Chick-fil-A relocation approved by council

By Ruben Lowman

In a unanimous vote at their most recent meeting on May 18, the North Myrtle Beach City Council gave second and final approval to the ordinance authorizing the relocation of one of the city’s highest-volume fast food restaurants.

The green light by city leaders clears the path for Chick-fil-A to vacate its current, heavily congested 1.03-acre site inside Gator Hole Plaza and assume the larger commercial footprint previously occupied by TGI Fridays, which has sat vacant since October 2024.

The approval followed a few months of debate at meetings and a workshop, where city planners, local residents and elected officials debated how the massive influx of drive-thru customers would impact the single-entrance commercial plaza off Highway 17.

The plaza is a critical retail corridor in the city that already anchors corporate giants like Walmart and Home Depot.

The corporate layout strategy presented by local Chick-fil-A franchise operator Jeff Cash explicitly addresses the severe capacity limits of the old location by nearly tripling the amount of available parking and expanding drive-thru stacking lanes.

Cash, who manages a local staff of 125 employees, said that the optimized layout aims to achieve a peak-hour efficiency rate of moving one vehicle through the lot every 15 to 20 seconds.

To further mitigate bottleneck anxieties, Chick-fil-A’s real estate team pitched an intricate internal traffic infrastructure overhaul that includes a dedicated right-turn option onto Ashley Loop, a newly engineered left-turn lane and specialized wayfinding signage to redirect departing vehicles smoothly toward Highway 17.

Additionally, corporate representatives have entered active negotiations with the master developers of Gator Hole Plaza to evaluate a proposal by Councilmember Trey Skidmore to construct a new internal traffic roundabout.

The council’s eventual shift toward a unanimous approval was influenced by broader commercial developments in the area that are expected to naturally siphon off heavy traffic volumes.

Councilmembers explicitly noted that a new Walmart supercenter slated to open in neighboring Calabash, N.C., coupled with several incoming commercial developments outside the municipal limits, should dramatically redistribute local consumer habits.

Mayor J Baldwin publicly noted his relief regarding the reworked corporate logistics and other councilmembers commented that these shopping alternatives will see many regular customers that commute down from Little River and the Brunswick County beaches choosing to shop closer to home, thereby granting much-needed structural relief to the Gator Hole intersection.

Beyond the corporate redevelopment, the council meeting doubled as a transition point for North Myrtle Beach Public Safety.

Amid a packed council chamber filled with local first responders, Mayor Baldwin officially swore in John Galganski as the city’s new fire chief.

Galganski steps into the chief executive role to replace former Fire Chief Billy Floyd, who formally retired from active service on May 15.

The administrative transition concluded with a standing ovation from the crowd, signaling a new chapter of leadership for the department just as the city simultaneously passed a sweeping public safety and environmental ordinance outlawing all smoking at public beach access points to curb toxic litter and