Glassy Mountain II

I support those speaking out publicly against the 250-home Glassy Mountain subdivision and applaud the recent letters to the editor in opposition. The subdivision will overwhelm the area, the infra-structure systems (roadways, water, sewer), and the long-time residents who live nearby. Thirty to 40 homes, sure, but 250 homes is insane.

I read the news articles and saw the TV stories. It is disappointing none of the county councilmen have taken a public stand against the development. An open letter was addressed to Pickens Councilman Wes Hendricks in this newspaper a few weeks ago, and he didn’t respond to it.

All the councilmen ran to represent us. That requires them to lead -- assess situations, inform the people and publicly make it clear where they stand on the issues, especially controversial ones. I urge all the councilman to come out publicly against this proposal and stand with those in opposition.

I'm a landlord and under the law I have plenty of rights. I can put 20 people in a house, let them live there and never cut their lawn and build fences 20 feet high.

I don't do any of that, nor do I allow it. I recently got off the phone with a tenant who has not cut his back lawn. I said, you have to cut your lawn. Restating what I tell all my tenants -- I never want the house to look like the rental house on the property.

The high grass doesn't affect me; I don't live there, but the neighbors do. You move into a neighborhood, you got to be conscious of others. Common courtesy.

Plus I know if landlords abuse the freedoms they have and do a bunch of annoying things, we'll get a ton of new landlord regulations. And no one wants that.

The developer doesn't live here. I think he is not consensus of what the neighbors think or what happens in the aftermath beit with excessive traffic or the knee-jerk push for more regulation.

This is why I am so supportive of peeling back the excessive regulations that drove the smaller LOCAL developers out of the market. We need them back in the market because they are more consensus of others because they live here. (Read on)

Unfortunately, the problem we face is much larger than this over-sized subdivision and it will require much thought and some action by our county leaders. Pickens County is facing a growing housing shortage. According to Zillow.com, the average rent in Pickens has risen 35% the past five years or 7% a year. The inventory of houses for sale is extremely low, so home prices are rising at high rate too. Wages in our county aren’t rising anywhere close to 7%, so if this trend continues our children will not be able to afford to live and work here.

The shortage must be addressed, and in a way that encourages new construction, the development of reasonably sized subdivisions that don’t overwhelm their local community, while protecting our rich natural resources, wildlife, and viewsheds.

One obstacle is the excessive government regulation when constructing new roads, curb, gutter and storm water systems mandated when building new subdivisions. These steep initial costs, the excessive government oversight, and costly regulatory delays before one lot can be sold, has run most of the smaller local developers of subdivisions out of the market. Without them, all that is left is the large out-of-town developers, with their desires of mega-profits, their too-big designs, and little concern for the natural resources our county possesses. The county council and state must review regulations that are crimping the development of housing and see what can be done to make the market more friendly to smaller local developers in our county.

Another issue is our city, county and state representatives have focused exclusively on investing-in and wooing new industry to our county. They have not taken steps in preparing for the inevitable urban sprawl that is now well underway, with Greenville and Clemson University bursting at the seams.

Plus, with the rebound in housing prices nationwide, more retirees are selling their homes in the Northeast, the Rustbelt, and Florida, moving to Pickens county and buying homes here.

We must focus on improving the county’s residential road, sewer and water systems in order to meet this rising housing demand that will continue for the next decade or two. If we don’t, homes costing $100,000 five years ago will be $200,000 in five years and they will be unaffordable to most of our children starting out.