COASTAL OBSERVER

If you want to open a 5-and-10 or a TV repair shop, Georgetown County won’t keep you waiting. Those are allowed in the “general commercial” zoning district.

If you have to turn to Google to find out what a 5-and-10 is, you may agree with Holly Richardson, the county planning director, that the zoning code needs an update.

“The structure from the ’70s is still in place” in the ordinance, she told County Council at its annual retreat this week.

Talk of updating the ordinance, which was first adopted in the 1970s, has focused mainly on bringing the zoning districts into compliance with the future land use maps that are part of the county’s comprehensive plan. Those maps are being updated with the plan’s land use element.

But Richardson said the ordinance itself needs to change to address today’s issues, such as affordable housing.

“The thing I’m most excited about is a way to address affordable housing,” Richardson said.

The consultants working on the update to the land use plan include one who is focused exclusively on affordable housing. 

The Planning Commission is due to review a draft of the update next week. Richardson said it will include a recommendation that the county allow a “density bonus” for developments that provide affordable housing. 

That would allow a developer to increase the number of units to offset the cost of making the units affordable. It isn’t a feature of the current zoning ordinance.

She has asked the consultants for specific recommendations on what those price points would be to determine affordability.

“We need that formalized. We need that in a document,” Richardson said.

The county plans to budget $250,000 in the fiscal year that begins July 1 to update the zoning code. 

The council is on track to have the updated land use element adopted by then.

“Passage of the comprehensive plan is not doing anything for the zoning,” Council Chairman Louis Morant said.

The zoning needs to be done separately.

The consultants have highlighted the county’s “general residential” district as one that needs changing. That district allows single- and multi-family housing at high density, but some places zoned GR are designated medium density in the future land use maps.

Council Member Stella Mercado asked if those would change when the zoning ordinance is changed.

Richardson said she initially planned to change just the text of the ordinance, not the zoning maps.

Council Member Clint Elliott noted that changing what uses are allowed in some zoning districts could also reduce some of the conflicts between the zoning maps and the future land use maps.

Richardson agreed. She added that some new zoning districts may need to be created to address goals in the updated land use plan.