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[1] In 2011-2012, Easley Combined Utilities funded a seven million dollar dredging project to remove 366,000 cubic yards of sediment from the upper part of the lake. Today it is already filled in again and estimates for dredging the same area again are upwards of ten million dollars.

 

 

Greenville County’s new land development rules pass, angering residents and some on council

By Nathaniel Cary This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

GREENVILLE — Article 3.1 is no more.

The much-maligned section of Greenville County’s land development rules that aimed to stem sprawl in unzoned parts of the county but led to numerous lawsuits over its vague wording is gone after Greenville County Council voted on a replacement Aug. 17.

After months of discussion and passionate entreaties by residents in northern and southern Greenville to replace the rule with one that protects the rural character of their homes and land and forces developers to pay for improvements to county roads, the council voted in a split 7-5 decision to approve amended standards hashed out in private over the last month and never debated publicly.

The changes lessen the impact on developers and open up land for home builders to construct as many as six houses per acre, with less open space than residents wanted and the county’s planning staff recommended.

The new development rules were opposed by both councilmen whose rural districts the changes affect most.

The compromise gives developers and landowners a path forward for development in a rapidly growing county that’s expected to add more than 200,000 residents by 2040.

“I think the big thing is that we got rid of Article 3.1 because there’s a lot of vagueness in it,” Meadows said.

But the way the council adopted the final plan angered residents and a minority of council members. As soon as Chairman Willis Meadows introduced the item on the agenda, Councilman Michael Barnes motioned to amend the proposal. When it was seconded, Councilman Ennis Fant, who joined the meeting virtually, immediately called the question.

Over the protest of the council’s Vice Chair Dan Tripp, a roll call vote passed 7-5 to call the question and eliminate debate on the item. Councilman Lynn Ballard, who ended up voting against the ordinance, cast the deciding vote to limit debate.

The amended version then passed, also by a 7-5 vote. Council members Meadows, Barnes and Fant were joined by Steve Shaw, Stan Tzouvelekas, Xanthene Norris and Chris Harrison, who drafted much of the amended language, in voting for the new rules.

Council members Ballard, Tripp, Joe Dill, Butch Kirven and Liz Seman opposed the amended version.

Last month, the council reverted to the original plan drafted and proposed by the county’s planning staff, which was heralded by conservationists and rural residents as the best solution. That proposal would have required developers to widen all county roads touched by a development to 22 or 24 feet to the nearest intersection. It would also have set aside at least 30 percent, and up to 40 percent, of developments as open space.

A majority on the council concluded the staff’s plan was too strict and would have stifled growth in rural Greenville.

Meadows said if the staff version had passed, it would have cut property values by half in those rural areas because the land would be unusable for development due to the cost for developers to widen roads.

“It would’ve closed building in that area,” he said.

So some on County Council hashed out the plan that passed Aug. 17 ahead of time and proposed the changes with all seven councilmembers listed as co-sponsors.

The proposal struck a balance to allow development while also not forcing developers to “pay for past sins” by widening roads if traffic studies for proposed subdivisions didn’t warrant widening, Meadows said.

It passed quickly, to the shock of a crowd of about 50 interested residents who held signs during the vote that said, “listen to your constituents.”

After the vote, they exploded in anger, yelling at the council from their seats.

“We’re glad to have you here but any outbreaks like that and we’re just going to have to clear the room and let you go home,” Meadows said.

That caused a louder uproar as residents yelled, “you work for us.”

Meadows asked sheriff’s deputies to force anyone who spoke out to leave. Much of the crowd left and gathered outside.

“It’s just unbelievable the refusal of this council to listen to the people of this county,” said Jason Wright, a northern Greenville farmer. “People from the north to the south have all spoken on this issue and they all want the same thing and what they did tonight was took any responsibility to the impacts of development away from the developer.”

Wright said the residents of the county would end up paying for new growth.

“All they’ve heard is don’t do the sprawl, don’t do the willy-nilly development, and tonight they just turned on us,” said Kyle Gilley, a southern Greenville resident.

The staff plan wasn’t perfect but was created by professionals to balance the interests of all citizens, “unlike the amendments adopted tonight, which markedly favor developers over residents,” said Andrea Cooper, executive director of Upstate Forever, an environmental and conservation group.

“The councilors who voted to amend the staff plan blatantly ignored the wishes of the community,” Cooper said. “People drove out here tonight with tornado warnings in effect. They made calls, showed up to meetings, and sent hundreds of emails asking council to support the staff’s plan without those harmful amendments. Every single person who spoke at the public hearing last month asked council to back the staff plan.”

The version that passed was never vetted by the county’s planning commission, which is the body tasked with applying the new regulation, she said.

“It’s easy to see why constituents feel they are being sidelined in favor of development interests,” she said.

After the vote, Dill suggested he would push for a development moratorium until county leaders could better understand the impact of the new rules. He later said he didn’t know whether such a moratorium stood a chance of passing.

Dill and Ballard, who each represent largely unzoned rural districts, voted against the plan.

Dill accused the council majority of holding Saturday meetings to come to an agreement. Tripp also referred to “secret meetings earlier this week.” Meadows told The Post and Courier that he hadn’t been a part of or heard of any meetings among council members about the issue.

A number of council members who lost the vote spoke later in the meeting. Seman said she was disappointed there was no debate on the issue.

“Our citizens deserve to hear us debate the issues,” she said.

Kirven said the ordinance made some progress but needed further improvements. He also said he was disappointed there was no discussion before the vote.

Kirven said developers would seek out narrow rural county roads for development because they won’t shoulder the costs of improvements the state Department of Transportation would require for state roads. A traffic study and road impacts would not be triggered unless subdivisions exceed 45 houses, he said.

The costs for road improvements would “fall squarely on the taxpayers,” Kirven said.

“So where we are right now, until we make some improvements, I think for developers this is a big win for profit and sprawl, but for the people of Greenville County, it’s a travesty,” he said.

Tripp spoke forcefully, at times yelling at Meadows, who sat next to him.

“The majority does not have a divine right to shut the minority down,” Tripp said. “And Mr. Fant, I’m ashamed of you that as a minority, you would shut the minority down. You’re a hypocrite.”

Fant is one of two Black council members.

Tripp said he was incensed by Meadow’s “leadership, or lack thereof” and that there had been no debate. He said afterward that he planned to vote in favor of the amended version until the majority nixed discussion.

“It is wrong and there will be no peace on this council while you keep thumbing the minority on this body,” Tripp said.

Meadows said after the meeting that he would have a private conversation with Tripp.

Follow Nathaniel Cary on Twitter at @nathanielcary

Nathaniel Cary

Reporter

Nathaniel Cary is a reporter with The Post and Courier Greenville.