With more than half of the original agenda items postponed until the June hearing, Greenville’s Planning Commission’s May meeting had only one application from the SC Children’s Theater and two applications for text amendments submitted by the city. David Keller subbed as chair for an absent Matt Johnson, and the PC’s newest member, Wil Brasington, made his first appearance.
Postponed items
The postponed items included an application for an annexation and rezoning of 42.76 acres at Doctors Drive and Park Creek Drive. An application by the Salvation Army to rezone 0.5 acres at Stall and Stratham streets from single-family residential to a redevelopment district and an application for a cluster subdivision of 28 lots on 4.11 acres at 541 Lowndes Hill Road were also both on the original agenda. Residents near both projects showed up to speak against the applications, only to be disappointed the discussions were postponed.
SC Children’s Theater
This application is to rezone approximately 2.3 acres at Augusta Street from C-2 (local commercial district) to C-4 (central business district). The property was once the site of the Victorian-style Cureton house, whose owner, Josephine Cureton, died in 2010. Cureton was a very private person, and upon her death she left the house to the theater with instructions to demolish the house. The house was demolished several years ago and the property has sat vacant.
The rezoning will allow the Children’s Theater to build a new structure. City staff said the requested land use is already in the city’s comprehensive plan and recommended approval. The PC agreed and approved the application.
Text amendment to add flexible review district
Next up was an application submitted by the city to add a “flexible review district” to the list of zoning districts in the city’s land management ordinance, and to establish procedures for administering a flexible review district. City staff said the FRD would be similar to a planned district and follow a similar process, but would allow “increased development flexibility while assuring compatibility with surrounding properties.”
The city attorney told the planning commission that it’s a “best practice” and Greenville County already has an FRD. Anyone applying for an FRD would have to meet certain performance standards and be consistent with the surrounding area. Any major changes would have to come back before the PC, but minor changes could be approved by city staff.
Three residents spoke in opposition to the new amendment, but were mainly concerned about how it would affect the Salvation Army project when it comes up next month. One resident said he felt the new amendment would be trying to circumvent existing zoning and take away property owner rights. Another resident said she was afraid that an individual property owner would be able to apply to be a district and was concerned people would be trying to get around existing zoning.
After much discussion, the PC said the new FRD is “very similar to a PD but doesn’t require a residential component” and would allow the city more flexibility. The board approved unanimously.
Text amendment to define fortune telling
The second text amendment submitted by the city was for a variety of updates and clarifications to the city’s land management ordinance, including one amendment that would define and allow fortune telling in an S-1 district and prohibit it as a home occupation. Fortunetellers are prohibited under the current ordinance.
The city also asked to remove use-specific standards for body piercing and tattoo establishments, establish an update that would allow building height increases for houses not in an established single-family residential area, allow provisions for nonconforming parking lots and prohibit above-ground stormwater detention facilities from required open space.
The city asked to postpone updates to limit the height of retaining walls adjacent to street rights-of-way, to limit the density of cluster subdivisions based on gross acreage minus street rights-of-way, and to modify amortization of nonconforming uses, saying that those changes needed some additional work.
The PC said that fortune telling is a free speech issue. City staff said the definition – “Fortune telling means an establishment providing advice, predictions or interpretations of planetary effects, on or about future events or human affairs” – was obtained from a book of zoning definitions.
The PC looked into the future and approved the application.
