Municipal improvement district in Myrtle Beach approved. What comes next?

Business owners in a section of Myrtle Beach will soon be paying more property taxes.

On Thursday, city council held a special meeting over the planned municipal improvement district (MID) in Myrtle Beach. Council unanimously approved the assessment roll, or list of properties, that are included in the new district as well as their estimated increase in property taxes due in October. 

Thursday’s meeting comes after years of planning and development over a district that city leaders and officials believe will bring prosperity to downtown Myrtle Beach.

“We’re moving in lockstep in terms of what we want to achieve in downtown,” said Amy Barrett, president and CEO of the non-profit Myrtle Beach Downtown Alliance (MBDA).

The MID stretches from 21st Avenue North to 12th Avenue South reaching from Ocean Boulevard, across Kings Highway and into the Withers Swash neighborhood.

Michelle Shumpert, the city’s chief financial officer, said the money collected in the MID stays in the MID and will go toward services such as street beautification, additional sanitation services, enhanced security, marketing, special events and research to support neighborhood economic development.

Barrett said there are roughly 3,650 properties in the MID. Properties that are exempt from the MID include full-time residential units, city-owned property and churches. 

The commercial property that would be included in the MID are high-rise resorts, T-shirt shops, restaurants and residential rental units. Those properties were assessed at 6% of their market value and owners of those commercial properties will now be billed 1% of that assessed value on their property taxes.

Barrett said the MID is expected to generate over $600,000 for the coming fiscal year and over $10 million in a decade.

“We know this is not a traditional sort of transactional investment where we say you’re giving $100 to this fund and you’re going to get $500 back. It’s a little bit more abstract,” said Barrett. “What we are asking everyone to make is a strategic investment and the return will be shown over a very long period of time.”