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Greer staff presents five-year comprehensive plan update; council schedules review
Summary
City planning staff presented a five-year update to Greer’s comprehensive plan (Ordinance 29-2025), highlighting growth, a new resilience element required by state law, and infrastructure priorities tied to Fort Greer and new trail projects. Council heard the first reading and asked for follow-up information ahead of adoption.
Greer planning staff gave council a first reading of the city’s five-year comprehensive plan update, describing it as a nonbinding strategic tool to guide zoning and capital investments. Miss Coddy, who presented the update, said the document updates data and trends and adds a resilience element required by the South Carolina Local Government Comprehensive Planning Enabling Act.
“It is not a code or ordinance,” Coddy said, “it is a decision making tool that staff, planning commission, [and] council use to make zoning decisions and to help prioritize our investments and our dollars in our budget.” She told council staff recommends updates to the future land use map and noted the update covers population, natural resources, transportation and a standalone resilience element the state began requiring in 2020.
Coddy summarized recent growth trends: ESRI estimates Greer’s population at about 40,000, while in-house estimates are closer to 50,000; net migration increased during the COVID period. She said the city has seen nine new multifamily projects totaling about 1,600 units in the last five years, and noted major projects and investments tied to the Fort Greer initiative.
The presentation also covered natural-resources work: engineering and stormwater staff, with a consultant, completed a pilot watershed study and are implementing its recommendations. Coddy described new asset-management software (Cartograph) to help plan maintenance, stronger tree-save requirements from the Unified Development Ordinance, and recent recreational trail and greenway permits, including progress on Tiger River Greenway.
Councilmembers asked questions about specific map changes, housing types allowed by the UDO, and the resilience element’s scope. Coddy said the plan is “not binding like our UDO” but that it will be used to guide zoning decisions and budgeting. The item received a first reading as Ordinance 29-2025; planning commission hearings are part of the process and additional public review will continue before any adoption vote.
