Every listings page for North Myrtle Beach shows you the same thing: what's for sale today. None of them can tell you what's coming, because the homes that are coming don't exist yet, so they can't show up in a feed.
That information does exist. It's published, it's free, and hardly anybody reads it. On Tuesday 18 August 2026 the North Myrtle Beach Planning Commission sat down at five o'clock and worked through eight items in forty-one minutes.
Only two of them were actually decided. Four came out as recommendations to City Council, which hasn't voted on any of them yet. Two were postponed, for reasons that have nothing to do with each other. So if somebody tells you the Planning Commission approved something that night, they've got a one-in-four chance of being right — and which one it is changes everything about what happens next.
Here's what did get decided: 68 new house lots off Bowline Boulevard got their final sign-off, and a road most people have never heard of got a new name. The one item everybody would call "new development" wasn't decided at all — and when you look at what it actually does, it adds no houses to North Myrtle Beach whatsoever.
I went through the agenda packet, the staff reports buried inside it, the video of the meeting and Horry County's parcel records. Here's what's actually happening, case by case.
Everything the Planning Commission decided on 18 August
| Case | What it is | Where | What actually happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUB-26-29 | Final bonded plat — 68 single-family lots, three open space lots, new public streets | Dockside Preserve, off Bowline Boulevard | Approved, subject to conditions. The Planning Commission is the last word on a plat |
| Z-26-14 | Rezoning six parcels, about 1.40 acres, Highway Commercial to Medium Density Residential | Creek Front Road | Recommended for approval. City Council decides |
| Z-26-15 | Annexation of about 0.22 acres with R-1 zoning, from county Resort Commercial | 1323-B Waterway Drive | Recommended for approval. City Council decides |
| Z-26-17 | Annexation of about 0.5 acres with R-1 zoning, from county MSF6 | 1416 Jacks Circle Road | Recommended for approval. City Council decides |
| Z-26-18 | Annexation of about 0.25 acres with R-1 zoning, from county MSF6 | 1372 Jacks Circle Road | Recommended for approval. City Council decides |
| Z-26-19 | Annexation of about 2.00 acres with Highway Commercial zoning | Water Tower Road | Postponed to 6 October 2026 — the same request was denied a year ago and cannot be reheard yet |
| SN-26-1 | Renaming one road that currently carries three different names | Sandridge Road Extension / West Pelican Road / Old Sanders Road | Approved. The Commission decides street names outright |
| Z-26-13 | Minor planned-development amendment — a privacy fence around an amenity area | Robbers Roost | Postponed for the second month running, because two homeowner associations have not agreed |
Everything in that table comes from the city's own agenda packet for 18 August 2026 and from the video of the meeting, which the city streams live and leaves up afterwards. You won't find the outcomes on the agenda — an agenda is written before the meeting happens.
"Approved by the Planning Commission" means two different things
This is the part I see misread constantly, in conversation and in local coverage alike — and North Myrtle Beach's own ordinances draw the line very sharply.
When the request is about the rules — a rezoning, an annexation, an amendment to a planned development — the Planning Commission only ever makes a recommendation. Its own staff report for Z-26-14 says so in plain words: City Council retains final authority. Nothing was decided about Creek Front Road on 18 August.
When the request is about the lots — a subdivision plat — the Commission decides, at all three stages, and nobody re-votes it afterwards. When it approved Dockside Preserve's final plat, that was the decision. There's no second meeting coming.
Dockside Preserve: the one that's actually being built
In plain English: 68 houses are eventually going up on the site of a former RV park, the streets and pipes are being put in right now, and nobody can buy a lot there yet. This is the furthest-along residential project in the city's public pipeline — and it's nothing like a new announcement.
Dockside Preserve sits on 26.87 acres off Bowline Boulevard, with a second way in from C-Versie Drive. That's the Little River Neck side of North Myrtle Beach — west of Highway 17, near the waterway, not the ocean. Horry County's parcel file lists the land as PIN 350-00-00-0083. It's zoned Planned Development District, and before that it was an RV park.
The argument about whether houses could go there was settled a year and a half ago. The staff report lays the sequence out: the Planning Commission recommended a zoning text amendment converting the RV park to single-family dwellings on 4 March 2025, City Council approved it on 7 April 2025, and the Planning Commission approved the preliminary plat for this phase on 11 November 2025. So the August item was the last of three subdivision stages, not the first — which is the opposite of how a headline would make it sound.
