Greenville County holds joint workshop on proposed cluster-housing ordinance revisions

A joint Greenville County Council and Planning Commission workshop examined proposed revisions to the county's cluster-housing rules in Article 24 of the Land Development Regulations, focusing on open-space calculations, density tables and definitions. Commissioners and stakeholders discussed a draft redline that includes suggested reductions in minimum open space for some categories and several alternate density figures for residential zones.

The draft under review included a requirement that preliminary plans supply a density table listing gross acres, permitted density per acre, required open space and total dwelling units proposed. Staff noted multiple red-line edits, including a suggested reversion of minimum open space from 70% to 50% for several zoning categories (R-6 through R-20a) and proposed density increases for some zones (examples discussed in the meeting: R-6 from about 4.8 to 7.3 units per acre; R-7.5 from about 3.8 to 5.8; R-10 from about 2.9 to 4.4).

"This is a workshop, and this is just a start'. When we wrote this, there were some stuff that we would leave out. But this is not ink. This is pencil, so to say," Vice Chairman Bradley said, urging a balance between citizens' and developers' interests. Bradley and other commissioners said they wanted the language to produce "meaningful" open space rather than fragmented bits of land that provide no recreational or…