Planned development districts provide a valuable way for cities and towns to be flexible in their regulation of a mixed-use development, giving them an opportunity to influence the design of new development projects to help them meet the community’s needs. However, these districts, which were once known as “planned unit developments,” are sometimes misunderstood as a zoning tool, and so cities and towns should take care to use them properly.
SC Code Section 6-29-270 explains that PDDs “allow flexibility in development that will result in improved design, character, and quality of new mixed-use developments and preserve natural and scenic features of open spaces.”
Mixed use
The “mixed use” requirement — residential, commercial, industrial and institutional — is key. SC Code Section 6-29-720, which explains multiple types of authorized planning tools, indicates that a PDD is “a development project comprised of housing or different types and densities and of compatible commercial uses, or shopping centers, offices parks, and mixed-use developments.”
Court cases have found that this mixed-use element is not optional. The 2010 SC Supreme Court case Sinkler v. County of Charleston invalidated a Wadmalaw Island PDD on the grounds that it did not provide for mixed use and instead simply allowed for smaller lot sizes than would otherwise be allowed for the area’s agricultural classification.
Changes over time
PDDs are established with their own text amendment to the zoning ordinance and accompanying map. Local governments and developers usually negotiate PDDs with a proposed development in mind, providing site-specific rules like the property’s uses, setbacks, lot sizes and density.
Most PDDs take years to build out. The passage of time and changes in development conditions often make the originally approved plan unsatisfactory for remaining undeveloped phases. For example, after building an initial residential component of a PDD, the developer might determine that the remaining phases should have a different mix of residential and commercial than described in the original plan.
In this situation, the developer must choose between complying with the original, unsatisfactory plan or requesting a formal amendment to the PDD, which can be a burdensome, time-consuming and uncertain process. In approving a PDD, cities and towns should balance the sound public policy of making the PDD as specific as possible against the possible need for future flexibility.
Precise language
SC Code Section 6-29-270 names multiple types of zoning techniques, and PDDs are only one of them. Others include “cluster development,” which allows for a reduction of lot sizes as a way to preserve open spaces; the “conditional uses” in which the city or town can add conditions to the limitations found in the existing zoning, among others.
Whether the municipality decides to pursue a PDD for an area or another zoning technique, it should make sure that the language used in its zoning ordinance amendment matches with the language in the state law, and the stipulations it sets up matches with what the law describes. In other words, if the municipality wants to use the planned development district technique, it needs to pass an ordinance using the words “planned development district,” and provide for mixed use.
Learn more about zoning tools, powers and administration in the Municipal Association’s Comprehensive Planning Guide for Local Governments.