Greenville County committee initiates Mountain Creek overlay to tighten buffers, flood protections

The Greenville County Planning and Development Committee voted May 18 to initiate a text amendment that would create a Mountain Creek Community (MCC) overlay district intended to reduce flooding, increase screening and buffering of developments, reserve open space and protect historic sites.

Planning staff told the committee the overlay would add a new Section 8-13 to the Greenville County Zoning Ordinance and said, "the resulting overlay district aims to reduce flooding caused by loss of natural areas, improve screening and buffering of developments, reserve open space, and protect historic sites." The committee moved to allow staff to proceed with a proposed text amendment and docket it for a public hearing.

Why it matters: staff said the overlay is intended to set higher standards for properties inside the Mountain Creek boundary, similar to other county overlays such as Scuffletown, Taylor's and the Pelham Road corridor. Staff described specific changes that would be stricter than current land development regulations (LDRs), including a larger undisturbed residential buffer and expanded riparian buffers.

Staff explained current residential developments typically require a 20-foot undisturbed buffer, while the Mountain Creek proposal would require a 50-foot undisturbed buffer. Riparian buffers in the draft would scale with contributing acreage and range from 50 to 100 feet, with staff saying the requirement is capped at 100 feet. Legal counsel noted the committee was in the initiation phase and that staff and counsel would continue to review the draft during the ordinance reading process to surface any conflicts with existing LDRs.

Councilman Blunt raised a technical concern over hydraulic design standards in the draft, saying the proposal appears to adopt a 100-year storm standard where practice typically uses a 10–25 year standard and that such a shift could be "a fairly big change." Staff and legal counsel said they would research any related legal or technical issues as the text amendment moves through the three‑reading process.

The committee approved initiation of the amendment by voice vote. The next steps are for staff to create a docket number and schedule the draft for the next available public hearing where members of the public may speak for or against the proposal. If advanced, the amendment will proceed through the county's ordinance reading process and additional legal and technical review.