Thursday, March 26

Calling Florence Area Residents - Land Use Meeting Tonight

If you live in and around Florence, tonight is the last scheduled public meeting to look at the Future Land Use maps and hear the presentation on the County's future vision! Dodge the rain - see you tonight at the Family Life Church - 2812 West Palmetto Street.

Can't make it? - head to your nearest County library to peak at the map and make your mark. Also, you can pull a comment sheet to send in with your thoughts. Also, our office (518 S. Irby St.) has a similar map in the lobby. And if you need help? We'll be available to talk about it.

Happy Visioning!

Tuesday, March 24

County Rebates for Cleaner Air

Click the following to link to the procedures and applications:

Hybrid Vehicles ($500)


Florence County Council is seeing green! These two programs are the first of their kind in Florence County. Supported by County funds for County residents and businesses.

After a near tangle with federal air quality standards last year, the County Council has enacted and supported new initiatives to increase our air quality. Through additions to the County personnel policy, no employee may idle their County vehicle when at a destination. Also the Council supports a truck stop electrification project at Exit 169 on I-95 and TV Road.

Furthermore, staff is looking into tree preservation policies and land use categories to protect and enhance our natural resources.

Do you have any ideas that will help us clean up our act? Drop us a comment!

Monday, March 23

Plan to Battle Sprawl in Florence

Robert Puentes, planning guru with The Brookings Institute, recently made an invited appearance to the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Appropriations to discuss the link between housing and transportation. Here's a exerpt...

...
Between 1980 and 2000, the growth of the largest 99 metro areas in the continental U.S. consumed 16 million acres of rural land, or about one acre for every new household. Indicative of this outward sprawl is the fact that more than 70 percent of the 100 largest metros' recent population growth over the same period of time occurred outside of principal cities...

Is this true to lil' ol' Florence?

Absolutely.

The rate of spawl can be noticed for anyone traveling in any direction from the center of the City of Florence. Commercial areas line Palmetto Street west towards Timmonsville and South Irby Street towards Coward. Heading west on Hoffmeyer past I-95 is and may be nothing but residential and a large school complex, which means the two lane road will need expansion and alternative routes established.

All this is happening while core City areas become and remain vacant.

This sprawl leads to governments paying for increased police and fire protection while providing sewer and water services.

Yes, growth is good and Florence needs to grow, but let's grow responsibly.

Check out the draft of the Future Land Use element of the County Comprehensive Plan this Thursday at Family Life Church, 2812 West Palmetto Street. We will be there from 5:00PM until 7:00PM with a presentation at 6:00PM. Drop in to comment on our maps and share your vision.

Thursday, March 19

Stimulating

Do you think that Florence County is getting passed over on the federal stimulus funding? Fear not!

Follow this link to the SCDOT website where the list of road resurfacing projects can be found. Florence County projects start on page 65.

Shown to the left looks like Cherokee Road... any traffic circles in there?

Tuesday, March 17

Busy Thursday!

The public should feel very lucky to have two opportunities to hear what's going on around Florence:

First, there is the second (rated a 'thumbs up' by Florence Morning News) meeting in the three meeting series to discuss the Future Land Use map at Eastside Christian Church, 3541 East Palmetto Street. County Planning staff will be there from 5-7PM with a presentation at 6:00PM. Feel free to drop in anytime.

Then, if that wasn't good enough, the Florence Trails Committee will be having a meeting at Naturally Outdoors (2519 W. Palmetto) from 5-6PM to discuss a grant opportunity from the State Parks and Recreation Department.

And best of all - visit both meetings and get a bonus - I'll hold off the 6:00PM Land Use presentation for 15 minutes so you may join in on both experiences. Florence County will have staff attending both meetings to answer any questions.

Two meetings, 60 blocks apart - this is your public meeting challenge of the week!

Have kids? The first child to ask a land use question (at the Future Land Use meeting) will get a large color area map to share with their school classmates.

Monday, March 16

Hitting the Presses

Florence County had some great Saturday coverage this past weekend. 

First, the front page article was covering the County $500 rebate on hybrid vehicles. To find the application and procedures to apply, clicking here takes you to a pdf document on the Florence County homepage. Also, if you would like a list of qualifying vehicles, send me an e-mail.