What the plat creates:
- 68 single-family lots and three open space lots, at 2.5 dwelling units per acre
- Lots from about 7,163 to 15,915 square feet — the smallest and the largest
- New public streets called Tide Creek Road and Estuary Place, a continuation of Bowline Boulevard and a connection to the existing C-Versie Drive, all built to city standards with sidewalks and street trees
The word doing the most work in that case description is bonded, and it's worth understanding. Under the city's Land Development Regulations, a developer can get a final plat approved before the streets and utilities are finished — as long as they post a financial guarantee worth at least 125 percent of whatever is left to build. It's a deposit against work not yet done. The applicant's engineer submitted a sealed estimate of $3,893,566.95 in remaining improvements, and the required guarantee is $4,866,958.69. The City Engineer approved the estimate and the City Attorney approved the form of the guarantee.
Read that number the right way and it tells you the honest state of the site better than any brochure could: as of August, roughly $3.9 million of streets, drainage, water and sewer still had to go in. The staff report says it plainly — infrastructure in Phase 1A remains under construction.
Two more things have to happen before this is a place you can buy into. First, the plat has to be recorded with the Horry County Register of Deeds, and the approval is contingent on that happening within 60 days — which puts the deadline in the middle of October 2026. Recording is the moment the 68 lots legally exist as separate parcels somebody can buy. Second, the houses have to be built, and that follows building permits, which follow the streets and utilities being finished.
When I checked Horry County's subdivision mapping on 2 September 2026, there was no Dockside Preserve in it, while neighbouring North Myrtle Beach subdivisions were all there. That's consistent with a plat approved but not yet recorded — though county mapping runs behind, so I'd call it a hint and not proof.
I can't tell you who's building it. The staff report names the applicant's agent, a firm called DRG, and an agent isn't a homebuilder. Several other agents' websites name a national builder and a delivery date — I couldn't confirm that from the builder, the city or the plat, so I'm not going to repeat it. If it matters to you, the city's Planning and Development Department is the place to ask, and it's a perfectly reasonable question.
The rezoning that adds no houses at all
Z-26-14 is the item I'd most want a homeowner to understand, because almost everything people assume when they hear "rezoning" is wrong here.
Six parcels on Creek Front Road, about 1.40 acres between them, are going from Highway Commercial to Medium Density Residential. Horry County's address file puts five of them at 700, 706, 708, 710 and 712 Creek Front Road. And here's the thing: they already have houses on them. The staff report says the subject parcels are developed with single-family detached dwellings and have historically been developed residentially. The county's parcel records code five as single-family residential and one as vacant residential.
So the Planning Commission's own finding of fact is that this rezoning "creates no additional lots and changes the regulatory status of an existing residential development pattern" rather than dropping housing into somewhere it wasn't allowed before. This is zoning catching up with reality — six long-standing houses sitting in a commercial district, being moved into the residential district that matches how they've been used all along. Nobody is building anything.
The applicant explained why at the meeting. They'd bought one of the six lots — the most run-down of them — and torn the house down; every other owner told them they had no intention of knocking anything down. The reason for asking at all was refreshingly mundane: the commercial district demands bigger side setbacks than the residential one, and that's awkward on narrow marsh lots.
Two other things in that item are worth your attention wherever you own in the city. The Commission recorded that R-2 is not a recommended zoning district under the Mixed Use future land use designation these parcels carry, and recommended approval anyway, on the basis that conditions in the locality have substantially changed — commercial activity has concentrated on Sea Mountain Highway while everything behind it has gone residential. And on every zoning item that night, the Commission repeated the same finding: public school capacity is constrained.
If you own on Creek Front Road, this narrows what can be built next door rather than widening it — the opposite of what most of us brace for when a rezoning sign goes up. But it hasn't happened yet. City Council decides, tentatively on 21 September 2026, and until they vote it is still only a recommendation.
One honest wrinkle. The agenda cover for Z-26-14 places these parcels on Creek Front Road. The staff report inside the same PDF places them on Pointe Marsh Lane, and both roads exist in the 29582 ZIP code. Horry County's address points say Creek Front Road, so that's what I've used. I haven't asked the city to explain the difference, and I'm not calling it a mistake — I'm telling you it's there, because it's exactly why I read more than one document before repeating anything.
How North Myrtle Beach actually grows: one lot at a time
Three more of the eight items were annexations — four, counting the one in the next section — and they're the quiet pattern underneath everything else. Small unincorporated parcels are being pulled into the city one at a time, and every one of them is on the Little River Neck and Waterway side.
