Our Advocacy Priorities

We are advocating for County Council to advance ordinances that strengthen requirements for meaningful open space in residential subdivisions and better protect tree canopy, as well as a new regulatory framework that combines and modernizes the county’s antiquated zoning and land development ordinances to better meet the needs of our growing county.  

We are also advocating for a county budget that supports open space, affordable housing, and public transportation at current or increased levels. 

Additionally, we are engaging residents at a grassroots level and working with neighborhood leaders, with a focus on communities of color, to explore new strategies that ensure policy outcomes align with community goals. 

In 2020, a Performance Zoning Ordinance (also commonly known as PZO) replaced the county’s Unified Land Management Ordinance in the county’s southwestern region. In 2026, we are working to cultivate support among residents to help advance amendments to the PZO that strengthen open space and landscape standards, support connectivity, diversify housing options, and direct growth towards mixed-use activity nodes.   

We are monitoring, engaging, and encouraging citizens to participate in Anderson County’s initiative to adopt a new Comprehensive Plan and Land Use and Development Ordinance (also known as LUDO). In 2026, we are advocating for the adoption of an actionable comprehensive plan that serves as a foundation to enact policies that reduce sprawl, mitigate flooding, preserve rural and agricultural lands, and enhance open space & tree canopy countywide. 

City Council adopted the Greenville Development Code in June 2023 to ensure a new, more sustainable way of growing in the years ahead. In 2026, we are working to ensure that requirements and incentives to expand open space and affordable housing options, including the city’s density bonus program, are working as intended, or are adjusted to improve outcomes. We are also advocating that the city’s five-year comprehensive plan update adds robust goals and implementation strategies for improving resiliency and achieving a higher density urban form, expanded mobility & housing options, and ample, equitable open space & tree canopy.  

Following adoption of the INNvision comprehensive plan in 2024, the city initiated a multi-year process to overhaul zoning and land development regulations to help realize the community’s vision and goals. The city released a draft zoning ordinance in late 2025. We continue to advocate for policies that expand housing choices, enhance open space standards, protect tree canopy, and strengthen subdivision requirements, connectivity, and design guidelines. 

We are actively participating in Plan This City, an initiative to create a new Unified Development Ordinance (commonly called a UDO) for the City of Anderson. Our advocacy is focused on adoption of policies that support higher density urban forms to reduce sprawl, expand mobility options, and strengthen open space & tree canopy protections. 

Plan Spartanburg, the comprehensive plan adopted by City Council in 2023, is expected to guide an overhaul of the city’s land use policies in the coming years, with a focus on addressing existing zoning and land development regulations that perpetuate inequitable outcomes for people of color. In 2026, we are advocating for policies that support diverse housing choices, improved transportation options, and resiliency to move the city toward a more equitable, sustainable future.

In 2024, Governor Henry McMaster announced an ambitious goal to protect half of South Carolina’s twenty million acres of land. This effort has become known as the “Ten Million Acres Initiative.” With roughly three million acres already protected, achieving this vision will require a wide range of strategies and partnerships, working to make land conservation more accessible across the state. Upstate Forever strongly supports this effort and is committed to working to advance innovative tools and policy solutions that will help protect the additional seven million acres needed to meet this goal. 

Among the effective tools already available are the SC Conservation Bank and the conservation easement tax credit. The SC Conservation Bank has been transformational in helping landowners overcome financial barriers to permanent land protection. In addition to continuing to support the full funding of the bank, we believe increasing the conservation easement tax credit would further incentivize more private landowners to protect their property. We support legislation that updates the tax credit in an amount that keeps up with the rise in land values across the state. While these measures alone will not achieve the goal of protecting ten million acres, they represent critical components of a broader strategy to ensure South Carolina’s naturaland working lands are safeguarded for generations to come. 

As land protection efforts accelerate, it is equally important to recognize that conservation does not end with the signing of an easement. Long-term stewardship and responsible land management practices are essential to ensure these protected landscapes remain vibrant and thriving. We view this as an opportunity to strengthen education and outreach, guiding landowners, policymakers, and the public in practices that ensure the ecological integrity of protected properties endures over time. 

South Carolina’s rivers are essential to our state’s natural and economic prosperity, providing drinking water, supporting wildlife, and offering recreational opportunities enjoyed by residents and visitors throughout the Upstate. Protecting these waterways is critical to ensuring they remain safe and accessible for everyone. We will continue to support proposed legislation requiring signage at National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) outfall locations. Clearly identifying these discharge locations would increase transparency, promote accountability, and help to protect South Carolina’s unique river systems.  

As our state continues to experience population growth and industrial expansion, the demand on our water resources is also increasing. Upstate Forever will continue to engage with partners and other stakeholders in the WaterSC working group to identify and advance regulatory and legislative solutions that ensure sustainable and equitable water use for all sectors.  

We also recognize the growing water demands associated with the rise of data centers across the Southeast. These facilities consume substantial amounts of water for cooling operations, often drawing from municipal sources. Currently, there is no state agency that is responsible for tracking water consumption from data centers. To address this concern, we support requiring data centers to report their annual total water usage to the SC Department of Environmental Services (DES). This reporting would promote transparency, allow for more informed water planning, and help state and local leaders better anticipate future resource needs. 

Protecting water quality also requires attention to residential septic systems. While DES currently requires inspections at the time of installation, typically completed by a licensed septic contractor, South Carolina lacks statewide requirements for routine septic system inspections, maintenance, or reporting during property transfers. Without regular oversight, aging or failing septic systems increasingly contribute to bacterial pollution in local waterways. We will explore opportunities to cultivate regulatory or legislative solutions that establish routine inspection and reporting requirements for residential septic systems. Establishing consistent standards would help identify failing systems early, protect public health, and preserve water quality. 

The rapid expansion of data centers and advanced manufacturing is driving the buildout of new natural gas infrastructure throughout the Southeastern region of the United States. While these facilities can bring billions of dollars in local investments, their expansion also presents new challenges for managing energy demand, infrastructure planning, and cost allocation. 

Upstate Forever supports a responsible approach to economic development, one that balances impacts to natural resources and local residents. Large energy users, like data centers, often require substantial upgrades to the grid and costly new investments in energy generation capacity. They can also pose environmental threats to the local communities in which they are built, including air pollution and significant water use. We support reasonable safeguards that would ensure the costs of grid upgrades required to serve such facilities are borne by those operators, not ratepayers. Such safeguards will encourage a more measured approach to data center construction.  

We also believe that conserving energy is as important as generating more of it. South Carolina continues to rank near the bottom nationally in energy efficiency, underscoring the need to make it a central component of South Carolina’s energy future. By prioritizing improving energy efficiency, we can reduce strain on the grid, protect ratepayers, and broaden the benefits of economic growth. We will advocate for policies that ensure utilities make steady, measurable progress on efficiency, strengthening program performance and making clean energy and resilience upgrades more affordable and accessible.  

As new energy infrastructure is proposed to support industrial expansion, transparency and public engagement are essential. We have often seen private property taken by utilities to meet expected energy demand and unfortunately, there are no clear protocols in state law to ensure landowners receive information about the proposed project and their rights ahead of permit filings and condemnation notices.    

We will support legislative measures that would guarantee that landowners are notified in advance of any application filing for the construction of energy infrastructure projects that could require the use of eminent domain. This safeguard would ensure affected communities are informed early, fostering trust and accountability as South Carolina works to balance economic development with responsible energy stewardship.