What is Zoning?
As I’m out and about, another topic that frequently arises as I talk with people is zoning and land development. A couple of months ago, I wrote about the Mountain Creek Area Plan, which is an effort to create a zoning overlay on top of the area of Taylors north of Wade Hampton. In that article, I didn’t get into the details of zoning. My overview here will not be comprehensive, but my goal is to give you an easy-to-understand overview you can dive into the details of later.
Zoning is a complex topic. Zoning has been around in the United States for about 100 years and functions differently in each state. The most recent legislation in South Carolina that guides how zoning works is the South Carolina Local Government Comprehensive Planning Enabling Act of 1994. This act provides the framework that every city and county, including Greenville County, must operate within as they conduct planning exercises. Within that framework, however, each city and county has some discretion to develop zoning codes in their way.
Zoning is generally concerned with the use of the property and then the intensity of the use. As the name implies, it broadly defines which uses are appropriate in which areas. Zoning is composed of a couple of pieces:
The map shows what zoning district is applied to what areas. Some single parcels have multiple zones overlaying. You can see a map showing all zoned areas here.
One note: not all of Greenville County is zoned. In the Northern and Southern parts of the county, there are large areas where zoning doesn't apply. Other standards, like the Land Development Regulations, still apply.
The zoning ordinance details what uses, and densities are permitted in which zones. You can view the ordinance here.
Greenville County Council adopted the current ordinance in 2005, which has been amended many times. The first few pages after the title page list those amendments.
Article 5 lays out the types of zoning districts available in Greenville County. You will see a section for each zoning classification, which then tells you some general information about each zone and where to go in the document to find the specific regulations for setbacks, densities, and other attributes.
Article 6 lays out which specific uses are permitted in each zone.
In addition to zoning, the Land Development Regulations are another critical piece of the picture in Greenville County. These regulations apply to all unincorporated (not within a city) areas of the county and regulate everything else about how things are developed, from the roadway construction standards, development standards for neighborhoods, sewage standards, and more. You can see these regulations here.
In general, between these two documents, the goal is to create a predictable system to allow people to figure out what they can do with their property without asking permission. If an owner wants to do something outside of what’s permitted, they must ask for approval. Generally speaking, if the owner of a zoned property creates a use that conforms with the type of use outlined in the zoning ordinance, the owner doesn’t need to seek approval to continue.
Greenville County is going through a process to combine these two separate documents into a single Unified Development Ordinance. This process started in 2020 and will be wrapping up in the next year or so, so if you’ve not checked it out, this is a great time to learn more about it here.
With all of these things, if you have more questions, you can contact the Greenville County Planning Department using their email link on the right side of this page.
Additionally, if you’re interested in a deeper dive into these subjects, Upstate Forever hosts a Citizen’s Planning Academy several times a year. You can find more information here. The county is also exploring creating its own citizen planning education program, and when the details are announced, we will share them with you here!
This video was a good explanation of the gist of zoning. The creator also talks about some other context around the history of zoning. Still, it’s important to remember this video is not specifically about how things work in Greenville County.
That's it for today; please let me know if you have any questions and if you found this helpful! Also, let us know what topics would be beneficial to share in the future!
