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PICKENS COUNTY - Residents have been very vocal about speaking out against it, but the county's proposed Development Standards Ordinance is much more lenient than similar documents in Anderson and Greenville counties, according to county Planning Director Chris Brink.

Brink discussed the document with county officials during a joint meeting of County Council and the Planning Commission Monday night.

The new unified DSO is a combination of the flood ordinance, the road ordinance and earlier versions of the DSO, Brink said.

In the two years since Brink began working on the DSO revision, many residents have voiced their concerns about it to County Council, saying they fear the documents effect on business and development in the county.

Some County Council members and planning commissioners have those same fears.

Councilwoman Jennifer Willis said she fears the DSO is causing developers to take their plans into neighboring counties due to less stringent development standards, robbing Pickens County of additions to the tax base.

"Part of the feedback I've gotten from builders is that we're much harder to deal with and that they'd rather go across the line," she said. "That's hurting us and that's ...what we were trying to get addressed here, to make it more friendly and to get those folks back across the line."

The county's DSO is "probably less stringent than anybody else around now," Brink said.

Council Ben Trotter said he didn't understand why the county would want to restrict homeowners and business owners from managing their own land.

"Why would we want to restrict them on what they can build and where they can build it on their own land?" Trotter said. "It seems like a lot of ordinances we've got are hurting us because we're driving businesses that might want to come here away, because of our restrictions."

With industry slow to arrive in Pickens County, property taxes are important to the county's well-being, Trotter said.

"Taxes on property, one day, is going to just about pay for everything we've got," he said. "Why would we start throwing up roadblocks, saying 'You can't do this, you can't do that,'"

Councilman Tom Ponder believes special interest groups are driving some of the regulations in the DSO, without regard for the good of the county as a whole.

"I'm sure the Friends of Lake Keowee don't want to see some kind of a resort, a hotel with 20 floors come, but it'd be great for the county because of the tax revenue," Ponder said. "Anything I'm going to vote on has got to represent what's good for the county as a whole. We need to protect our environment ... but we don't need to ... discourage residential development, commercial development, recreational development."

Administrative variances, including those for industry, can be granted by planning department staff on both property set backs and height requirements, Brink said.

Willis asked if there was the possibility of creating new zoning categories to regulate industry in way that is fair to them and protects the county.

"If somebody wants to come build a condo tower that we can make some tax money off of and wouldn't totally destroy everything, I think they ought to have the ability to do that," she said. "Could we define some sort of category that gave them the exception to do that?"

"Absolutely," Brink said.

Special districts could be created that would allow buildings with more height and developments with greater density and a more urban feel, said County Councilman Jim London.

"You could just do it in that portion of the county and let the people of that area decide, 'This is what he want to do,' he said.

Once approved by the planning commission and council, the final version of the Development Standard Ordinance will be available for viewing at the county office and online, Brink said.