- Z-26-15 — about 0.22 acres at 1323-B Waterway Drive, vacant, from the county's Resort Commercial to the city's R-1
- Z-26-17 — about 0.5 acres at 1416 Jacks Circle Road, from the county's MSF6 (manufactured single-family) to the city's R-1
- Z-26-18 — about 0.25 acres at 1372 Jacks Circle Road, same county MSF6 to city R-1
Under an acre between the three of them, and not one new house among them. All three were petitioned by the owners themselves, under South Carolina's 100-percent-owner method — the city didn't come knocking. All three were found to touch the existing city limits, as state law requires, and all three were recommended to Council with the same low-density residential zoning. Two of them have mobile homes on them, which the staff report confirms can stay as lawful non-conforming uses after annexation. There's no public sewer on Jacks Circle Road, and the existing septic systems can stay too.
Nothing gets built. What changes is who writes the rules for that property — city zoning, city ordinances, city services and city taxes take over from the county's. If you own one of those unincorporated pockets up against the city limits, that's the change worth understanding, and it usually arrives because a neighbour asked for it.
Two acres, three petitions, and a twelve-month ban
Z-26-19 is the fourth annexation on that agenda, and it got a completely different kind of answer — one that's worth knowing about, because it shows how long these things can go on.
Somebody wants to bring about two acres on Water Tower Road into the city with Highway Commercial zoning. They've asked before — twice. The first petition asked for Limited Industrial zoning and was withdrawn by the applicant after City Council raised concerns; nobody voted it down. The second asked for Highway Commercial, and that one City Council denied, on 6 October 2025. This is the third attempt, and it asks for Highway Commercial again.
The city's Zoning Ordinance doesn't allow that yet. Section 23-4(7) blocks resubmitting the same zoning request for the same parcel for twelve months after Council denies it, and twelve months from 6 October 2025 hadn't run out. Staff recommended postponement, the Commission postponed it, and the date they picked was 6 October 2026 — the very day the twelve months expire.
Notice what nobody has done: no one on that Commission has said a word about whether the request is a good idea. A postponement isn't a recommendation and it isn't a decision. So if somebody tells you the city is about to approve commercial zoning on Water Tower Road, the fair question back is which of the three petitions they mean.
The words, and what each one costs you to get wrong
These are the seven you'll actually meet on a North Myrtle Beach agenda. Every one of them appears somewhere above, and people mix them up constantly.
| The word | What it means in North Myrtle Beach | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Submitted | Somebody has applied and staff are reviewing it. Technical Review Committee items are at this stage | That anyone has agreed to anything |
| Recommended | The Planning Commission has adopted findings and advised City Council to approve. Z-26-14, Z-26-15, Z-26-17 and Z-26-18 are all sitting here right now | That it's approved. Council can still approve it, deny it or send it back |
| Postponed | Still open, and coming back on a stated date. Z-26-13 and Z-26-19 are both here, for completely unrelated reasons | That it was refused, or that it's over |
| Withdrawn | The applicant pulled it themselves before a decision. The first Water Tower Road petition ended this way | That the city rejected it — and it doesn't start any waiting period |
| Denied | A no from the body with authority. Council denied the second Water Tower Road petition in October 2025 | That it's gone for good. It bars the same request for twelve months, then it can come back |
| Approved | A yes from the body with authority — the Commission for a plat or a street name, Council for a rezoning | That anything has been built, recorded or permitted yet |
| Under construction | Earthmoving, streets and utilities physically happening, as at Dockside Preserve | That homes are up, or that lots can be sold |
The gap between approved and a finished house is the part that catches people out. Dockside Preserve is approved and under construction at the same time, and neither word means you can buy a house there this month. It's the same gap I walked through for a very different site in what happens when a Grand Strand golf course closes — approvals and construction are two separate tracks, and either one can outrun the other by years.
What this means if you're buying in North Myrtle Beach
Sixty-eight lots matters, but it's one phase of one community on one side of town, and none of it is on the market yet. Anyone comparing a resale today against waiting for new construction should look at what that trade-off actually is rather than at a rendering — I have written that comparison out in new construction versus resale on the Grand Strand, and the North Myrtle Beach community page covers the town as a place to live. What is on the market right now is on the featured properties page.
The more useful takeaway is where the activity is. Every residential case on that agenda sat on the western, waterway side of the city — Bowline Boulevard, Waterway Drive, Jacks Circle Road, Creek Front Road, Water Tower Road. If your search has been anchored to the ocean end, the records are quietly telling you that's not where the city is changing shape right now. Our guide to the best places to live on the Grand Strand puts North Myrtle Beach in context against the rest of the coast.
