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Neighbors raise safety, lighting and permit concerns as company seeks rezoning for laydown yard in Greer
Summary
At a Greenville County public hearing, Diversified Properties’ representative sought rezoning for a 5.21-acre parcel to create a continuous trailer laydown yard. Neighbors objected, saying trees were removed, gravel drives and lights were installed without permits and trucks now use narrow Farmer Circle.
Diversified Properties asked Greenville County to rezone a 5.21-acre parcel near Farmer Circle and Old Highway 14 to an S1 services district so the owner could consolidate adjacent land and operate a trailer laydown yard.
Applicant representative Ethan Naida, of Gray Engineering Consultants, told the hearing the change would allow the owner to “make one continuous layown yard” and that “the driveway will be located off of old highway 14 and will not utilize Farmer Circle for access.” He said the site would handle stormwater on site with detention basins.
Neighbor Randy Fowler testified in opposition, saying the property had been stripped of trees that previously formed a buffer and that unpermitted work has created traffic and safety problems on Farmer Circle. “He took the trees down so there wasn't a buffer anymore,” Fowler said, and described gravel drives installed without permits, bright lights on storage facilities that make the road feel like daytime at night, and trucks that have damaged mailboxes and cannot turn around on the narrow street.
County staff acknowledged there had been work on the property done without permits and said the landscape screening required by the prior FRD development plan had not been installed because the site had not reached the final development stage. Staff told the hearing they would follow up on the unpermitted access and reminded members that FRD conditions typically require screening when a property is developed.
Council members pressed about whether access could be guaranteed from Old Highway 14 rather than Farmer Circle; staff said the driveway is planned off Old Highway 14 but that Farmer Circle could be used in the future unless access restrictions were enforced. Residents asked whether conditions could be attached to a rezoning to require the previously required landscaping; staff replied that standard rezonings cannot be conditioned the same way and that some remedies lie in enforcement of existing permits and development agreements.
The hearing record will be forwarded to the planning commission and the Planning & Development Committee for further review; no committee decision or council vote was taken at the meeting.