Then, the editorial board gave Florence County a thumbs up for the future land use public meetings occurring this and next Thursday. We have been garnering some great conversations and hope even more residents come out to review and comment on the proposed future land uses. You may look at the maps ahead of time at the County Planning website. Scroll to 'Future Land Use maps."

In other news this week, we will be initiating the FLATS (our local transportation planning responsibility for the urban area) Long-Range Transportation Plan. This plan, like the Future Land Use Plan is a long-range look to anticiapate future transportation needs in the area. And, of course, there will be many opportunities for the public to get involved with the process. We'll keep you posted on its status.

Friday, March 13

Where were All the Dreamers?

Last night was the first public meeting in the City of Florence area to discuss the Future Land Use element, and there was a lot of interesting conversation: zoning, first impressions, future vision and sprawl vs. property rights.

First, I want to clarify a couple of things - the City of Florence and Florence County have separate planning departments and have separate Comprehensive Plans. Although we talk a lot and coordinate our planning efforts, they present their zoning and long-range planning (Comprehensive Plan) efforts to the City Planning Commission (Glynn Willis, chair) while we present ours to the County Planning Commission (Peter Knoller, chair). The City and County also have separate Councils.

Then, there's the plan itself - is it zoning? will it force my property into a certain type of development? I have only alluded to this element in previous entries, but the Comprehensive Plan has no regulatory weight in itself - but it should guide certain zoning in an area. For instance, one future land use category is called 'residential preservation' which we propose to fit with three types of zoning: R-1, R-2 and PD (you can visit Municode for the zoning code of permitted uses). These zonings mostly enable single-family, detached dwellings. There are nine other future land use designations to learn about. Find the map online at our website.

Okay, so we know where our single-family homes are - but do we have an idea where the next wave of home-building should be? ...should we place them in the middle of an agricultural field, away from downtown, away from police and fire protection, away from schools and sewer, shopping and parks? If annexed, the City is on the hook to provide services to these new, far-flung developments and has a significant financial (tax) burden. See a note on annexation from the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University. Also from the Institute, managing residential growth.

Where is the dream? ...there are ideas like an initiative to put all our utilities underground or thoughts of getting rid of all the distracting signage, revitalizing Irby Street - or even making more passive parks for the protection of indiginous plants and animals. There is the dream to make Florence County the gem of the State and the Pee Dee a place we are welcomed back as we arrive at our airport or I-95 ramp.

Two more meetings are scheduled for areas surrounding the City of Florence. Next up - Eastside Christian Church (3541 E. Palmetto St), east of the airport on the north side of Palmetto (Hwy 76). We will be there from 5 until 7 PM and there's a presentation at 6:00PM.

See you there... bring your dreams, we'll take notes!

Thursday, March 12

Tonight!

The first meeting in a three meeting series is tonight at Greenwood Baptist Church (2401 Claussen Road), 5:00-7:00PM with a formal presentation by yours truely at 6:00PM.

We'll be talking about the County's Land Use - drafted maps will be displayed to discuss and mark upon while County staff takes notes on your reactions.

Charles Tomlinson of the The Morning News wrote a great article in yesterday's paper.

Our goal for the evening is to show off the drafted land use map and interact with the community to see what you want to see in the next 20-30 years. The Future Land Use map is the vision of the community and will be part of the County's Comprehensive Plan.

The City of Florence is also embarking on updating their comprehensive plan and City staff may be there too. We hope these two plans will come together in a coherent, seemless transition at the City/Unincorporated boundary.

Friday, March 6

Saving the Dream - home foreclosure information

Florence County may be buffered from recent national trends in home foreclosures, but we are not immune. The following graphics show that there are a significant number of foreclosures in the County, especially in newer developments of the City of Florence and Lake City.

The following maps are links to larger graphics that include the geographic distribution of foreclosures from January 2008 through February 2009. 

Congressman Clyburn is hosting a 'Save the Dream' seminar for those struggling with mortgages that will be held in Columbia March 13th- 15th. More information may be found at www.naca.com.




Wednesday, March 4

Buying a hybrid? Let the County help.


Just released!

Florence County will help County residents and businesses to buy new hybrid vehicles!

Residents and businesses can apply, using this online application, to receive $500 for a purchase of a new hybrid vehicle bought and registered in Florence County. Pictured here is Progress Energy's plug-in hybrid.

Funds are limited, so apply today!

Thinking of buying a hybrid soon, then send in the application to reserve a rebate for up to 15 days.

Help green up your future Florence!