What this means if you already own nearby
Three things are worth doing, and none of them takes long.
Look up the case number, not the rumour. Every item in this article has one, and a case number takes you straight to a staff report that spells out what's actually being asked for.
Check which body decides. If it's a rezoning or an annexation, the Planning Commission's vote is advice and City Council has the real say — which also means the meeting you'd want to speak at is probably still ahead of you, not behind you.
And don't read a postponement as either a defeat or a victory. Robbers Roost has been put off twice while two homeowner associations try to agree about a fence. Water Tower Road is postponed because an ordinance says it has to be. Neither one is over.
How to check any of this yourself next month
Everything above came from four free pages and one video, and it took me an evening. You can do the same for your own street.
| Where to look | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Planning Commission agendas | Rezonings, annexations, subdivision plats and planned-development amendments, each with a case number, PINs and acreage. The staff reports inside the packet are far richer than the item list on the cover |
| City Council agendas | Where a rezoning or annexation is actually decided, usually a few weeks after the Commission recommends it |
| Technical Review Committee agendas | The earliest signal the city gives. The 3 September 2026 agenda carried a model home for a Waterside phase, a drone pad at the Amazon distribution centre on Water Tower Road, and several individual houses on North Ocean Boulevard |
| Board of Zoning Appeals agendas | Variances and appeals. Dockside Preserve needed one, with tree-retention conditions attached |
| The meeting video | The only place the outcome exists for weeks. The stream link is printed at the top of the agenda PDF itself |
That last row is the trick worth keeping. North Myrtle Beach approves its minutes about two meetings behind. On 18 August the Commission adopted the minutes for 16 June and 21 July; as I write on 2 September, no minutes for 18 August have been published. If you wait for minutes, you'll be six weeks behind every decision. The video is posted the same night, and the pattern is easy to follow once you have heard it once: staff present the item, the chairman asks for a motion, a commissioner reads it out almost word for word from the staff report, another seconds it, and the chairman calls for the vote. Each item takes three or four minutes.
What I still don't know
Four things, and I'd rather write them down than paper over them.
Who's building Dockside Preserve. Whether that final plat has been recorded yet — I'll know by late October, one way or the other. Whether City Council approves the Creek Front Road rezoning and the three annexations when it takes them up, tentatively on 21 September. And how many phases and how many lots Dockside Preserve will run to in the end: the name "Phase 1A" and a parent parcel a good deal bigger than 26.87 acres both say more is coming, but the city hasn't published a total and I'm not going to invent one.
Everything here is the position as at 2 September 2026. If you want to know whether it's moved since, the case numbers are how you find out.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dockside Preserve open? Can I buy there now? Not yet, as of early September 2026. The Planning Commission approved the final plat for Phase 1A on 18 August 2026, but it still has to be recorded with the Horry County Register of Deeds before those 68 lots legally exist as separate parcels anyone can buy — and roughly $3.9 million of streets and utilities were still to be built when it was approved.
Is North Myrtle Beach still annexing land from Horry County? Yes, steadily and in very small pieces. Three petitions on the 18 August 2026 agenda covered less than an acre between them, all on the Little River Neck and Waterway side, and all were owner-initiated. A fourth, on Water Tower Road, was postponed to 6 October 2026.
The Planning Commission voted yes on a rezoning. Is it done? No — and strictly speaking the Commission can't approve a rezoning at all. On a rezoning or an annexation it only recommends; City Council makes the decision, and it can approve, deny or send the request back. The Commission's yes is final on a subdivision plat and on a street renaming, which is why the same sentence means two different things depending on what was in front of it.
What is being built near Creek Front Road? Nothing, as a result of Z-26-14. All six parcels already have houses on them, and the Commission's own finding is that the rezoning creates no additional lots. The applicant told the Commission they'd torn down one run-down house on a lot they bought, and that the other owners intend to keep their homes.
Is a plat approval the same as homes being built? No, and the gap is usually measured in years. A plat divides land into lots. After that comes recording, then building permits, then actual construction. And a bonded final plat gets approved precisely because the required improvements aren't finished — the developer posts a guarantee worth at least 125 percent of the remaining work instead.
How do I find out what is being proposed near my own house? Start with the Planning Commission and Technical Review Committee agendas linked above, and look for your road or your parcel number. Horry County's parcel records will give you that number. If something turns up with a case number on it, the staff report inside the agenda packet will tell you what's being asked for, what staff recommend, and which body actually decides. If you'd rather not wade through it, send me the address.
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