COASTAL OBSERVER

The consultants who are helping Georgetown County update its zoning and land use regulations to comply with the comprehensive plan adopted last year are working on writing modifications now that they received public input last week.

A lot of the feedback consisted of pushback against development altogether, however that’s not what the consultants asked.

Marla Jean Hamby, who serves on the county’s Planning Commission, said county residents chose to live in the area for a reason – to be nothing like Myrtle Beach, Garden City or Surfside Beach.

“None of us chose to be anywhere near anything like what’s there,” Hamby said. “Georgetown doesn’t need any of this.”

Hamby sat at the table across from Sarah Sinatra, a partner in Inspire Placemaking Collective and the project manager for the update, as they discussed options for residential streetscapes.

“I think she’s saying no to all the numbers,” said Tommie Kennedy, the executive director of the Georgetown County Water and Sewer District.

Sinatra told Hamby that applications to develop exist. The goal of the public input is to guide developers to create spaces that community members are happy with, she said.

“I really can’t think of not having development,” Sinatra said. “That’s what we were hoping to get out of this, is to hear that if there is development, where is it most appropriately located and should there be any design treatments, like extra buffers, more landscaping and other designations.”

It’s a “chicken and the egg” type of situation, according to Madison Cooper, the chief external affairs officer with the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors.

“It’s hard because the rural areas are rural for a reason. People want that type of lifestyle, so it’s got to be a balance. But we also know that folks are moving here, and we need their economic support,” she said.

Cooper grew up in the Kensington community of Georgetown. She mentioned that of her friends within her graduating class, only one stayed in the Georgetown area due to a lack of career opportunities.

She said she would like the unified development ordinance, or UDO, process to set the county up for economic success in the future.

“I’m not saying that we need to have a revolutionary change, but Georgetown is changing, and our whole region has changed,” Cooper said. “So we have to protect certain things but we also want to grow up. We want to have more commercial, more light industrial, more entertainment spaces to keep people here.”

Inspire consultants hosted a workshop last week at the Georgetown County Library to receive public input for the county’s effort to create a UDO that combines its current zoning ordinance and development regulations into a single document. The workshop followed a round-table discussion format on topics that included subdivision development, uses, low impact development techniques, non-residential design standards and commercial versus residential streetscapes. 

Inspire was hired from among five firms seeking the contract to update the county’s zoning ordinance and land use regulations into a UDO. The company is based in Orlando, Fla., but has offices in Atlanta, Boston and Durham, N.C.

Inspire worked with the city of Greenville, N.C., to combine zoning and other ordinances and regulations into a UDO that was completed last year.

Under state law, the zoning ordinance is the legal path to carrying out the goals that are contained in the land use element of a county’s comprehensive plan. The zoning ordinance, land development regulations, access management, cell tower ordinance and traffic impact regulations will be included in the county UDO.

At least one consultant and one county employee sat at one of the five tables to facilitate the discussions between the eight to 12 people at each one. Consultants at each table wrote detailed notes on the input from those at the table.

Sinatra said she enjoyed and preferred the round-table discussions to presenting to an audience. 

“I heard from everybody. I feel like when you’re doing a presentation, you’re not going to hear from a lot of people because it becomes more intimidating. It becomes more formal,” she said. “This is informal, and people feel more open to say what their feelings are.”

The county currently has 17 residential zoning districts of 33 districts in total. Most of the land in the county, 66.4 percent, is zoned for low density residential development, providing one to two units per acre with a lot size of 20,000 to 43,560 square feet.

Inspire has collected more than 240 survey responses via their website, with a majority of respondents being 65 years or older. Of those, 88 percent reported that they have not worked with the current zoning ordinances or in a similar industry. More than 90 percent of respondents live in the county.

One question on the survey asked respondents what housing types, aside from  single-family, are most needed in the county. Many favored townhomes and mixed-use, whereas 70 people listed “other” options such as cottage court homes, accessory dwelling units, cluster and environmental subdivisions and some feel there shouldn’t be housing other than single-family units.

One topic of discussion revolved around stormwater systems and green infrastructure.

Izzy Norman, a planner with Inspire, showed the group examples of stormwater bump outs, vegetative swales, permeable paving materials and rain gardens.

“Essentially it’s a great way of integrating green stormwater practices into the neighborhood, decrease flooding, improve water quality. It also is much more, you know, easy on the eye compared to a retention pond,” Norman said.

“All of them look very nice,” Cooper added.

Requiring planned developments to have a certain amount of green space to be considered “green infrastructure” is something the city of Georgetown is looking into as they update standards, according to Clarissa Tindall, the city’s zoning administrator. The risk to green infrastructure is environmental injustice, she added.

“The downside to green infrastructure is that it actually increases property values, which inadvertently push certain groups out,” Tindall said. “If I introduce sidewalks into a community, or parks or other green spaces, it’s going to increase the value of my home, which will increase my taxes and could very well price certain people out.”

Norman said it will apply to new developments rather than established neighborhoods.

Inspire has heard from residents who value the rural and agricultural heritage of the county, defined as the presence of nature including mature trees, wetlands, open fields and wildlife. There’s a mixed response regarding land use, as some respondents support mixed-use concepts while others prefer to keep commercial areas separate from residential.

Sinatra said it was important to get community input to shape the UDO, which has the overall goal to reduce density.

“So that when the developers come in, someone redevelops their property, it’s built in a way that the community can be happy with,” Sinatra said.

The next step is to compile all the comments and upload them to their website as a public engagement summary, according to Sinatra.

“We’ll use that to kind of guide us in how we’re crafting some potential language,” she said. 

Inspire will now look at each ordinance and draft modifications to them. Sinatra said they will then hand the draft to an accountant for initial staff review. She said there will be a draft coming in the next four to six months which will be posted to the website, inspire-engagement.com/georgetown-county-udo. Inspire will hold another meeting to unveil potential changes to the community once a draft is complete.