Georgetown County Council supports permanent protection of 3,492-acre Arcadia East tract
September 8, 2026
Georgetown County Council passed a resolution on Sept. 8 formally supporting the acquisition and permanent protection of the Arcadia East Tract, a 3,492-acre property on the east side of Highway 17 between Debordieu Colony and the Prince George community. The vote was unanimous.
The property will ultimately be acquired by a state partner, with funding coordinated through the S.C. Office of Resilience and the S.C. Department of Administration. As an interim step, two nonprofit land trusts – the Open Space Institute and Ducks Unlimited – will purchase and hold the property while state approvals and funding are secured.
County Council’s support was a required part of the state’s approval process.
Aerial view of Arcadia East Tract, a 3,492-acre property on the east side of Highway 17 between Debordieu Colony and the Prince George community.
The Arcadia East property was previously approved as the Arcadia East Planned Development, a large-scale mixed-use project that would have included a corporate park, village center, single-family neighborhoods, a retirement village, a patio home community, a golf course community and a resort. The approved land use plan called for 1.26 million square feet of office space, 400,000 square feet of commercial space plus a hotel, and between 3,332 and 3,392 residential units, spanning single-family attached and detached homes, multi-family units, patio homes, estate lots and villas.
“This land has been eyed for significant development for years,” said Georgetown County Council Chairman Clint Elliott. “Tonight’s resolution helps ensure it stays protected – permanently – and puts the county and state on record working together toward emergency access solutions that have been a priority for this community for a long time.”
Once complete, the acquisition will remove the tract permanently from the development market, preserving one of the largest remaining undeveloped coastal properties in the county.
It will ease the burden major development here would put on Highway 17 and protects that piece of coastline and the valuable habitat it offers for wildlife. I think this is a wonderful thing for the Waccamaw Neck and all of Georgetown County,” Elliott said.
You can watch the discussion at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9LmSwIYt5k. It starts about an hour into the 5:30 p.m. meeting.
