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Tag: Richland County Planning Commission

  • Update on Richland County mass rezoning

    COLUMBIA – The regular monthly meeting of the Richland County Planning Commission will not be held as planned on Monday, May 2, according to county officials. Instead, the Commission will hold a work session on the proposed new zoning map on Monday, May 9, at 10 a.m. at the council chambers at 2020 Hampton Street.

    The County Council will meet on Tuesday, May 3, at 6 p.m., but it is not known at this time whether council will hold first reading on Councilman Paul Livingston’s amendment to the text of the ordinance that approved the new Land Development Code (LDC).

    That amendment proposes to keep the new LDC in place (though not currently effective) and allows for the previous rezoning process to continue until the proposed new zoning map is adopted. Until that time, any rezonings would require using the zoning classifications from the former LDC (in place since 2005.) Those classifications match the official zoning map but have been removed from the new LDC.

    Livingston’s amendment will need three readings and a public hearing.

    Blythewood resident Sallie Sharpe will be meeting with a group on the lawn in front of the court house at 5 p.m. For information and regular updates on the rezoning issue, go to salslocalseed.com

  • RCPC OKs industrial zoning in 29016

    COLUMBIA – Richland County Planning Commissioners voted unanimously Monday afternoon to recommend that Richland County Council approve the rezoning of 483.55 acres of property adjacent to the Town of Blythewood – 456.01 of those acres would be zoned Light Industrial (LI) and 27.54 acres would be zoned General Commercial (GC). The two parcels lie in Richland County’s zoning jurisdiction and are bordered by Blythewood Road, I-77, Ashley Oaks subdivision and North Pointe Industrial Park.

    While Town Administrator Brian Cook was in attendance and was asked several questions by the commissioners, no residents from the Blythewood community attended the meeting. The rezoning request will go before county council Sept. 24.

    The two parcels are part of about 1,300 acres that the county has been seeking to rezone for a Blythewood Industrial Park. The remaining 864 acres of the proposed industrial park lie in the Town of Blythewood.

    “I feel that this (LI) rezoning request will create a positive economic impact in the area.”

    Heather Carnes
    Richland County Planning Commissioner

    While the county’s staff recommended disapproval of the rezoning Monday afternoon, County Zoning Administrator and Deputy Planning Director Geonard Price said that disapproval was based on the 2015 comprehensive plan which designates this area as neighborhood low density for future land use.

    “Within this zoning [neighborhood low density] designation, the plan discourages industrial uses that will have significant community impacts, meaning noise, exhaust or heavy traffic. The uses allowed under this (LI) zoning district includes potential users which would be incompatible with how this general area is currently developed,” Price said.

    Price pointed out that the Town of Blythewood has already rezoned (in 2015) about 678 acres of the 1,300 acres for Limited Industrial 2 (LI2) uses and is in the process of rezoning 163 more acres as LI2. Town council will have second reading on the 163 acres on Sept. 23.

    “I point that out,” Price said, “because when you compare the location of that zoning request to what has been proposed, it may make this more compatible with the surrounding area.”

    In 2015, the county persuaded the Town to rezone the 678 acres to LI2, a new zoning designation created by the Town for county officials for that property. County asked Blythewood for the rezoning at that time for an industry it said was coming to the property. After the rezoning, the industry never materialized. At a recent town meeting, county officials disclosed that the rezoning of the 678 acres was part of their five-year master plan for a Blythewood Industrial Park.

    Jeff Rubble, director of the county’s economic development office, told commissioners that since March, his office has taken all the steps to get the zoning approved so the county could sell bonds to purchase the entire 1,300 acres. He said the bond closing is set for Nov. 1.

    “The folks that would purchase the bonds told us they want to see the land zoned consistent with how it will be used. And that’s why we’re going through this rezoning process before we purchase the land.” Rubble said. “We want to build a tax base, create quality jobs. This is another big, big piece. This is the next two decades of growth. We want to reserve the front edge along Blythewood Road for mixed use development, hotels, high end restaurants, offices. We don’t want growth to happen to us. We want to do what we want to do proactively.” Rubble said. “This is a major step.”

