HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — The state Department of Natural Resources will pay Conway Medical Center $9.5 million for hundreds of acres along International Drive that was the intended location of a controversial hospital project.
The state’s Joint Bond Review Commitee on Tuesday approved an agency request to buy more than 353 acres, adding it to the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve — a key habitat of the critically endangered Venus flytrap.
Fight continues to save Horry County’s Venus flytraps as plant faces extinction in South Carolina
CMC in February said it was halting plans to build the $161 million facility on a portion of the site after years of opposition from conservation groups and Carolina Forest residents who worried about overcrowding.
“The abundance and range of Venus flytrap has been decimated by fire suppression and land conversion. It is now known from only a few populations in the world,” DNR wrote in documents supporting its request. “The largest population of Venus flytrap in the state … is found centered at the Lewis Ocean Bay HP and is the only population within the state that is considered to have long-term viability.”