City Manager outlines growth, safety and housing priorities in Greenville State of the City

City Manager Miss Labrad delivered Greenville City's 2025 State of the City address, summarizing recent accomplishments and outlining projects and priorities for the coming year.

Miss Labrad said Greenville "continues to grow and evolve," and opened with baseline city data, saying the city covers just over 31 square miles, has a population of about 78,800 with more than 37,000 households, and an average household size of 2.02. She said the city has a large 25-to-34 age cohort and a highly educated population.

The address focused on five priority areas: public safety, mobility and transportation, recreation/open space/sustainability, neighborhoods and affordable housing, and economic development. On public safety, Miss Labrad noted the Fire Department maintained a Class 1 Insurance Services Office rating and that public-safety departments responded to 15,699 calls for service last year, which she said equates to nearly 25,000 unit responses. She announced ongoing projects including a new Public Safety Campus on Palmer Road and a replacement fire station for the Stone Avenue site; construction on the new station is expected to take 12 to 14 months once it begins.

On mobility and transportation, Miss Labrad highlighted completion and upcoming work: the Greenlink operations and maintenance facility, a pedestrian-focused Cultural Corridor on College Street, the East North Gateway project near Bon Secours Wellness Arena and the (GSP) Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport area, and targeted pedestrian-safety and traffic-calming installations. She said the city received bids for the Verde Pedestrian Bridge with a low apparent bid of $4,700,000 and that a 400-space parking garage on House Street, approved this year, is expected to open in spring 2026. She described an ongoing multi-phase extension of the Swamp Rabbit Trail (including an Orange Line study) and other trail and sidewalk upgrades.

Miss Labrad reviewed planning and land actions tied to small-area plans and redevelopment. She reported completion of small-area plans for several neighborhoods (named in the address) and said the city made a "once in a generation" acquisition of more than six acres in the Haney Serene community adjacent to downtown to guide future development toward affordable housing, open space and mobility objectives. She also said the city closed on a property at Dunbar and Augusta to enable a future Dunbar extension and accepted roughly 9.2 acres donated by Home Depot adjacent to Wynnewood Soccer Complex for open-space preservation.

On parks, the city marked the 20th anniversary of Falls Park, continued work at Unity Park (including a near-term Mayberry Park opening anticipated in August), began construction of Cleveland Park's inclusive Brooks Playground, and reported ongoing improvements to multiple neighborhood parks. The Greenville Zoo earned accreditation and opened new exhibits, Miss Labrad said.

Under sustainability and resilience, Miss Labrad announced the hiring of a sustainability and resilience coordinator and that the Nicholtown neighborhood community center will house the city's first resilience hub. She also said the city has preserved more than 300 acres of open space since 2021 and is pursuing additional acquisitions and tree-planting efforts.

On neighborhoods and housing, Miss Labrad described a newly available tool allowing the city to use a portion of local and state accommodation-tax revenue for workforce housing after completing a housing impact analysis; she said the city added $1.6 million to the budget for workforce housing and used those funds to acquire a two-acre lot near Unity Park for workforce housing options. She summarized fee waivers and other concessions the city provided to support affordable developments and storm-repair work.

Miss Labrad presented economic-development highlights including facilitating high-impact corporate relocations and a new Lawrence Road tax-increment financing (TIF) district to support reinvestment along a 223-acre corridor. She said the city plans a micro-grant program for underrepresented entrepreneurs and noted the sale of the former municipal court building at 426 North Main Street as a redevelopment opportunity.

The address closed with a list of upcoming initiatives and dates: a downtown design-guidelines update kickoff with Cooper Carry, a civic design center under lease at 15 South Main Street with a planned opening in January, open-streets pilot closures on Saturdays beginning May 24, and ongoing planning on Mayberry Street, West Greenville community center design, and a downtown conference center process to seek a development partner.

Council members and attendees offered brief praise and applause after the address; several spoke one- or two-word remarks but no formal motions or votes were taken during the portion of the meeting recorded in the provided transcript.

Miss Labrad emphasized a theme of unity, saying "unity is our guiding theme" and framing the city's progress as the result of coordinated staff work, partnerships and community engagement.