    Asked by Commissioner Heather Carnes what makes the area particularly appropriate for this industrial use, Tiffany Harrison, also with the Richland County Economic Development office, said it is prime for industrial grade use.

    “You have full infrastructure out there. You have 15 million gallons a day of water, telecommunications infrastructure, access to the land from two interchanges,” Harrison said. ”The area is primed for growth and development. It’s the idea of setting aside property to bring in industry to create jobs, to invest in the community. That’s what we’re trying to do here.”

    “With I-77, we’ve had companies like Sony, IBM, United Technologies all come in and buy big tracts of land,” Rubble said. “The interchanges at Farrow Road, Clemson Road, Highway 21 and Blythewood Road have all been swallowed up by commercial and residential. Some of these sites were our best industrial sites but were bought by car dealerships, etc. It (industrial land) just keeps disappearing. If we don’t act, this, too, will get swallowed up.”

    In making a motion for a recommendation of approval of the rezoning requests for the two parcels, Commissioner Carnes said her reason for going against the comp plan is that this is an opportunity to create a unique, well situated industrial park for the future.

    “The comp plan just didn’t anticipate this opportunity. But now that it presents itself to us, I think we should encourage it,” Carnes said. “I feel that this rezoning request will create a positive economic impact in the area.”

    Asked by Commissioner Wallace Brown if the county’s request is compatible with what the Town of Blythewood has in mind, Cook said it is.

    “Yes, based on the town council tying it together with the covenants and restrictions and their overall idea behind this project. But we need these assurances in place with the covenants and restrictions,” Cook said.

    Richland County Council will meet Sept. 24 in council chambers at 2020 Hampton Street in Columbia, to consider the planning commission’s recommendation.

  • Crickentree residents take 5-2 PC vote

    Rezoning Request Now Heads for Richland County Council

    COLUMBIA – In horseracing terms, it’s pretty close to a hat trick.

    More than 50 residents of Crickentree and other Columbia area golf course communities pulled off a third upset in their quest to stop the rezoning of a former golf course property that borders their neighborhood from Traditional Recreational Open Space (TROS) to a residential zoning classification

    This time the win came at Monday afternoon’s Richland County Planning Commission where the panel voted against recommending Low Density Residential (RS-LD) zoning to council with a vote of 5-2.

    In April, the Commission voted against rezoning the property to Medium Density Residential (RS-MD) by a vote of 7-1. The third victory, of sorts, occurred last month when the applicant, E-Capital, withdrew its rezoning request for Richland County Council’s consideration just minutes before the matter was to be discussed and voted on.

    The county planning staff recommended approval before it went before the Planning Commission on Monday.

    Robert Fuller, a Columbia attorney representing E-Capital, reasoned that the RS-LD zoning, allowing 3.63 homes to the acre, is the same as the Crickentree property zoning.

    County zoning administrator Geo Price pointed out, however, that Crickentree lots are actually larger with 1.04 homes to the acre.

    Resident Russ St. Marie said chapter 26 of the county’s zoning ordinance directs that TROS zoned properties and their current uses are to be preserved and protected.

    “TROS zoning is just another zoning designation,” Commissioner David Tuttle, one of two commissioners voting for the rezoning, said. “It’s just another zoning classification.

    “In this zoning, lots would be restricted to no less than 1,200 square feet,” Fuller told the panel. “We would restrict the number of homes to 207 with a 150-foot buffer between the golf course property and the Crickentree neighborhood. This is the only way the owner can make anything of it.”

    The issue will go before County Council on Tuesday, June 25, for first reading and a public hearing. This is the only meeting that residents will be allowed to speak to the issue.

  • Crickentree flies past first hurdle, 7-1

    COLUMBIA – Crickentree residents appeared before the Richland County Planning Commission on Monday to protest the rezoning of the failed Golf Course of South Carolina from Traditional Residential Open Spaces (TROS) to medium density residential use (RS-MD). The golf course shares a border with Crickentree.

    After hearing from 13 of approximately 75 Crickentree residents in attendance, the Commission voted 7-1, against the County planning staff’s recommendation for the Commission to approve the rezoning.

    But the win is only the first step in the residents’ effort to defeat the rezoning bid. The Commission’s recommendation of disapproval now goes to County Council which will hold three readings (votes) on the issue.

