Horry County Schools Approves $6.3M Land Purchase Along Highway 90 as Growth Reshapes the North Myrtle Beach Corridor

CONWAY, S.C. — April 7, 2026  |  By Thomas Beach Vacations Staff

The highway that connects Conway to North Myrtle Beach has been telling a story for more than a decade — one written in freshly poured concrete foundations, new subdivision signs, and the steady hum of construction equipment working well past sundown. Now Horry County Schools is making sure it has a chapter in that story. At a board meeting on March 23, 2026, district leaders approved the purchase of 60.73 acres of land along S.C. Highway 90 for $6.3 million, the latest move in an accelerating effort to secure land before the county’s growth outpaces its school capacity.

The vote was not unanimous. District 10 board member Neil James cast the lone dissenting vote, citing a gap between the appraised value and the purchase price. But the majority of the board sided with staff, who argued that finding large, developable tracts in this corridor is becoming harder by the year — and that waiting carries its own costs.

The Highway 90 acquisition marks the third significant land purchase the district has made in roughly six months, following buys near Aynor and in Little River. Together, those deals represent more than 150 acres added to the district’s land portfolio as Horry County braces for a population surge that demographers say is still in its early chapters.

The $6.3 Million Purchase

County land records indicate the 60.73-acre parcel sits near Thomas Road off S.C. Highway 90, in the Bear Bluff Road and Tilly Swamp area outside Conway. The board approved a price of $103,822 per acre — a figure that drew scrutiny from James, who questioned the spread between the appraised value and what the district agreed to pay.

Chief Operations Officer Ben Prince defended the number, telling the board that comparable land in the immediate area had recently sold for similar per-acre prices. District 11 board member Darrell Ricketts echoed that point, noting that real estate appraisals in Horry County can become outdated quickly given the volume of development activity. The tax value of the property is listed at approximately $2.4 million in county records, a reflection of how aggressively market values have moved ahead of assessed figures throughout the Grand Strand.

Prince told the board that staff had successfully negotiated the purchase contract and completed all due diligence, with no significant issues identified. The purchase is being funded through capital improvement dollars generated by the 1-cent sales tax approved by Horry County voters specifically to support school infrastructure.

An Explosion of Growth Along Highway 90

Anyone who has driven S.C. Highway 90 in the past few years has watched the transformation in real time. The road that once cut through stretches of pine forest and quiet farmland between Conway and North Myrtle Beach’s Ocean Drive is now lined with subdivision entrances, sales trailers, and the familiar orange glow of excavators working new ground. More than 1,600 homes have been built along the corridor in the past decade alone, according to previous reporting by The Sun News, and the pipeline shows no signs of emptying — 11 major residential developments are currently planned adjacent to the highway.

The Little River area, home to some of the most scenic stretches near Cherry Grove Beach, is experiencing parallel growth. The same is true for the upper Conway and lower Aynor region, where a single proposed development off Brown Swamp Road could bring more than 200 new homes into a school district already straining at the seams. Hundreds of new homes and thousands of new residents are expected to land in both areas over the next fifteen years.

That growth dynamic is precisely what the school district says it is trying to get ahead of. Building a new school takes years from land acquisition to ribbon-cutting, and suitable parcels — those large enough, properly situated, and free of significant wetlands — are disappearing from the market as developers move quickly to capture demand from residents drawn to the Grand Strand’s quality of life.

Building a Land Bank for the Future

The Highway 90 purchase is part of a deliberate, district-wide strategy. Lisa Bourcier, Horry County Schools’ director of communications, has described the initiative as building a land bank — a portfolio of properties positioned across the county’s growth corridors so the district has options when the time comes to build. The board has tasked staff with proactively identifying and pursuing properties to support future educational and operational needs throughout Horry County.

In August 2025, the district purchased a 66.7-acre parcel off Enoch Road in the upper Conway and lower Aynor area for approximately $1.4 million — a markedly lower price per acre than the Highway 90 site, reflecting the difference in land values between the two corridors. In January 2026, the board announced plans to acquire the former Harbour View Golf Course property on Horseshoe Road in Little River, a 36.78-acre tract priced at just under $6 million, or roughly $162,000 per acre.

No specific facility plans have been announced for any of the three properties. Bourcier has said a comprehensive facilities plan is forthcoming and will involve a public process with the Board of Education and input from the broader community. What the district has made clear is that identifying land is step one — and that step, for now, is the priority.

Overcrowding Pressures Across the District

The urgency behind the land acquisitions is not abstract. Horry County Schools currently serves more than 47,000 students across 58 schools, making it the third-largest district in South Carolina. District projections show that nearly one-third of those schools will be overcrowded during the 2026-2027 school year. Twenty facilities have already been classified as red zone schools — meaning they are projected to exceed their functional capacity — and once a school reaches red zone status, students from other attendance areas are not allowed to transfer in.

Aynor’s schools have been among the most affected. New residential development feeding into that district has strained existing buildings, and the anticipated growth off Brown Swamp Road promises to intensify that pressure further. The district has built eleven new schools since 2008 in response to growth — a statistic that underscores just how sustained this expansion has been — but the pace of residential development has continued to outrun infrastructure investment.

Bourcier noted that it takes parcels of 30 acres or more to properly site a school campus, a requirement that makes the land-banking strategy not just practical but necessary. Large, unencumbered tracts in high-demand corridors simply do not stay on the market long in today’s Horry County.

What This Means for the North Myrtle Beach Area

For the families and visitors who know Crescent Beach and Windy Hill as weekend escapes or annual summer traditions, this kind of news offers a window into how quickly the community surrounding those beloved stretches of coastline is changing. Highway 90 is the spine that connects inland Horry County to North Myrtle Beach, and the communities taking shape along it are growing into year-round neighborhoods with schools, services, and a permanent population that did not exist a generation ago.

That growth is part of what makes the Grand Strand one of the most dynamic coastal communities on the East Coast. It also makes Horry County Schools’ proactive land strategy worth watching — both as a signal of institutional confidence in the region’s continued growth and as an investment in the long-term quality of life that draws residents and visitors alike.

No timetable for development of the Highway 90 property has been announced. The district has said planning will continue through a public process in the months ahead.

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