College students forced to live off-campus create controversy

Coastal Carolina University and Horry Georgetown Technical College continue to attract more students to the area.  However, the number of students far out number the available on-campus housing options.

James and Kathleen O’Neill moved from New York to the Quail Run subdivision seven years ago. Now, they don’t know what’s going to happen if the problems with students aren’t fixed.  “Everytime there’s a new semester, a new group of kids come in and there are parties at night, 2 or 3 in the morning [there’s] slamming doors, kids are out in the street yelling.“

Complaints about excessive noise, garbage, underage drinking parties and more caused the county to create a committee to devise a solution.

“The kids we have next door to us right now, thank god, we lucked out and they’re good,” said O’Neill.  “But the rest of the kids aren’t. A police officer had to come, there was party with 67 kids coming out of one house.“

The students, landlords and now homeowners all presented their ideas to the county. The county is proposing a zone overlay to include Quail Creek, Quail Run and University Place.
The overlay proposes ideas such as no more than two unrelated people to live in a single home, no more than three cars in a driveway at one time and specified yard maintenance. The ideas are just preliminary. Under the current proposal, tenents, landlords and homeowners would be held responsible for any violations.  Fines would be up to $500 dollars per day for each violation

Students aren’t sure where they will go. John Heron is a CCU student from Syracuse, New York. He lives in Quail Creek.  His dad purchased a home there, hoping to live in it during retirement.  Heron said he knows the noise can be bad, but the schools continue to grow without adding housing.  “I understand these people here lived here for a long time, some of them over 30 years in these houses,” said Heron. “The college is growing and there isn’t sufficient amount of housing. If this get’s passed, I don’t understand where we’re supposed to live.“

The planning committee meets again in one week. They will consider the input from all sides and decide how to move forward with the proposed zoning change.