South Carolina communities are taking an increasingly aggressive stance against new residential development, with Greenville County’s recent moratorium on cluster housing serving as the latest example of a troubling trend that threatens to create severe housing shortages across the state.
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Greenville County Slams the Brakes
Starting August 2nd, Greenville County implemented a temporary but sweeping halt on all cluster development applications—a move that blocks an entire category of residential construction for up to 12 months. Cluster developments, which typically feature homes built in close proximity with shared green spaces and sometimes mixed-use retail elements, represent a significant portion of new housing supply.
The county justified the moratorium by citing “ongoing concerns about misinterpretation, inconsistent application, and impacts on rural character, infrastructure, and citizen quality of life.” But this reasoning masks a more concerning reality: local leaders are prioritizing aesthetic preferences and NIMBYism over the urgent need for housing supply.
A Pattern of Restriction Across the State
Greenville County’s action isn’t happening in isolation. Similar restrictive measures are becoming increasingly common across South Carolina as communities grapple with rapid population growth. From Charleston to the Upstate, local governments are implementing zoning restrictions, development moratoria, and regulatory hurdles that effectively limit new home construction just when it’s needed most.
This aggressive approach to limiting development represents a fundamental misunderstanding of supply and demand economics. As County Council member Alan Mitchell noted, the moratorium will give officials time for “in-depth discussions about clusters”—but meanwhile, families searching for homes won’t have the luxury of waiting for bureaucratic deliberations to conclude.
The Unintended Consequences Are Already Clear
Housing advocate Tameka Thomason, treasurer of Beyond Housing, captured the central contradiction in the county’s approach: “It could potentially put a strain on getting more housing. And what we have to look at is we’ve seen this happen in cities where they stopped development altogether. And those cities start depreciating.”
Thomason’s concerns reflect a broader economic reality. When housing supply is artificially constrained while demand continues to surge, the inevitable result is higher prices and reduced affordability. South Carolina’s population boom shows no signs of slowing, with people flocking to the state for its business-friendly environment, lower costs, and quality of life. But these very attributes are at risk when housing becomes scarce and expensive.
Missing the Real Solutions
Rather than addressing legitimate concerns about development through better oversight and regulation, Greenville County chose the blunt instrument of a complete moratorium. As Thomason suggested, alternative approaches—such as fines for developers who don’t follow regulations, with proceeds supporting county infrastructure needs—could have addressed concerns while maintaining housing supply.
The county’s claim that developers are “doing whatever they want to do” with “no guardrails” suggests a failure of existing regulatory enforcement, not a fundamental problem with cluster development itself. Better enforcement of existing rules would be far more effective than shutting down entire categories of housing construction.
The Bigger Picture: A Housing Supply Crisis in the Making
South Carolina’s approach to development restrictions comes at precisely the wrong time. With the state experiencing unprecedented population growth and housing demand, now is when communities need to be facilitating more construction, not less. The aggressive stance against new development seen in Greenville County and across the state threatens to create the kind of housing supply constraints that have plagued other high-growth regions.
When communities prioritize preserving “rural character” over providing homes for working families, they risk pricing out the very people who make their economies function. The service workers, teachers, healthcare professionals, and other essential employees who keep communities running need places to live—and cluster developments often provide exactly the kind of affordable, well-designed housing options these workers require.
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Looking Forward
While Greenville County’s moratorium is temporary, its impact on housing supply will be felt long after the 12-month period ends. Every month that passes without new housing construction is a month that falls further behind the growing demand.
South Carolina’s leaders need to recognize that managing growth effectively requires facilitating appropriate development, not blocking it entirely. The state’s continued economic success depends on ensuring that the people driving that success have places to call home. The current trajectory of aggressive development restrictions threatens to undermine the very prosperity that makes South Carolina attractive in the first place.
The choice is clear: embrace smart growth that provides housing options for all residents, or watch housing costs spiral out of control while communities become increasingly exclusive. Unfortunately, Greenville County’s moratorium suggests too many leaders are choosing the latter path—with consequences that will be felt for years to come.
To read more on this topic, visit Greenville County Approves Temporary Halt on Cluster Housing Developments.
