said that would be low enough to temp teens to jump and hit the beams.

He also pointed out that there are storage facilities along the highway with 6:12 roofs. “Architecturally, they’re not a pleasure to look at,” Strickland said. “We would rather have a good looking building.”

Farrell said it is important to maintain the design standards.

Board member Kenneth Reed, who lives in Murrells Inlet, said he thought the proposed building with a lesser slope on its roof would fit in.

Strickland showed the board video shot from a vehicle traveling the highway in both directions, arguing that the gym would barely be seen by southbound traffic and only partly visible to those traveling north.

Board member Adam Hall noted the number of buildings with flat roofs on the east side of the highway before the proposed gym site.

“We just approved a digital sign because everybody in the area has a digital sign,” Hall said. “There may be an option somewhere in the middle.”

Reed moved to approve a 2:12 roof pitch, which will allow 9 feet of headroom over the track.

“Aesthetically, it fits in. It’s not going to be a mini-warehouse,” he said. “It fits in with Ortho SC.”