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ABOUT
THE PLAN
One important part of the Anderson County LUDO project is updating the County’s Comprehensive Plan. A comprehensive plan explains current land use conditions, describes anticipated future development conditions, outlines a community’s vision for its future, and identifies the necessary policies and recommendations for achieving that vision. The comprehensive plan guides land use policy, funding, resource decisions, and infrastructure investment for local governments for a period of around ten years. Typically, comprehensive plans include data and analysis, policy goals and objectives, and a future land use map, which is the geographic representation of the kinds of desired land uses and their locations within the community. In South Carolina, the comprehensive Planning Enabling Act of 1994 requires local governments to maintain a comprehensive plan if they seek to regulate land use and development. Anderson County already has a comprehensive plan, which was initially adopted in 2016, and is thus, due for an update no later than 2026.
The 2016 Comprehensive Plan addresses nine elements (population, economic development, natural resources, cultural resources, community facilities, housing, land use, transportation, and priority investments. The Land Use element also includes a series of current (2016) and proposed future land uses by sections of the County. These future land use maps are vital for consideration of development applications and capital improvement decisions. The future land use maps identify five different types of future land uses: agriculture, commercial, industrial, residential, and public utilities. A copy of the future land use map is shown here. The Priority Investment element of the 2016 Plan includes a series of six main recommendations for future growth and development, along with a series of implementation strategies for each recommendation. The six recommendations are listed below:
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Undertake a comprehensive economic development policy for Anderson County.
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Expand cultural and recreational opportunities, quality of life, and public safety efforts.
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Enhance environmental quality and capitalize on green infrastructure and emerging energy opportunities.
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Enhance and diversify the transportation system, with a focus on connectivity.
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Encourage a variety of housing types and densities where possible.
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Initiate further growth planning activities in prioritized areas.
The 2016 Comprehensive Plan has served the County well, but times have certainly changed over the last ten years. South Carolina is the fifth fastest-growing state in the country, and significant amounts of growth and development are coming to the state, particularly the Upstate and areas proximate to major interstates. Many of the counties surrounding Anderson (like Greenville County) have been dealing with substantial development pressure, and are seeing accelerating land absorption and resulting escalation in land costs. As a result, land prices in Anderson County, while considerably higher than ten years ago, are a relative bargain when compared against land costs in surrounding counties. As a result of this and other factors, there are increased growth pressures on Anderson County, and the 2016 plan is ill-equipped to address these pressures.
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As mentioned above, local governments who seek to regulate land use and development must adopt and maintain a current comprehensive plan. In order for the County to update its development regulations, it must first update and adopt more current versions of the Land Use, Community Facilities, and Priority Investments elements of its Comprehensive Plan. The initial stages of the Land Use and Development Ordinance (“LUDO”) project include assistance to the County from the consulting team with the preparation of update land use and community facilities elements. County staff will be preparing population, housing, and priority investment elements. The project anticipates adoption of “Phase 1” of the 2026 Comprehensive Plan in early 2026. Phase 1 includes the five elements described above (population, housing, land use, community facilities, and priority investments). Once Phase 1 of the Plan is adopted, the consulting team and the County are free to move forward with preparation and adoption of the new Land Use and Development Ordinance portion of the project. More details on the ordinance portion of the project are available here.
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Development of Phase 1 of the 2026 Comprehensive Plan began in April and the draft element updates are anticipated to be ready for adoption in late 2025. A County Steering Committee and public input will help guide this process as well as the entire Land Use Development Ordinance update. County staff and its project team which includes consultants will create the Comprehensive Plan updates in four overlapping phases. First, the team will collect and review data to gain a better understanding of Anderson County. The next phase, Engagement & Visioning, will include the majority of public events and engagement opportunities, including a community survey that will be available in late July. This phase will lay the foundation for the plan as it will establish the vision and priorities that will shape long-term recommendations. The third phase is the draft of the plan document, which the public will have the opportunity to review. This will include the final recommendations as well as a plan for implementing key strategies in each element. Once complete, the Land Use and Community Facilities elements will be presented to the Planning Commission and County Council for adoption. Then, the focus will shift more to the Land Use Development Ordinance update. An approximate schedule for this part of the project is provided below.
Work products and draft documents associated with Phase 1 of the Comprehensive Plan are available for review here (plan section of documents page). This information will be supplemented and revised over the course of the next few months, and interested parties are encouraged to check this webpage frequently for updates. There is an option for joining the project’s mailing list to receive updates to this webpage on the home page of this website.
ABOUT
THE CODE
Revision to the County’s current development regulations, zoning rules, and the current zoning map into a new consolidated Land Use and Development Ordinance is the primary objective of the Anderson County LUDO project. Zoning and development regulations are adopted by local governments to protect the health, safety, and welfare of County residents and landowners. This includes requirements for building setbacks from lot lines (to prevent fire danger), access requirements for new lots (to maintain traffic safety), limitations on development in floodplains and steep slopes (to protect life safety), as well as some controls on certain use types like factories or feed lots (to protect land use compatibility). Development regulations are also intended to protect environmentally-sensitive areas like wetlands as well as to support and protect property values.
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In unincorporated Anderson County, the development regulations are found in two main chapters in the County Code of Ordinances, including:
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Chapter 24, Land Use; and
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Chapter 48, Zoning.
Zoning regulates how land is used and what can be built in different geographic locations. Land development regulations govern how land is divided, improved, and made ready for building—development regulations focus on the layout and physical infrastructure more so than on the use of land (though they may include standards for particular uses of land as well). In unincorporated Anderson County, all the land area is subject to the County’s Land Development regulations (the rules in Chapter 24) and the street standards in Chapter 40. However, only about 25 percent of the unincorporated county is subject to the zoning rules in Chapter 48. The areas in dark blue on the map are the zoned areas (residents in the yellow area are voting on a referenda to establish zoning in November, 2025).
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While the zoning rules only apply to around 25 percent of the unincorporated County’s area, all of the unincorporated County is subject to the land development regulations. The LUDO will consolidate both the zoning and land development rules into a new single consolidated document, along with the inclusion of certain other County Code chapters like Chapter 40, Streets, Sidewalks, and Other Public Places.
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The LUDO project is organized into a series tasks that start with a thorough review of the current zoning and land development regulations and discussions with the community (the Code Diagnosis) which identifies potential improvements to the current regulations. Once the Diagnosis has been reviewed and vetted with the community, the consulting team will prepare a “dress rehearsal” document of the new LUDO (the Annotated Outline). The Annotated Outline document previews the new LUDO’s structure, organization, page layout, and contents. Once the Annotated Outline is completed, it forms the basis for the initial draft of the LUDO. The LUDO includes eight basic chapters, including:
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Administration
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Applications
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Districts
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Land Uses
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Nonconformities
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Standards
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Violations
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Word Usage
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In addition to the ordinance text, the LUDO project also includes a new Official Zoning Map that will carry forward some of the current zoning districts, consolidate some of the districts, and propose new zoning districts, particularly conditional zoning districts. The Initial draft of the LUDO and map will be discussed with the County and then revised to create the revised draft (based on the community input provided). Once the revised draft of the LUDO is completed, the regulations will be tested and revised again before the adoption process begins. All told, the process will take a little more than a year.
The goals for the LUDO project are listed here.
Draft and final versions of work products from all of the project tasks are posted as they are completed here.