    Foreclosure

    Foreclosed on last August, the golf course property is now owned by Texas investment firm E-Capital.  At issue is whether council will leave the TROS zoning and the rural environment of Crickentree in place or replace it with a zoning classification (RD-MS) that county staff says complies with the county’s comprehensive land use plan and that allows up to 600 or so homes to be built on 8,500 square foot lots.

    Residents argue that while the proposed medium density zoning might comply with the comp plan, medium density and its uses are not consistent with that of the established and proposed developments of adjacent and nearby subdivisions.

    The TROS ordinance was passed by Council in 2007 when golf courses in Richland County began to struggle financially, and developers were eying them for residential development. The purpose of TROS, according to the ordinance, was to ensure “the preservation of conservation, recreation, and/or open space; and to lessen the diminution of property values from the loss of open space commonly provided for in a community; and to provide opportunities for improved public and/or private recreation activities; and to provide for a community-wide network of open space, buffer zones and recreation spaces.”

    For those reasons, residents speaking on Monday asked Commissioners to leave the TROS zoning in place.

    Attorney Robert Fuller, representing E-Capital, laid out a plan for the property to be developed under medium density zoning, but promised that no more than 237 homes would be built, not the 600 or so allowable under that zoning classification. He also promised there would be a 150-foot tree and landscape buffer separating the proposed new homes from the large-lot Crickentree.

    Fuller said of the 237 homes, only 90 would be built on 8,500 square foot (medium density) lots and that the remaining 140 would be built on 12,000 square-foot (low density) lots.

    Commissioner Heather Cairns interrupted Fuller’s presentation to clarify what she said was the commissioners’ responsibility in considering the request.

    “I want to remind us [commissioners] that while a plan is being given to us [by Fuller], that [plan] is not what we are to consider,” Cairns said. “What we are [to consider] is, ‘Should 186 acres be rezoned into something that’s allowing 8,500 square-foot lots over its entire existence?’”

    She said the Commission cannot approve zoning based on a promised development plan.

    “I appreciate the drawings,” Cairns said to Fuller. “but that is not something we can even decide.”

    Plans and Promises

    Residents addressing the Commission agreed.

    “Proposed and planned are the key words,” resident Carol Lucas said. “We can’t bind them [to those limitations]. A developer could purchase the property and build [more] homes. “

    “The promises made to the community [by the land owner] are not enforceable by the county,” Deborah Real reminded Commissioners.

    Resident Russell St. Marie challenged Fuller’s promise for how the property would be developed.

    “E-Capital is on record that they have no intention of developing this property,” St. Louis said. “They merely want to change the zoning and sell it to a developer.”

    Resident Iris St. Marie said that when she and her husband purchased their golf course lot in Crickentree, the 2015 comprehensive land use plan presented a very different 20-year future.

    “It likened TROS to conservation. Subdivisions that were planned for commercial or residential development were discouraged in TROS,” St. Marie said.

    Arguing for TROS

    Many of the residents claimed that the current TROS ordinance indicates that the County wants the land to remain as recreational, open space, that TROS is a protective ordinance.

    Resident Michelle Kelly went further, saying that TROS was meant to protect the property owners and surrounding property values.

    Iris St. Marie referenced an article that she said quoted the County’s zoning director Geonard Price as saying: “The intent for TROS was not to include developable land, but to protect the golf course within the community.”

    Commissioner David Tuttle disagreed, saying that he was in the room when TROS was being worked out. He said prior to TROS, if a golf course was no longer used for a golf course, it automatically reverted to the underlying (previous) zoning without going through a notification or rezoning process.

    “The protection implemented by TROS was to create a barrier whereby you have to go through certain notification and rezoning steps to rezone,” Tuttle said. “It was never meant to be a permanent zoning.”

    “So was TROS designed to protect golf courses?” Commission Chairman Stephen Gilchrist asked Price.

    After a pause, Price responded, “I’m unable to answer that.”

    Gilchrist later asked Price if TROS was designed to protect open space.

    “Yes, according to the purpose statement [of the TROS ordinance],” Price said, quoting from the statement, “…in order to insure preservation of conservation, recreation and open space.”

