SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Every 10 years, Surfside Beach town leaders sit down and draft A 10-year-year long road map for the future. 

Mayor Bob Hellyer said the comprehensive plan is all about creating a vision to help leaders realize how they want to grow and change to keep the town moving in the right direction. 

Hellyer said devising a new plan every 10 years is necessary. As the world changes, it is important for the town to keep up, although, he said he thinks many people who live in Surfside Beach do not want any change at all. 

“If you ask the residents, the residents don’t want anything to change,” Hellyer said. “Everybody moved here for a reason. They love this place. They don’t want it to change.”

But change is necessary.

“Of course, that’s not realistic because it’s going to [change],” Hellyer said. “It’s just we need to set the rules for the changes and how it’s gonna be made.”

One thing that is important to leadership is keeping the town’s integrity. He said Surfside Beach has grown to have the feel of a quaint “family beach,” and leaders want the infrastructure in the town to match that feel.

“We redid our ordinance that has to do with height limits,” Hellyer said. “You’ll see that the difference between us and all of our neighbors is we don’t have big, high-rise apartments on our beach,” Hellyer said. “We don’t have any 14-story buildings. Everything that we have is 55 feet or below, and that’s what gives us that beach feeling. The Family Beach.”

The town’s leaders want the opinions of residents as they devise the plan, and there will be a meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Dick M. Johnson Civic Center where community members are encouraged to share thoughts and concerns. 

“I think that they’re going to give their opinions, and our contractor’s gonna be there to listen to those, and they’re gonna plug everything in, and then they’re gonna make recommendations to the planning commission,” Hellyer said. 

He said the comprehensive plan should be completed by the end of the year.