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Greenville City Council reviews 30-month code changes on CUPs, banks, trees and neighborhood design
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Summary
Planning Director Mary Douglas previewed a package of changes to Greenville City's development code, including reintroducing conditional use permits for certain businesses, new spacing limits for freestanding banks, tighter tree protections and design standards for institutions in residential districts. Staff will post the draft on Feb. 18 and take it to Planning Commission in March.
Planning Director Mary Douglas told the Greenville City Council at a work session that planning staff will publish a draft of a 30-month code update on Feb. 18 and asked council members to submit comments by the end of the week. The package, she said, is a preview of changes the city will send to the Planning Commission in March.
"We're looking at bringing back a tool that we previously had in our land management ordinance called conditional use permits with the Greenville development code," Mary Douglas said, describing a proposal to require staff-imposed conditions for certain uses and retain an appeals path to the Board of Zoning Appeals. The change is intended to make expectations clearer for applicants and to reduce ad hoc appeals.
The proposal would make late-night operations subject to conditional use permits: any use open past midnight would need a permit and would be subject to new use standards, including a required sound study and additional noise protections, staff said. "If you're open between midnight and 5," Douglas said, "you will have to get a conditional use permit from the planning staff." The change is aimed at reducing night-time impact on nearby residences while streamlining reviews that had often gone to the BZA.
Staff also proposed carving banks and financial institutions out of the general retail category and imposing a separation requirement on freestanding banks and drive-throughs. Under the plan staff described, freestanding banks would not be allowed to locate within 500 feet of each other; drive-through freestanding banks in parking lots would be disallowed. Douglas said the spacing proposal responded to community feedback about clustering on Augusta Road and is meant to promote walkable corridors rather than auto-centric development.
On design standards for public and institutional uses in residential zones, staff proposed an alternative pathway for permitted uses such as churches, day cares and schools that may not fit "house-scale" form districts. The flexibility would come with tradeoffs, Douglas said, including larger setbacks when buildings abut houses and landscaping or screening to ease transitions.
On tree protections, staff proposed strengthening requirements by adding protective fencing around critical root zones, removing the previous exemption for single-family homes (the tree ordinance took effect 06/30/2021), and reducing the minimum size of trees that can be credited toward mitigation from 3'6ndash;6 inches to 1'6ndash;3 inches. Douglas said the city also plans to raise the fee-in-lieu for tree mitigation because "it's around 600 to $700 approximately to buy a tree" while the current per-inch fee and the $50-per-inch calculation are no longer competitive with market costs.
Other items in the package include broadening accessory outdoor entertainment standards beyond a stage-only definition, limiting freestanding fireworks retail to the industrial general district and establishing distance buffers from residences, and restrictions on certain modern roof forms in neighborhood revitalization overlay districts to preserve neighborhood character in areas such as Nicholtown, West Greenville and Green Avenue.
Council members queried staff about public participation, appeals and implementation. Staff confirmed conditional-use decisions would remain appealable to the BZA and said public input could be required at project preview meetings; staff suggested mandatory PPM appearance for projects adjacent to residential properties. On the development-bonus program tied to affordable housing, staff said commercial projects (for example a hotel) may be allowed to buy out of affordability requirements, but residential projects must provide the units on-site in the current code.
Several council members raised implementation concerns: whether planning staff have the capacity to handle more site visits and reviews, how the city will enforce spacing limits for banks, and whether raising the fee-in-lieu will deter tree removal. Douglas and other staff said the questions about enforcement, staffing and the exact fee levels would be addressed in follow-up discussions and through the broader urban forest/master-plan work.
The staff asked council members to return specific written comments by the end of the week to allow staff to refine the draft before formal publication. The council moved and seconded a motion to enter executive session at the meeting's close; the transcript records the motion and that the body proceeded to the executive session, but does not include a recorded roll-call vote on that motion.
What happens next: staff will post the full draft on Feb. 18, take the changes to Planning Commission in March, then return measures to the City Council for further consideration and any formal ordinance readings.
