Planning and development manager, City of Greenville
Michael Kerski is always planning. Even on the weekends, when he walks his four dogs down the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail, he is checking out homes, apartments and commercial properties to assess if they are following code.
“I’ll snap pictures of violations,” he said.
It’s all part of his dedication to retaining the “urban character” that sets Greenville apart. He and his staff processed a record number of applications last year while also developing new guidelines for single-family residential, multifamily and commercial properties. His team assesses projects to the smallest detail, from height to garage placement to vent location, to ensure Greenville maintains its unique attributes.
“Everyone talks about quality of life, but it’s really quality of place,” he said. “We are trying to make Greenville the best place in the United States. The bar has been raised, and we’re trying to keep the bar level.”
How would you sum up your role for the city?
I solve problems. It’s everything from single-family homeowners to people with sign issues to bigger projects like Main + Stone or the Greenville News site. We currently have 4,300 multifamily units that have been through our approval process and are now at the planning commission or the design review board.
Does each project typically require extensive changes?
Very few plans we see [don’t require changes]. For example, apartments need to show us all of the vents for bathrooms and dryers – it’s important. Even if we have plans that are pretty good, there may be a building permit issue or something else.
What is your biggest challenge as planning and development manager?
Right now, it’s volume. We’re meeting with individual residents, neighborhood associations, architects, developers, property owners. Our biggest year was 270 applications, but then last year we had 400. This year is probably going to be more than 400.
How does your staff of seven oversee so many projects?
We have a good staff here. One will focus on single-family permit review and someone else will do the more comprehensive plan work.
Last year, council gave us an enforcement officer. The issue was, we would take a set of plans, tell people to make changes, but then we would never see it. So he goes out and makes sure single-family homes are built in the right spot, that setbacks are right, that garages are in the right location.
Does the growth in applications signify economic health in the city?
Yes. For many reasons, everybody wants to be in Greenville. A lot of people are coming from other markets where our housing seems affordable. The biggest apartment project is the Fluornoy project [District West] going behind City Hall. It’s the first on the edge outside of the downtown area, and a major apartment project on the [GHS] Swamp Rabbit Trail.
Have you seen the impact of the trail on development and applications?
It’s had a huge impact. Now that it’s all connected, it’s been so successful that it probably should have been wider. It’s been much more successful than I ever thought it would be.
What role does your department play in keeping growth strong?
Greenville is known for its quality neighborhoods. Residents want to keep that urban character, with walkable sidewalks, street trees, no garages in the front lawns. We just passed the infill design guidelines for single-family homes, new non-residential design standards and new multifamily design guidelines.
What prompted the addition of the infill ordinance?
We didn’t have an infill ordinance, and the neighborhoods were experiencing pressure. The ordinance isn’t perfect, be we had a committee of 17 people who worked on a consensus process. We reduced the height of single-family homes, required some tree placement and addressed garage location and paving yards for parking.
How did you end up in this field?
I was much more into urban planning than architecture in school. My thesis with a team was a design to knit these neighborhoods back together again in Milwaukee. There were two very nice neighborhoods and they had torn everything down for seven city blocks to build a freeway. Probably not a good idea. So we did our design and the state and federal highway department demapped that freeway and the two neighborhoods are knitted back together. They took our concept plans and built that project.
What qualities contribute to your success?
I try to listen to all sides of an issue. People say I’m too honest. But when you have 17 people – realtors, homebuilders, architects, neighborhood people, council members – we have to agree on a path forward. So it’s listening to all sides, the staff input, the public input.
What are your next priorities?
There is a lot to do. Management and the council have a big list. Planning is one of the things Greenville is famous for. One of council’s larger goals is to redo the sign code, so hopefully that will be done in the next year or so.
