At our MARCH 12 City Council Meeting, we unanimously adopted our new Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). This complete overhaul of our city’s zoning codes represents the largest legislative change we’ve seen perhaps since zoning was first adopted in Fountain Inn decades ago.

Our new code better balances the role of government, property rights, community character, and the free market. Zoning is the most responsible tool government has to balance all of those factors, and our new zoning makes these rules stronger so that we can make clearer, objective, decisions around growth and not subjective decisions that lean on weak laws.

Key Impacts

Our new zoning code will help us in a few key ways:

1. Stronger Control on Growth: Overall, the code provides stronger, stricter, and more comprehensive regulations to manage and control growth. Larger lot requirements, better street standards, traffic impact studies, stronger tree protections, and more appropriate zoning districts — it’s all in the updated code.

2. Clarity for Everyone: Our old code was clunky, at times contradictory of itself, and confusing to follow for anyone. Our new code, while still covering the complex nature of land use, is much easier to follow and helps all who read it understand the intent of our community and how to meet the character we intend to protect.

3. Modernizes Land Use Policies: The new code also brings our land use policies into the new century. It is more responsive to how development has occurred over the last few years and includes stronger oversight and more clear restrictions. It also enhances policies around things like home occupations, trail networks, short-term rentals, and more - land use policies that were not deeply contemplated when our zoning was first adopted in the 80s and 90s.

4. Match Community Input: The UDO is tied directly to the input we received in our Comprehensive Plan and throughout the review and approval process of the UDO itself.

Paired with the fact Fountain Inn has adopted impact fees and revamped our Comprehensive Plan, we now are much better positioned to navigate the growth challenges our area faces.

What’s Next

Our new code is now in effect. Anything that comes before our Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, and City Council must match our new code.

For things that are not in compliance, but already complete, they are mostly grandfathered in - however if major changes occur, then they may need to be brought up to new standards (e.g. a business expands, then their parking may need to be adjusted if it isn’t in compliance with the new code already).

For some other types of uses (like short-term rentals), there will be a period of time for them to come into compliance before fines or other enforcement measures are implemented.

I want to thank our team for their hard work - from our Comprehensive Plan to our rewrite, they have shepherded this process, ensured public input was sought and included along the way, and have worked with us on Council to dive deep into our land use policies. Thanks also goes to my fellow City Council members - everyone has focused on this rewrite and my colleagues have asked great questions, provided meaningful changes, and great insights.

I also want to thank the public - your input made our zoning laws better.

But we’re not just going to call this new code perfect and leave it alone. While we do have to give the code some time and see it in action, we also will keep monitoring and tweaking it as we come across unique situations or unexpected conflicts. Zoning codes can always be amended.

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