Residential developers in Laurens County will have to wait on using the open space development category allowed by a county subdivision ordinance for 6 months, under a provision agreed to by the county council Monday night.
Council authorized County Attorney Wes Meetze to draft an ordinance setting a half-year moratorium on permits for the Open Space land-use classification. Council Member Brown Patterson voted “no” on the moratorium.
Council was told by Planning Commission Chairman Bobby Smith and Senior Planner Lisa Wargo that developers had discovered that they can increase the density of their subdivisions, from what is required in a “conventional” subdivision, by applying for Open Space which swaps out high density for open/recreational space.
Right now, the moratorium would affect Brentwood and Cambridge Farms.
But Wargo said there are more Open Space requests in the pipeline for the Laurens County Planning Commission. Plans have to go through a technical review committee prior to consideration by the Planning Commission, which has the final say on whether subdivisions comply with the land-use plan and subdivision ordinance.
Laurens County does not have zoning.
Conventional subdivisions have houses on half-acre lots.
Open space subdivisions have houses on quarter-acre lots.
Open Space was meant to be for rare occasions when a developer was working with a wetlands, or other significant environment concern; but Smith said developers have gotten wise to the fact that under Laurens County’s ordinance there is a way to increase the density to levels that they want.
Council Member Kemp Younts, whose Northern Laurens County district has been overrun with subdivisions in the past half-decade, pointed out the half-acre-lots, quarter-acre-lots discrepancy.
“I don’t like that,” Younts said of houses on quarter-acre-lots. “That’s not what most people in Laurens County want.”
But another concern was, as long as developers were meeting what is in the current ordinance, how could they be stopped from receiving approvals.
Wargo said as long as a development meets the requirements, County Planning has a legal obligation to move it through.
Smith said all the Planning Commission and the Planning Department were asking for was 6 months to study the situation.
Likely, in consultation with the County Attorney and the County Land-Use and Zoning Task Force, changes to the Open Space designation will be made, to restore the intent of the regulation.
“We need some time to research it,” County Attorney Meetze said.
This was a council discussion agenda item, so there was no proposed ordinance to be voted on. The 3 readings and a public hearing process to get a moratorium formally approved will take 45 days, Patterson pointed out. Carroll said, “We can have called meetings.”
Laurens County already has been through one residential development moratorium, which virtually stopped applications for conventional subdivisions for the past 2 years.
Smith said close examination of the county’s land-use and subdivision regulations has been on-going since April, 2017, when residential developers seemed to “discover” Laurens County.
Fast-moving residential growth in Simpsonville and southern Greenville County, and now in Woodruff (BMW electric), has made Northern Laurens County the next logical destination for subdivisions.
Farmers and ranchers in the northern area have mounted significant push-back against unchecked residential growth in their once-rural areas.
That puts the Planning Commission and the County Planning Department in between two highly motivated groups wanting different outcomes. Some of the issues have played out in court.
Smith said, “Developers are not following the spirit of Open Space. They are using it as a loophole to increase density.”
Wargo said, “It’s an option for developers who have land with a lot of environmental constraints.”
If the County passes a moratorium, it must be done by ordinance and it must be done for a specific purpose (in this case, research). While the pause in this case is likely to be designated as 6 months, it could be rescinded in, say, 3 months if a suitable re-writing of the Open Space category is accomplished.
Will the pause affect conventional subdivisions, too, Wargo was asked.
“There’s no reason to think it will affect those because we are not getting them. Developers have figured out how to use Open Space to get the high density that they want,” she said.
In other business at the June 9 meeting, Council approved a resolution honoring the late Judge Joseph “Joe” McGowan, III, of Laurens, and a June 15-21 National Waste & Recycling Workers Week resolution.
Cheyenne Noffz, clerk to council, outlined the new Laurens County website. To comply with a state law, the website complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and provides a more user-friendly and transparent look at county operations, she said.
The website is: www.laurenscountysc.gov
The website it replaces will be retired within 6 months, Noffz said, after all information from there is migrated to the new, upgraded site.
The new site allows for E-mail Alerts to subscribers when any additions are made to the website - the next county council meeting agenda, for instance. Correspondence to the website can go directly to the department head best qualified to answer the concern, and departments can have their own “page editors,” after training on issues like ADA compliance.
The council received no public comments, and authorized 3 appointments to the new Agriculture Advisory Committee.
Council received no public comments on its proposed budget of $48,712,108, and no comment on its proposed fire budget of $5,999,620.
A second public hearing and final approval is scheduled for June 23.
Council received no public comments on what was proposed as a $4 Million bond issue designated for the Sheriff’s Office.
The actual amount borrowed for LCSC projects will be $2.58 Million, Interim County Administrator Melissa Ferqueron told the council. The largest portions of this bond is for detention center cameras ($776,000), HVAC ($565,000), locks ($656,000), and upgrades to the animal control facility ($846,000).
The higher number was made available to LCSO as it negotiated firm bids for these upgrades. Council Member Brown Patterson questioned why some line items are higher than originally proposed ($85,000 more for cameras, for instance); but Council Chairman Jeff Carroll said the cost increases are “absolutely necessary for the project.”
Council gave unanimous approval for the $2.58M bond, which will be re-paid through property taxes. The county expects the increase to be negligible because other debt will “roll off” the county’s books this coming fiscal year.
Laurens County's new website here.
