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GOWENSVILLE—On July 15, the Greenville County Planning and Development Committee unanimously approved a petition from landowners to zone roughly 3.5 square miles in the Gowensville area. The proposal still awaits approval from the Greenville County Council before going into effect.

The petition’s primary goal is to strike a delicate balance between preserving the area’s character and addressing concerns about uncontrolled development. The support of the owners of the individual properties within the area in question has been key to the proposal’s approval from the Planning Board.

The proposed zoning plan aims to designate parcels five acres or larger as agricultural, a relatively new classification created by Greenville County to aid rural landowners in safeguarding the countryside. Additionally, smaller parcels would be zoned as rural residential, allowing for a home for every one to three acres, tailored to the size of the tract.

With Greenville County bracing for a projected influx of over 100,000 new residents in the next decade, the largely unzoned rural land on the county’s edge has become an attractive prospect for developers, raising alarm among the local community. There has been increasing concern about the growing presence of high-density developers, both local and international, who are aggressively seeking to acquire land in the area, sparking understandable apprehension among residents.

Over the past two years, a group of local volunteers has been collaborating with county staff and educating their neighbors about the potential protective benefits of zoning. Despite significant challenges, including the inability to reach certain property owners and some residents’ reluctance to seek zoning, the community’s support has been a driving force for the zoning initiative.

The zoning push reflects broader challenges faced by Greenville County, where two-thirds of the land remains unzoned.