Laurens County Council Advances Land-Use Ordinances, Ends Ice Storm Emergency
February 3, 2026
Laurens County Council used a special called meeting Monday night to address both storm recovery and future development standards, voting to end the county’s declared state of emergency following January’s ice storm and moving forward with key land-use ordinances.
Council members present at the meeting formally voted to lift the emergency declaration that had been put in place in response to hazardous winter weather conditions across the county. Councilman Brown Patterson and Kemp Younts were not in attendance.
The council also unanimously approved second reading of Ordinance 1001, which amends provisions related to nonconforming lots essentially providing residents the opportunity to rebuild and or utilize lots which were approved under a previous ordinance, thus removing the financial hardship and burdensome process of taking such a request to the planning commission.
According to County Attorney Wes Meetz, the language of the ordinance remains unchanged from first reading.
“There has been no change since the first reading. Again, this is the ordinance to address lots that don’t meet minimum lot size by today’s ordinance, but did at the time they were created,” Meetz said. “This could allow lots to be developed as long as the person is going to place a structure on those lots that can meet the setbacks that were established at the time of their creation.”
Before the vote, Council Chair Carroll explained the practical impact of the amendment, noting that the Laurens County Planning Commission is increasingly seeing cases where a structure has burned down or needs to be replaced on a lot that no longer meets current standards, even though it complied when originally built. In those cases, property owners currently must seek a variance to rebuild. The ordinance change is intended to reduce that burden when setbacks from the time of the lot’s creation can still be met.
In addition to the vote on nonconforming lots, council and the planning commission held a joint discussion regarding Ordinance 991, which proposes amendments to Ordinance 926 governing open space residential development.
Meetz said three proposed amendments will be considered at third and final reading along with any possible Council revisions during the regular council meeting on Monday night. He noted the proposals come from both the planning commission and representatives of the Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission.
“These amendments concern minimum lot widths to maximum densities, how many homes you can actually put into a subdivision versus what is the particular lot size going to be for each one,” Meetz said.
Chairman Carroll offered a simplified example to help illustrate the concept. Using a hypothetical 200-acre subdivision, he explained that with a maximum density of two homes per acre, up to 400 homes could be developed across the property. Developers would still have to meet the required open space standards, but would have flexibility in how homes are arranged within the subdivision, leaving layout decisions to the builder and engineer.
Under the version approved on second reading at the January 12, 2026 regular meeting, council voted for a framework that requires 50 percent open space, with 40 percent designated as open space and 10 percent as common area.
The third and final reading of Ordinance 991 is scheduled for the regular meeting of Laurens County Council on Monday, February 9, 2026. If approved, the changes will shape how future open space residential developments are designed and reviewed across Laurens County.
