Council seeks more business-friendly code
FLORENCE — Town staff are gathering input from Town Council members on how the development code could be more business-friendly, and staff expect to have a proposal for the council to consider in July.
Mayor Tom Rankin and Councilman John Anderson discussed the possible need to amend the code at the June 20 council meeting. “I’m proposing we go back to the code we had a few years ago, with a few modifications to it,” Anderson said. He added the council should be more involved with the planning and development of the community. Rankin said being business-friendly starts at the beginning of the approval process.
Town Manager Brent Billingsley had three initial reactions. First, he said the Planning and Zoning Commission and Town Council aren’t registered engineers and don’t have a legal right to review and approve engineering plans. Secondly, the commission, under Florence’s code, has purely an advisory role. “They don’t approve anything and don’t oversee major construction projects,” Billingsley said.