    Cairns also clarified that TROS pertains to golf courses with a neighborhood component, not to golf courses in general. While Cairns said she could support some level of residential zoning for the golf course, she could not support the level of medium density.

    “When other people’s property that you reap benefit from changes, it’s a bad day,” Cairns said.

    Commissioner David Tuttle made a motion to approve the requested zoning, but that motion died for lack of a second.  Commissioner Beverly Frierson then made a motion to recommend that Council disapprove the requested RS-MD zoning. That motion passed 7-1 with Tuttle voting against.

    The next meeting is a public hearing before County Council set for April 23 in County Council chambers at 2020 Hampton Street. That is the only meeting where residents will be allowed to address the issue.

  • Residents’ input sought on zoning

    COLUMBIA – For the second year in a row, Richland County has invited county residents to participate in what the County calls the rewriting of the County’s Land Development Code (zoning ordinance) and regulations. A flier announcing meetings, on Feb. 5 and Feb. 7, states that residents’ input will help guide the rewrite.

    But some residents who attended those meetings last year claimed during public presentation at Richland County Planning Commission and County Council meetings in the fall of 2017 that they never heard back after making their suggestions for changes and new directions for zoning. Indeed, County officials concede there have been no reports on the results of last year’s meetings.

    Tracy Hegler, Director of Planning and Development for Richland County, told the Voice prior to a Planning Commission meeting last September, that no reports would be forthcoming until the second group of meetings in February, 2018.

    Last year’s meetings came just after Richland County Council voted against a request by Hugh Palmer for commercial zoning on Rimer Pond Road. During that process, residents were unhappy to learn that the County’s Comprehensive Plan (a document directing future zoning in an area) designated future development along Rimer Pond Road as suburban (medium density zoning), not rural as it is currently zoned. Much of the controversy surrounding the Palmer’s commercial rezoning request is focused on that issue.

    Much of the land in that area is made up of farms and large acre properties that back up to LongCreek Plantation. The residents from both areas have expressed to Richland County Council and to the Planning Commission during the past several years a desire for properties in that area to remain rural in the future. They said that once commercial zoning is approved for one property, it will spread down the road, destroying the neighborhood’s quality of life and even safety.

    “Right now, in some areas, like Rimer Pond Road, the people who live there are not liking what the county has planned for their area in terms of zoning,” Ashley Powell, Community Planning and Development Services Manager, said last year. “We want to protect the character of the neighborhood that the people moved out there for. We need to amend (the Richland County Comp Plan) based on the feedback we get from the people.”

    But residents in the Rimer Pond Road area have said in Richland County public meetings that they are looking for the mapped-out long range vision for their area to change from suburban back to rural. Nothing on the County’s website weplantogether.org indicates the County has taken any actions to make that happen. Some Rimer Pond Road area residents have asked Council officials during public meetings this past year how they will know the County is actually going to implement their suggestions.

    The County has announced again this year that the two February meetings will be held as part of an ongoing process to put into action the County’s Comprehensive (Comp) Plan which was last updated in 2015.

    “The next step is the rewrite of the Land Development Code,” Powell said. “The Code is what punches that Comp Plan (vision) into action (law). This Code undergirds the vision set forth in the Comp Plan with enforceable standards for development. This moves the County from envisioning the kind of place where we want to live, to creating it,” Powell said.

    The County’s press release states that to learn more about the implementation of the 2015 updates to the County’s Comprehensive Plan, visit weplantogether.org. But there are no discernable updates from last February’s meetings on the site to indicate residents’ suggestions are being implemented. And there is no specific information as to changes residents in the Rimer Pond Road/LongCreek Plantation area or any other area say they want in the long term for their area to be zoned.

    Two code rewrite meetings are scheduled:

    Monday, Feb. 5, 6 – 8 p.m., at Council Chambers, 2020 Hampton St., Columbia. The meeting will be live-streamed to the libraries in Blythewood, Eastover and other locations that can be found on the project website, weplantogether.org. The meeting can also be viewed online on RCTV or at rcgov.us.

    Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2- 4 p.m., at the Community Room at the Decker Center, 2500 Decker Blvd., Columbia.