500 University Rdg, Greenville, SC 29601

Planned Development District

The planned development district (PD) is intended to encourage innovative land planning and site design concepts that conform to community quality-of-life benchmarks and that achieve a high level of aesthetics, high-quality development, environmental sensitivity, energy efficiency, and other community goals by: (a) Reducing or eliminating the inflexibility that sometimes results from strict application of zoning and development standards that were designed primarily for individual lots; (b) Allowing greater freedom in selecting the means to provide access, light, open space, and design amenities; (c) Allowing greater freedom in providing a mix of land uses in the same development, including a mix of housing types, lot sizes, and densities; (d) Promoting quality urban and traditional neighborhood design and environmentally sensitive development by allowing development to take advantage of special site characteristics, locations, and land uses; and (e) Encouraging quality urban and traditional neighborhood design and environmentally sensitive development by allowing increases in base densities or floor area ratios when such increases can be justified by superior design or the provision of additional amenities such as public open space. In return for flexibility in site design and development, planned developments (PDs) are expected to include exceptional design that preserves critical environmental resources; provides above-average open space and recreational amenities; incorporates creative design in the layout of buildings, open space, and circulation; ensures compatibility with surrounding land uses and neighborhood character; and, provides greater efficiency in the layout and provision of roads, utilities, and other infrastructure.