Housing developers came away from Monday’s Laurens County Council meeting with a small win related to open-space development, a matter the council has been grappling with for 6 months.
Amendment 14 to the overall open-space amendment ordinance allows developers to put houses on 60% of a tract, assigning 40% to open space. The current ordinance sets the ratio at 40% for houses and 60% for open space, but developers called that “too restrictive” - the compromise was 50-50, and the lone holdout against the overall ordinance - Council Chairman Jeff Carroll - said he could live with 45% open space and the rest for houses.
After discussion, the overall amended open space ordinance passed on a 5-1 vote. The 60-40 houses-to-open amendment passed on a 4-2 vote, with Council Member Kemp Younts joining Carroll in voting “no”. County planning staff wanted the 40-60 houses-to-open-space ratio kept and “strong opposed” Council Member Arthur Philson’s recommendation to open up 60% to housing.
“Rooftops pay taxes,” Philson reminded everyone, several times, as the discussion continued at the council’s regular monthly meeting. Even though this was 3rd and final reading, a public hearing already had been conducted on this matter.
An outspoken opponent of high-density housing developments, Nancy Garrison said, “The number of homes within a 5-mile area of where I live is 2,006 in the process of being built. Only one (subdivision) has been built out. At 2 cars per home, that’s more than 4,000 more cars and stress on the area. We want growth, but we have to be cautious with areas that already have experienced growth. We want growth, but we have to weigh what’s more important to the county.”
Rapid development in Northern Laurens County, some approved before regulations were tightened, has prompted county council to take action (Laurens County does not have zoning, but it does have subdivision ordinances).
Philson, who represents part of Clinton, told Garrison, “What happened in District One, don’t make people suffer in the other districts. That’s water under the bridge.”
Garrison replied, “At some point you need to look at your county as a whole.”
Some council members said the ratio of open space to housing is less important because of another stipulation in the ordinance - development in high-density areas cannot exceed what a standard housing development would be, plus 5%.
Council also decided on 3 other amendments - changing the maximum density, staff recommends no change, no motion; lot widths, staff agrees with change, motion approved; and changing set-backs in relation to the International Building Codes, staff objects, no motion.
“Rooftops pay taxes in Laureens County,” Philson said, "Without rooftops, my county employees can’t get a raise.”
“At some point,” Carroll said, “the population does participate in paying the taxes …”
Philson interrupted, “Rooftops pay taxes.”
Carroll continued “… but that also, then, requires you to have more law enforcement and fire department, EMS, roads and bridges and all the things you need to add and fix. Their tax burden does not cover that. (New residents) will never pay enough taxes to pay the cost of the impact they bring, and we know that, and we’re willing to compromise, and that’s why this attempt to get something as usable as we can, that has enough restrictions to, kind of, make us an area where it’s fair landing on both sides. If both sides are suffering a little bit, we’re closer to the target than if one person’s very happy with what happened and one person is not. I really would prefer 50-50 (open space to housing ratio). I could get behind 45, but not 40.”
“My math says, ‘rooftops pay taxes.’ It doesn’t matter how many (new residents) are coming in, for our employees to get a raise,” Philson insisted.
Carroll gave impassioned comments about the Town of Gray Court and the rise in traffic.
“I live up in the northeastern part of the county and they’re (residents there) suffering - northeast and northwest as well. There’s 2,000 homes in the hopper that haven’t even been built yet, and I can appreciate the traffic now in Gray Court. It’s not the same Gray Court I’ve been in for 30 years. We haven’t even begun filling the subdivision that’s on Webb Road, and it’s going to drop 400 more cars every day on Hwy 14.
“So there’s plenty already in the hopper to build. I don’t want to stop construction. But it makes sense that you don’t take this problem and have it thrust on other parts of the community; and I speak for District 5, I know the people in my district and I know their concerns. Mr. Philson has another district and, maybe, people there feel different, but I’m just saying my vote, when I cast it, I can’t go 40% open space because I don’t think that’s restrictive enough.”
As the meeting concluded, the chairman reflected on the outcome he would rather not see coming. “We drug it out 6 months, it’s not the result I wanted. It will make some positive changes (but) lot of people’s lives will be affected. This document lives and breathes and likely will be changed at some time. Community members who are smart and know how it affects them - I represent them and their desires. They give us ‘things to think about’ - some solutions that will better our community.
“I know how it affects me, but I recognize what Mr. Philson said. We need to be a community. We are going to have a lot of people coming here, and a decade from now, it’s going to be a whole different animal.”
