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Sustainable South Carolina

monsoon

By monsoon
in South Carolina

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

Posted
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Where are the places in South Carolina, if any with progressive zoning laws? By progressive i mean requirements that create places where people can get around without the automobile. Some things that I am talking about are a minimum set of zoning requirements for new construction that dictate that streets have sidewalks, houses have porches and snout houses are not allowed, single use neighborhoods are prohibited, and there are open space requirements.

Let's use this topic to discuss this issues. I would exclude historic places such as downtown Charleston.

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Spartan Gigalopolis

Spartan

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You have a very specific set of conditions there, metro. I'm not familiar enough with the zoning regulations of any city in SC to tell you that kind of information. We don't have cities with progressive zoning that are renown for it like Huntersville and Davidson in North Carolina with their form-based code based on new urbanist principles.

You will probably find that the CBD/downtown areas of most cities require those types of things, but I think you are talking about a city-wide policy. Charleston, for example, has the most progressive development laws in the state that I am aware of, so long as you are in the historic district. But in places like West Ashley or James Island, its less restrictive, though still more stringent in terms of requirements than other cities in the state.

Alley's are not as prevalent in SC as you may think. The 1st ring suburbs, albeit small, very rarely have alleys as part of their design. I can't think of any large neighborhoods that do in this state. The 20s-40's era houses are just built to the street, and don't accomodate cars like their more modern counterparts do. Alleys arent the key criterion for good development. Its more a matter of how you treat the automobile. You can still have driveways and such like many 40's era houses do, as long as they are not the most prominant feature.

The places where you see the development like you are talking about are in the new urbanist developments - I'on, Baxter Village, etc.

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Captain Worley Burg

Captain Worley

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The old mill villiage on the West Columbia side of the Gervais Street bridge is the only area I know about in Columbia with alleys. They are so small as to be useless for vehicle traffic, though they were built in the early 1900s after the mill village burned.

Seems like the Lake Carolina development around Blythewood was talking bout having alleys, etc like you describe, but I don't know to what extent they went through with it.

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CorgiMatt Town

CorgiMatt

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Lake Carolina and The Village at Sandhill, definitely. Once you park at VOS, there are sidewalks that go anywhere within the development you want to go if you don't want to crank the car back up. You can walk from your house anywhere in LC via sidewalk, to Harborside or whatever they call it or the little "dowtown" area they've created. You might have to do quite a bit of walking at VOS or LC, but isn't that the point? I'm excluding historic downtown Columbia, the Vista and Five Points.

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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

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Are you kidding? South Carolina imposing laws to limit growth? I don't see that happening very often, though there seems to be more of an understanding that some regulation needs to be added to direct the growth. It seems that many downtowns are being seriously looked at for pedestrian-oriented business and living, but outside of that, there is relatively little control over what goes up and where.

That being said, there are many more developments taking place today where you can park your car at home and walk to parks or shops. Griffin Park, in southern Greenville County comes to mind as one of these new places. Acadia, at the western edge of Greenville County is another along the same form. I should include the Verdae development as well. These may not be exactly what we're looking for, but they are a positive step in the right direction.

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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

Posted
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Are you kidding? South Carolina imposing laws to limit growth? I don't see that happening very often, though there seems to be more of an understanding that some regulation needs to be added to direct the growth. It seems that many downtowns are being seriously looked at for pedestrian-oriented business and living, but outside of that, there is relatively little control over what goes up and where.

That being said, there are many more developments taking place today where you can park your car at home and walk to parks or shops. Griffin Park, in southern Greenville County comes to mind as one of these new places. Acadia, at the western edge of Greenville County is another along the same form. I should include the Verdae development as well. These may not be exactly what we're looking for, but they are a positive step in the right direction.

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crescentmoon Whistle-Stop

crescentmoon

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Not replying to myself, but adding a new announcement of another 777-acre mixed-use TND project planned for southern Greenville County. It will be called, "Ottaray," a Cherokee indian word meaning, "beautiful mountains." This sounds very similar to Griffin Park, Acadia, and Verdae, already under construction around Greenville. Personally, while we currently have no serious laws in place regulating what kind of growth happens, I am very pleased to see so many large-scale developments taking on a more sustainable format. It is encouraging.
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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

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I was reading through some of my "old" publications from Greenville and found a great article in the Janurary 1998 edition of Greenville Business and Living magazine (now Greenville Magazine) about a day-long conference held in 1997 called, 'Balancing Growth and Change, Our Community, Our Choice.' The entire article and the conference was dedicated to looking at and developing methods for sustainable growth in Greenville. Based on the lessons and ideas presented, I can see how much of it has been influential in our growth these 10 years since. I would love to see another conference this year just like that one, focusing on the positive lessons other growing cities around the nation can offer. Since I don't have my copy of the publication at hand, I'll just leave it there for now, but hopefully will share some of what the article discussed about the conference.

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