Planners, developers, housing professionals, and community leaders gathered for a working session on housing affordability. This session focused on zoning barriers, including accessory dwelling units (ADUs), missing middle housing, minimum lot sizes, and other setbacks.
Speaker Tina Belge with the Greenville City Council shared how the City of Greenville’s 2023 Unified Development Ordinance allowed ADUs and created new districts for missing middle housing such as duplexes, triplexes, and cottage courts. The city allows one ADU per lot, and at least one unit on the property must be owner-occupied. ADUs give options to seniors who want to downsize and stay in their neighborhood, caregivers, and first-time homebuyers.
In 2025, Greenville updated its code to allow separate utility meters for ADUs and began annual reporting. However, off-street parking requirements, limited mortgage options, and rising water tap fees remain barriers. Belge pointed to Charleston as an example of what can happen when barriers are removed. Charleston first offered homeowners funding to build ADUs if they kept rents within area median income (AMI) limits, yet none were built. Once that requirement was lifted, ADUs went up across Charleston County. For the Upstate, the takeaway is that when barriers are addressed, homeowners and builders respond.
Speaker CeeJ Jefferson with Oak and Ave Property Group, a Spartanburg developer who has built about 40 affordable single-family homes since 2021, spoke about lot size, density, and the different requirements that have caused setback from a developer’s view. Smaller lots let developers spread infrastructure costs across more homes. Lot costs may drop from about $125,000 to about $50,000 because of this innovation. However, the same 1,300-square-foot home sells for about $205,000 in Spartanburg and about $380,000 in Greenville, which creates a barrier for both developers and potential buyers.
Setbacks that change from street to street, utility easements on infill lots, and a two-month rezoning process for a single lot can put buyer assistance funds at risk. Jefferson proposed an Affordable Housing Overlay and Fast-Track Program with smaller minimum lot sizes, increased density, flexible setbacks for infill lots, pre-approved house plans, and expedited permitting. Savannah, Georgia, adopted a similar policy in 2025.
Housing affordability remains a focus of Ten at the Top’s new 2027–2029 Strategic Impact Agenda. Professional Planners meetings will return in spring 2027.