Sustainable Communities

Greenville County to Regulate Big Boxes

Under new Greenville County regulations, big box stores will look less like this…

…and more like this, with natural building materials, varied roof lines, and awnings.

     Future development along Greenville’s commercial corridors should be more attractive in the future, as Greenville County Council passed an ordinance in March regulating the design of “Big Box” developments. Big Boxes are huge stores, often housing chain retailers; in Greenville’s ordinance they are defined as buildings 40,000 square feet or larger. New projects will now be required to use neutral colors, be primarily constructed from natural materials or concrete, have varied facades and roof lines, and conceal loading docks and trash containers, among other standards.

While Upstate Forever applauds Greenville County’s ordinance as a step in the right direction, the massive scale of these stores requires standards that do more than simply improve aesthetics. Additional standards and safeguards are needed to reduce the tremendous impact these stores have on traffic, the environment, and surrounding land uses. We can go further, as other communities have done, by regulating store size, requiring renewal plans for future vacancies, eliminating parking minimums, moving some parking areas to the sides and rear of buildings, controlling stormwater through the use of permeable pavement and appropriately designed landscaping, planning for traffic impacts, and requiring bus shelters and other transit accessibility. With such standards in place, area residents can continue to benefit from the convenience and low prices offered by Big Box retailers while ensuring that the resources and quality of life of Greenville County are protected.

To learn more about the issues surrounding Big Box
developments, visit www.upstateforever.org/program_bigbox.html.

Imagine Anderson: A Vision For Anderson County

The goals in Anderson County’s vision plan include continued focus on improving the downtown area (above) and the preservation of green space.

     Anderson County is rich in natural, historic, and human resources, from the shores of popular Lake Hartwell to the industrial I-85 corridor, from the historic town of Pendleton to the rapidly-developing subdivisions of Powdersville. The county’s population grew by 14% from 1990-2000, each day adding almost 6 new residents and developing about 5 acres of land.

In response to this rapid change, community leaders and elected officials launched “Imagine Anderson” to establish a vision for the county’s future. After conducting a series of public meetings during the fall of 2006, the Imagine Anderson steering committee released a draft plan for public feedback in January, 2007. Upstate Forever submitted comments on the draft, recommending more focus on conservation and land use planning.

In April, a community celebration marked the publication of the completed Vision Plan, which includes 102 objectives in five goal areas: growth management, education, economic development, health and human services, and leisure and recreation. An eighteen-member “Implementation Board” has been charged with seeing these goals to fruition. The entire plan is available at www.imagineanderson.com.

The Building Our Future speaker series brings together a diverse group of public and private leaders to discuss how and where the Spartanburg area should grow over the next 25 years. Co-sponsored by Upstate Forever, Partners for Active Living and the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, the first Building Our Future event of 2007-08 was held on May 4, when David Pressly, Immediate Past President of the National Association of Home Builders, spoke to a crowd of approximately 100 people about “The Importance of Planning for Quality Growth.”

Building Our Future