Issue

The City of Myrtle Beach Planning Commission makes decisions on a wide variety of land use changes. These decisions are often difficult without the ability to visualize the results and the ways in which the changes may impact the community.

Process

Myrtle Beach city planners used CanVis to create visualizations that illustrate the impact of many proposed land use changes. For example, to better visualize the potential that wetland buffers have as passive recreation areas, planners created a simulation of a wetland buffer depicting new pathways and recreational uses such as birding and fishing. Because the software is easy to use, the planners produced these simulations quickly and incorporated them into presentations for planning commission meetings.

Impact

Because they were able to “picture” the positive impact a passive recreation area would have on the community, planning commissioners felt more informed and more confident in their decision-making process. As a result, the city council negotiated the addition of a passive public park in a similar wetland buffer area as part of a new planned development.