KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. — Kershaw County continues to see an explosion of housing developments and residents calling the community home.
Back in April, reported how, in one week, 57 homes were approved to be built in the Elgin area alone. Now the county is looking to manage the growth.
“What we’re trying to do is protect this community from massive growth,” said Council Member Derek Shoemake.
Shoemake says just last week, council took a step towards controlling the size of homes being built in new developments.
“It's difficult to drive through Lugoff and Elgin and not see a large swath of land being cleared for a residential development, so one of the issues community members have been coming to me about and the council about is what impact does this residential growth gonna have on the community at large, because it's one thing to put 400 houses in a place but those houses need security, a police force, if there is a fire they need a fire service, they're gonna need infrastructure with cars on the road, so there is a lot of costs to all of this,” Shoemake said.
A motion Shoemake made was unanimously approved to make sure houses aren't just feet away from one another.
“Right now, the zoning code, it's kinda interesting," Shoemake said. "It has several residential districts, and in each of them, there are minimal lot sizes in our most dense districts. In theory, you could put 8.7 homes in one acre, and that might not be realistic based on certain setbacks, but right now our zoning code would allow 8.7 homes in an acre, so what we’re looking to do is increase the minimum lot size, so basically you could only have a home every .33 acres."
Before it becomes official, it has a few more steps.
“We have to get an ordinance drafted, It will go in front of planning & zoning, and then it comes back to the council and then we need 3 readings," Shoemake said. "So realistically, if we can move as fast as I hope and we should have that by the end of September.”
Housing developments that have already been approved would not have to change their development plans.