The core principles we use for evaluating public policy are:
- Protect Private Property Rights.
- Ensure Fair Housing Opportunities for all.
- Advocate for housing affordability and attainability for families in our community.
- Maintain a vibrant and open market for real estate.
During the last three years, Pickens County Council has adopted several ordinances of interest to Realtors. In 2022, they started with a new development code for Highway 11 that restricts land uses to primarily residential and sets a very low-density standard. Their objective was to protect the scenic views along Highway 11.
Zoning
The Highway 11 process helped the county identify numerous other concerns about Pickens County’s Unified Development Standards Ordinance (UDSO). Among those concerns is the fact that the unincorporated areas of the county are unzoned.
Zoning is a process where property owners agree to limit the use of their property so that neighboring property owners can reasonably enjoy the use of their property. Our government is the referee. Zoning often gets a bad rap, but sometimes criticism is for good reasons. Whether or not you like zoning, it provides a fair and affordable method for property owners to seek redress if they disagree with the limits that zoning places on their property.
The bad rap often results from absence of zoning, like in Pickens County. Property owners, who oppose zoning, still seek to regulate the use of the properties around them—zone thee, not me. That is what has happened in Pickens County.
Your association’s position on zoning is that we neither support nor oppose zoning, we simply advocate for a fair and level playing field where the rules are clear. You can read our policy paper on zoning by clicking here.
UDSO
After Pickens County Council adopted up the Highway 11 ordinance in December 2022, they started work on a review and rewrite of the UDSO. That ordinance, while not zoning, regulates how landowners develop their property. It took the county 18 months to update the UDSO, which resulted in these new regulations:
- Road construction standards, including a new requirement that landowners conduct a traffic impact study before their development is approved. The regulations also added limits on private roads and common driveways.
- Subdivision standards, including significant density restrictions and zoning-like limits on where multifamily housing, townhomes, and tiny homes can be built.
- New open space, landscaping, and tree preservation requirements for new housing developments.
- New stormwater regulations and setback requirements for housing developments.
Moratorium
While these regulations were drafted and debated, Pickens County used moratoriums on development permits to pause development. Pickens County Council has been a trailblazer on moratoriums. The Highway 11 moratorium lasted 9 months and the UDSO moratorium lasted 13 months.
Budgets and Special Purpose Districts
Development regulations aren’t the only issues your association follows in local government—budgets are one of the regular ordinances we follow.
Most people think government stops at the county or city level, but that is not true in the Upstate. A significant part of our government is administered by small, single-purpose entities called special purpose districts. Most of them are leftovers an earlier time, before the early 1970s, when counties were governed by legislators. Cities existed, but county governments did not and were governed by legislators. To administer government services, special purpose districts were created, and many still exist today. They administer the things we take for granted: fire protection, public sewer and water, and solid waste, among other services.
In most of the Upstate, fire service is a hodgepodge of small fire districts with inadequate budgets often staffed by volunteers. To address this problem, Pickens County Council consolidated their fire services into a single fire service area under county government, with better funding.
Clemson/Central/Pendleton
Cities are an important presence in our government affairs program. The Western Upstate Association of Realtors service area in Pickens County includes three cities and towns: Clemson, Central, and Six Mile. And while Pendleton is in Anderson County, it is part of the fast growing “Greater Clemson” area which has a deceptively large population. Between permanent residents and students, nearly 50,000 people live in the area.
Clemson
The elections last fall were controversial and hotly contested, particularly the mayor’s race. City Council now has three new members.
Clemson is almost surrounded by Central, Pendleton, and Clemson University, so future growth is going to be up, rather than out. Since November, their agenda has been light on development ordinances, but consistent topics have been student housing, occupancy by unrelated people, and mixed-use development issues that are typically found in larger cities, but also common in college towns.
Central and Pendleton
Outward growth in the area will happen here. Both Central and Pendleton have had to work quickly to address those growth pressures. Both have enacted numerous ordinances to modernize their codes and address growth that will double their populations in the coming years.
Sewer
Sewer facilitates development, but without it development is limited. Central, Clemson, Pendleton, as well as Pickens and Anderson counties, worked together to expand an existing sewer treatment facility already operated by Central to accommodate future growth in the area.
Support RPAC
You and your association can influence how your government affects you and regulates your industry.
Elections are an important way that your association represents you and helps make a strong market for real estate. Elections are also an important way that you participate in your government. Your association’s objective is to help elect candidates who share the Realtor position that a vibrant and healthy real estate market is vital to a vibrant and healthy economy. Of course, you must balance your personal and business interests when you vote.
More than 90% of Realtors in the Western Upstate are registered to vote, which is amazing. But just 32% supported RPAC in 2024.
You can help your industry by supporting RPAC. It’s easy. Your association includes a voluntary contribution to RPAC on your annual dues invoice. Pay it, and you are an RPAC supporter. If you haven’t supported RPAC this year, I encourage you to do so by clicking here.
Michael Dey, Director of Government Affairs