Oak Hill Drive Rezoning on Planning Commission Agenda Tonight
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
The Anderson County Planning Commission will meet tonight at 6 p.m. in the historic courthouse to address a number of proposals, including one which would rezone a selection of property on Oak Hill Drive.
Seven and a quarter acres belonging to Sara M. Moore, with Ridgewater Engineering & Surveying acting as the agents of change, has petitioned to transmute this parcel from the standard R-20 designation (the bread and butter of single-family zoning) into something rather more expansive: an Innovative Zoning District, or I.Z.D.
Though the current developer is suggesting housing on the property, the new designation would that allow mixed-use developments beyond traditional rules, encouraging integrated housing, while allowing retail, offices, and institutional uses, with a goal of promoting walkability and economic development, and requiring review for each project rather than rigid categories
This proposal has not gone unnoticed as the county has dispatched notices to some three hundred and eighty-three property owners within a two-thousand-foot radius, ensuring that the Hopewell precinct is suitably apprised of the impending "innovation."
The docket is not limited to a single issue. The commissioners must also turn their gaze toward Powdersville, where Bon Secours Mercy Health is seeking a waiver regarding right-of-way improvements—a bureaucratic wrinkle in the fabric of their approved medical campus at the intersection of Three Bridges and Roe roads. And Duke Energy has requested a land-use blessing to construct the Rainey Road Retail Substation on Highway 29 South.
The planning commission will also be electing officers for the 2026 term and receiving a staff update on the recently adopted Mass Grading Ordinance, a regulation that dictates just how much earth may be moved before the moving becomes a matter of public concern. The findings on Oak Hill Drive could eventually migrate to the county council for final approval, but for now, the fate of the acreage rests in hands of the planning commission.
