Federal judge rules North Myrtle Beach can keep fining local business

Federal judge rules North Myrtle Beach can keep fining local business

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH — A federal judge has ruled that North Myrtle Beach officials can keep fining a Cherry Grove business for violating a city ordinance, while an ongoing lawsuit moves through the legal system.

Cherry Grove Beach Gear filed a 20-page federal lawsuit July 11 that claimed North Myrtle Beach officials “unlawfully” targeted the business through a June 29 ordinance amendment and additionally sought to place a monopoly on the rentals of beach chairs and umbrellas on the city’s 9-mile shoreline.

The June 29 amended ordinance by North Myrtle Beach City Council prohibits businesses or people, regardless of the time, from renting, setting up or delivering any beach equipment from public beaches in the city. However, business owners can make arrangements to deliver the items to homes, rental units or at the end of beach accesses.

Two days after the lawsuit was filed, lawyers for Cherry Grove Beach Gear through a motion asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent the ordinance from being enforced, which would keep the family-owned business from receiving daily fines for setting up rented equipment on the beach.

Cherry Grove Beach Gear owner Derek Calhoun said in a recent social media post that the business has accumulated more than $20,000 in fines since the amended ordinance was passed in June.

U.S. District Judge R. Bryan Harwell sided with the city after an Aug. 31 hearing in Florence.

“While (Cherry Grove Beach Gear) cannot deliver or set up equipment on the beach without running afoul of the ordinances, they can still continue operating their rental business — just like multiple other vendors in the area do,” wrote Harwell in a Sept. 2 decision.

City officials previously said the ordinance that prohibits private companies from doing business on the beach is decades old. City Council passed an ordinance in 1990 that “prohibits any person from engaging in the sale, lease or rent of any goods or other property upon the public beaches unless he or she has been granted a franchise.”

Cherry Grove Beach Gear said in the federal lawsuit that it has operated legally within the city limits since 2019 with a valid business license while paying both local accommodations and hospitality taxes imposed by city council.

But the city said in its response to the lawsuit that since April the business has “known that city law prohibits delivery and set up of sold or rented beach equipment.”

“Other beach equipment companies comply with the law by delivering items to where their customers are staying,” the city said in its response. “But (Cherry Grove Beach Gear) don’t like the law, so they refuse to comply with it.”

While the temporary injunction was denied, the ongoing lawsuit asks for an undisclosed monetary amount for damages.

Sign up for weekly roundups of our top stories, news and culture from the Myrtle Beach area. This newsletter is hand-curated by a member of our Myrtle Beach news staff.

This content was originally published here.