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Greenville council denies Camping World request to allow 130-foot poles and 3,200-square-foot flags
Summary
By a 6-0 vote, Greenville City Council rejected a text amendment that would have allowed much taller flagpoles and vastly larger noncommercial flags citywide after staff and residents raised safety, visual and process concerns.
Greenville City Council voted 6-0 Thursday to deny a text amendment requested by Camping World that would have raised the allowable flagpole height in nonresidential zoning districts and allowed noncommercial flags up to 3,200 square feet.
City planner Chris Kelly told council the change was not staff-initiated and would apply citywide. She said the request stemmed from a complaint after a locally erected flag later was measured at 40 by 80 feet — 3,200 square feet — and that staff recommended denial. “This proposed text amendment is not staff initiated,” Kelly said during her presentation.
The dispute began after a July building permit described a 70-foot pole and a 12-by-18-foot U.S. flag (216 square feet), which complies with the current ordinance. Planning staff sent a notice of violation on Oct. 31 after a complaint and later learned the installed flag was far larger. The company then filed the text-amendment request on Nov. 15 seeking higher poles (up to 130 feet in many districts) and a much larger allowable flag size.
Staff warned the request would apply across most nonresidential districts, allow poles higher than many nearby buildings and increase the maximum noncommercial flag size by about 1,381 percent, creating “visual and safety concerns,” Kelly said. The planning commission unanimously recommended denial on Dec. 17, 2024.
Speakers at the public hearing sharply disagreed. James Foske, the Greenville-area Camping World manager, said the local store did not initiate the nationwide flag program and that corporate vendors handled the installation: “I did not initiate this process,” he told council. He said local customers had expressed strong support for the flag.
Opponents said the company circumvented the permit process. Attorney and planning-board member Charles McLauchorn called the flag “illegal” and said the company’s approach was a national “playbook” that substitutes publicity for proper process: “I am here to object to the illegal flag and flagpole, which has been erected without authority,” he said. Council member Robinson told staff the sequence of events looked like “deception” and said the city had been misled about what would be built.
Council member Blackburn moved to deny the amendment. After brief discussion, council voted 6-0 to deny the requested text change.
The decision leaves the city’s existing flag regulations in place: nonresidential poles may be up to 70 feet (or the zoning district maximum, if lower), residential poles up to 25 feet, and noncommercial flag sizes proportionate to pole height. Council and staff expressed interest in reviewing the ordinance language separately if Camping World returns seeking a site-specific variance or a more narrowly tailored amendment.
The denial does not immediately resolve the outstanding code-enforcement issue tied to the installed pole and flag. City staff told council they intend to pursue available civil remedies and that the building permit tied to the smaller pole could be revoked because the installed work did not match the permit application.
Council’s vote followed a lengthy public hearing and multiple public speakers on both sides. The action closes the text amendment request but leaves the enforcement matter and any company requests for a site-specific variance or a future ordinance review open for further administrative action.
