Beaufort County completes zoning codes overhaul
After a decade in the making, Beaufort County has finished a comprehensive update of its zoning rules and standards.
However, the new rules County Council agreed to Monday do not include a tool developers often have relied on to negotiate the biggest projects in the county, which has some council members and local builders worried.
Called the Community Development Code, the overhaul will be the playbook for companies and investors crafting new developments in the county for the next 20 years, said Councilman Brian Flewelling, who has led the committees and teams working on the update.
The new rules aim to create standards guiding the look of buildings, homes and neighborhoods in various types of communities, instead of the current rules' focus on each building's intended use.
That change in focus, planning staff members say, will help county planners and prospective developers better preserve the natural environment in rural areas and promote mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods in urban areas.
The new code doesn't include provisions for planned-unit developments, however, which leaves Councilwoman Cynthia Bensch and the Hilton Head Island Home Builders Association concerned that the new rules deprive developers of a critical tool.
Over the past 20 years, developers have often turned to planned-unit development agreements to negotiate with county staff and council the look and density of certain projects, instead of going by the county's exact zoning rules. Examples include nearly all the gated communities throughout the county and many commercial developments along the major highways.
"I just think we don't understand that we're giving up a right for creativity, for imagination, for new things to come down the pipe," Bensch said. "We're just saying, 'This is it. Come look at our book and see what you can do.'"
Ashley Feaster, director of the Hilton Head Island Home Builders Association, repeatedly echoed that argument to council over the past six months. Taking away planned-unit developments could have a chilling effect on developers who find they lack flexibility under the new code, she has said.
"In taking this away completely before we (builders) have the code in front of us ... to me is putting the forward too fast," Feaster has said.
However, council members who support the new code argue the updated rules make planned-unit developments obsolete. The code also includes "modulation," which lets developers pitch county planners on special exceptions to zoning, just like a planned-unit development, Councilwoman Laura Von Harten added.
To temper concerns, though, the council has said it will review the new code after six months and again after a year to see whether provisions for planned-unit developments should be re-inserted.
"Like any document, this is a living work," Flewelling said. "This governs our county for the next many years, and we will be changing it and molding it and shaping it so we can better guide our county in the planning process.
"It's really amazing; it's groundbreaking."
Follow reporter Zach Murdock at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach.
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- Beaufort County Council identifies six 'top priorities' for 2014 , Feb. 15, 2014
This story was originally published December 8, 2014 at 2:50 PM with the headline "Beaufort County completes zoning codes overhaul."