South Carolina H 4050: Local planning

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 4050 Text of Previous Version (Feb. 19, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 4050

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING 
SECTION 6-29-720, RELATING TO ZONING ORDINANCES, SO AS TO DEFINE "CONCURRENCY 
PROGRAMS"; AND BY AMENDING SECTION 6-29-1130, RELATING TO REGULATIONS, SO AS TO 
INCLUDE A REFERENCE TO AN ADOPTED CONCURRENCY PROGRAM.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 6-29-720(C) of the S.C. Code is amended to 
read:

 (C) The zoning ordinance may utilize 
the following or any other zoning and planning techniques for implementation of 
the goals specified above. Failure to specify a particular technique does not 
cause use of that technique to be viewed as beyond the power of the local 
government choosing to use it:

 (1) 
"cluster development" or the grouping of residential, commercial, or industrial 
uses within a subdivision or development site, permitting a reduction in the 
otherwise applicable lot size, while preserving substantial open space on the 
remainder of the parcel;

 (2) 
"floating zone" or a zone which is described in the text of a zoning ordinance 
but is unmapped. A property owner may petition for the zone to be applied to a 
particular parcel meeting the minimum zoning district area requirements of the 
zoning ordinance through legislative action;

 (3) 
"performance zoning" or zoning which specifies a minimum requirement or maximum 
limit on the effects of a land use rather than, or in addition to, specifying 
the use itself, simultaneously assuring compatibility with surrounding 
development and increasing a developer's flexibility;

 (4) 
"planned development district" or a development project comprised of housing of 
different types and densities and of compatible commercial uses, or shopping 
centers, office parks, and mixed-use developments. A planned development 
district is established by rezoning prior to development and is characterized 
by a unified site design for a mixed use development;

 (5) 
"overlay zone" or a zone which imposes a set of requirements or relaxes a set 
of requirements imposed by the underlying zoning district when there is a 
special public interest in a particular geographic area that does not coincide 
with the underlying zone boundaries;

 (6) 
"conditional uses" or zoning ordinance provisions that impose conditions, 
restrictions, or limitations on a permitted use that are in addition to the 
restrictions applicable to all land in the zoning district. The conditions, 
restrictions, or limitations must be set forth in the text of the zoning 
ordinance; and

 (7) 
"priority investment zone" in which the governing authority adopts market-based 
incentives or relaxes or eliminates nonessential housing regulatory 
requirements, as these terms are defined in this chapter, to encourage private 
development in the priority investment zone. The governing authority also may 
provide that traditional neighborhood design and affordable housing, as these 
terms are defined in this chapter, must be permitted within the priority 
investment zone; and

 (8) "concurrency programs" in which the 
governing authority conditions approval of land development activities on 
public facility and service adequacy. A concurrency program also may be 
referred to as an "adequate public facility program."

 (a) Concurrency programs must ensure 
public facilities and services necessary to support development are adequate to 
serve that development, based on reasonable and locally documented level of 
service standards and proportionate share methodologies.

 (b) A governing authority adopting 
concurrency may require public facility and service contributions sufficient to 
offset a development's proportionate share impacts on facilities and services 
and also may accept excess capacity contributions made pursuant to a written 
agreement with the property owner.

 (c) However, under this subsection, the 
governing authority must take into consideration any contributions made by 
payment of development impact fees or other instruments for the same impacts on 
relevant facilities and services.

 (d) Local governing authorities and 
property owners may enter into written proportionate share, cost sharing, or 
other similar agreements to facilitate exercise of any authority or requirement 
under this subsection.

SECTION 2. Section 6-29-1130(A) of the S.C. Code is amended to 
read:

 (A) When at least the community 
facilities element, the housing element, and the priority investment element of 
the comprehensive plan as authorized by this chapter have been adopted by the 
local planning commission and the local governing body or bodies, the local 
planning commission may prepa