News & INSIGHTS

GREENVILLE — More than a year ago, Greenville embarked on an effort to overhaul the rules that govern how the city grows.

The city’s population has been expanding rapidly in recent years, a trend that also includes the county and is projected to continue. Greenville County anticipates an additional 200,000 residents by 2040.

In an effort to prepare the city to accommodate that growth, city leadership and staff, with assistance from consulting firm CZB LLC, have endeavored to create an entirely new zoning ordinance that would promote more dense development, facilitate the creation of new affordable housing, preserve greenspace and keep the city’s identity intact. 

Earlier this week, Greenville unveiled the culmination of that work, a draft ordinance that officials hope will provide clear, effective rules for governing future growth.

Now, the the city is seeking input from residents. About 250 people attended four meetings on Jan. 25 and 26 to provide feedback on the ordinance, Assistant City Manager Shannon Lavrin said. Comments can also be sent to devcode@publicinput.com.

“We’re starting to catalogue all of those and we’re going to start meeting on Monday (Jan. 30) to look at the comments,” Lavrin said. 

Among the chief goals of the new development code was to design a land management ordinance that would provide more clarity to developers and residents, and remove the need for officials to consider as many project proposals on a case by case basis. To that end, the draft code includes roughly double the number of zoning designations as the current ordinance. The expanded list of classifications aims to provide more targeted guidelines and requirements based on the unique characteristics of the different communities and commercial corridors throughout the city, Lavrin said.

For example, the preliminary development rules contain 12 residential district designations. They offer a range of characteristics, from large suburban lots to more urban areas that transition between neighborhoods and busier corridors. 

The new draft also contains eight distinct types of mixed-use zoning. The addition of those new classifications is part of an effort to create more walkable, urban parts of the city referred to as “nodes,” envisioned as mini downtowns. In its 2040 comprehensive plan, Greenville identified 11 locations throughout the city for those nodes, including the area around Haywood Mall, North Timmons Park and McAlister Square. The proposed code also looks to encourage more intentional development along the corridors that connect the residential and commercial hubs around the city.

Some of the designations within the recently released draft are tailored to offer incentives to developers that include certain features in their projects, including community greenspace and reduced rent in a portion of their units. Under the proposed zoning map, roughly a quarter of the city’s 27,000 parcels would be eligible for some version of those incentives.

Under the various mixed-use classifications included in the proposed ordinance, developers would be allowed a baseline of between two and five stories, depending on the designation. But by adding a certain level of more affordable units, developers would be permitted to add up to two more stories to buildings, topping off at seven stories in the districts that allow up to five.

Residents will have additional opportunities to comment on the draft ordinance at public hearings with Greenville’s Planning Commission on Feb. 28 and March 1. Lavrin said it could go before City Council as early as April but will more likely appear for a first vote in May. Council would have to approve two readings to make the new rules law. Lavrin said if it is passed, there would be a yet-to-be determined implementation period before it to officially went into effect.