Greenville housing development blocked; Blunt cites road safety concerns.

What this episode covers

Charlie James: And we are back. Welcome back to the program. Well, there is a lawsuit going on with Greenville County over a housing development. Let's go to the Chairman of the Greenville County Council, Benton Blunt. Benton, welcome to the program. Hope you're doing well. Benton Blunt: I'm doing good, Charlie. Hope you are as well. Charlie James: Yes, sir. Uh, so is this over the Owens Glen project? Benton Blunt: Uh, yes, sir. This is something that uh took place. It's been long-going, started in 2024, um and just back and forth through the process up until uh a recent reconsideration and denial by the Planning Commission. And now we are dealing with some litigation currently in in the court system. Charlie James: So, just to get up to speed, this was a uh 118-acre, 300-home development. Um, it was approved by the Planning Commission, and then here recently, it got unapproved? Benton Blunt: Yes. Basically, what happened is a is a is a council member, uh Councilman Bradley, from southern part of Greenville County went out with uh a news team and uh one of the reporters measured the road in front of where the development was going to go to find out that it was going to be 15 feet wide. Is is all that it was. Um, and to match that with a thousand uh a petition with a thousand uh constituents from that area in opposition to it, uh just out of concern for safety, it was brought to council and requested that it go back to the Planning Commission. And they they reevaluated the information and felt like that it was not safe, and they chose to deny it. Charlie James: So, I mean, how wide should a road be um adjacent to a development like this? Benton Blunt: You know, it it really depends uh not just on that development, but the the surrounding area, if there's other residential areas. But, uh there's there's different metrics that they use, whether it's a state or county road. I know that 15 feet is not very wide, and to any of your listeners currently sitting in traffic, I know that that concern about traffic congestion just continues to grow. So, uh I don't know what the exact answer is on the right-of-way, but I think that 15 is definitely pretty narrow. Charlie James: So, as expected, lawyers are now involved, and I know you can't get into some of the details about this. But, a lot of people saying this is this is a case that uh Greenville County could lose. Benton Blunt: I, uh you know, like I said, I I definitely can't speak to the case itself yet until the judge gives the ruling. But, um development in in Greenville County and South Carolina in general is just a difficult process. We have a lot of state laws that kind of tie our hands to certain things, and when the public is in opposition, we obviously listen to our citizens. Uh, but that can unfortunately put us up against the the court system sometimes. But, you know, that's what we're trying to do is really balance out obviously following the law, but also listening to our citizens. Charlie James: Kind of got me that uh even Inez Fance said that the Planning Commission got this one wrong. Benton Blunt: Yeah. I mean, you know, I I think a lot of it comes back to we really have to uh bear down and follow our our state laws, or we have to lobby our legislators to change them. Uh, and and until then, we're going to find ourselves in these in these predicaments. And even have some uh people sometimes that normally wouldn't speak out in a way you think they would, like Dr. Fance, that might say something that could prove to be true. But we'll have to wait and see. Charlie James: Now, I know that there was at one time, if you were planning a development, then the developer had to come in and do a traffic impact study. Is is that the case now? Benton Blunt: Not in every instance. Uh, and and I think it should be the case. Uh, again, it goes back to a lot of state laws we really need to get fixed, or we need to to up our standards at the county as well, which we're ...

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