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!