July 1, 2021

~ Blake Prichard, Committee Chair ~

Early this year, the BRRA Board appointed members to re-establish the Strategic Planning & Development Committee (SPDC). So while this may be called an “annual report”, it is solely for work in the first half of 2021.

As directed by the BRRA Board, the first priority of the SPDC was to conduct long-range planning for possible uses of Tract 31. As most owners know, Tract 31 is a 25.5 acre parcel of land purchased by the BRRA in 2014 to protect the land from being developed as residential townhome sites and adding to congestion within Barefoot Resort. The land is bordered on the east by the Norman golf course hole #6 and is bounded by SC Highway 22 on part of its western boundary; Clearwater Bay is the nearest Barefoot residential community, and Cedar Creek (to the north) and Willow Bend (to the south) define the general area of this property.

The BRRA wanted to know options for accessing the property and possible uses. The SPDC has done a significant amount of investigation as to what is possible to access the site, as it is land-locked away from existing streets. The SPDC has interacted with North Myrtle Beach city planning and engineering departments to understand allowable uses and initial access issues. The Committee has worked with an engineering company to propose possible uses for the land in terms of what might properly be sized to fit on the property that could enhance and extend the available amenities in Barefoot Resort.

In early July, the next step of this project will be for a surveying company to access the property to take soil samples and make some test borings to determine the quality of the land to support various types of amenities: buildings, pools, courts, etc. A company has been retained to perform this work and arrangements have been made with the Barefoot Resort golf course management to allow access across the Norman golf course to perform these tests. Owners in Clearwater Bay, Heron Bay and Willow Bend may see various pieces of equipment arrive and enter the golf course property. Initial activity will be to create pathways through the property to allow access to targeted areas where soil testing and boring will occur. The entire elapsed time on property is expected to be a week to 10-days. All activity will be daytime work and is not expected to create a disturbance to neighborhoods or golf course operations.

All of this work is simply to learn what is possible. No plans are being considered to develop this property anytime soon, and any such effort, if approved, would be some years down the road and only after extensive discussions with and surveys of owners. We expect that the report on land quality will position us in the Fall to begin sharing details about what we have learned and what the steps forward may be.

The second priority of the SPDC is to prepare a Strategic Plan for the Barefoot Resort. Initial work on this project quickly began to conflict with other priorities of the BRRA Board as they managed the Beach Cabana and Western Boundary Wall projects, in addition to their ongoing responsibilities as Directors. We expect strategic planning work will begin once these projects are completed and the Board members begin to have bandwidth to work with the SPDC to consider the possible steps to preparing a Strategic Plan.

If you have questions about any of this work, please feel free to contact Blake Prichard, committee chair (Blake.Prichard@comcast.net).

Committee Members

Blake Prichard
Stephanie Hudson
Richard Furst
Allan Meese
David VandeLinde
Nancy Carder
Jim Shoemaker
Steve Peregoy, Board Liaison