§ 44-101. Regional shopping centers.

(a)

Intent. McDuffie County recognizes that, as the county continues to grow and prosper, the need for and marketability of regional shopping centers designed to serve the retail shopping needs of a regional population (within and beyond McDuffie County) will increase. However, the county also recognizes that such facilities, by virtue of their size and nature, can generate significant impacts on established commercial centers, local growth rates and the distribution of growth in the county, traffic patterns and congestion, public facilities, and sensitive natural resources. Many of the impacts generated by regional shopping centers can be positive, negative, or both. McDuffie County seeks to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive impacts by developing standards to manage the county's transition to a regional commercial center in a way that is compatible with the community's ability to absorb the impacts, while not impeding the inevitability of that trend. To implement this impact management scheme, McDuffie County has created special standards to place general guidelines on the design and potential location of regional shopping centers. These guidelines are designed to prevent excess development speculation and competition for the development of regional shopping centers, which could result in market saturation, destabilization of established commercial centers or areas, rapid fluctuations in local property values, and excessive demand on existing public facilities.

(b)

Required conditions. A regional shopping center is a use permitted by special exception in the C-2 General Commercial District, and in the T-1 Interstate Village District. An applicant shall request an amendment to the zoning map for the appropriate district designation for a property that satisfies the following requirements. The planning commission and board of commissioners shall consider these requirements in addition to the criteria listed in article I, section 44-3 when evaluating a request for an amendment to the zoning map to apply the special exception in the appropriate district.

(1)

The lot should be designated on the future land use map for commercial use.

(2)

The lot must be at least 30 acres in size and must contain an additional 3,750 square feet of land area for each proposed additional 1,000 square feet of net floor area over and above the first 350,000 net square feet. At least 80 percent of the proposed lot gross land area shall consist of developable land area.

(3)

The lot must have at least 300 feet of frontage on any arterial highway or a major collector highway.

(4)

The lot must have direct access to public water and sewer.

(5)

The neighboring areas within 0.5 mile of the lot should be characterized primarily by established high volume vehicular traffic commercial land uses that would be complementary to a regional shopping center. Such commercial uses include, but are not limited to, supermarkets, gas stations, automobile repair shops, movie cinemas, restaurants, department stores, hardware or building supply stores, and banks.

(6)

No portion of a lot approved for development of a regional shopping center shall be located within the boundaries of the Usry Pond Watershed Overlay District.

(c)

Application and review procedures. Once the board of commissioners has approved an amendment to the zoning map to apply the regional shopping center special exception to a lot, the owner or his/her duly authorized agent shall submit a development application for approval by the planning commission. The application must be approved by the planning commission within one year of the date of approval of the amendment to the zoning map by the board of commissioners or the planning commission may initiate further rezoning of the regional shopping center property.

(d)

Special development standards. The following special development standards shall apply to all proposed regional shopping centers in addition to the applicable requirements of the general zoning district and overlay zone(s).

(1)

All areas of the proposed development site that do not satisfy the definition of developable land area shall be designated as "open space," which must be retained and maintained in a natural vegetated state. The planning commission may allow the applicant to improve a portion of the designated open space to provide a park or passive recreational uses, such as a walking trail, garden area, or fenced playground, provided the proposed improvements satisfy the following requirements:

a.

The proposed recreational improvements will not affect more than 50 percent of the designated open space areas;

b.

No improvements will be made to lands that are classified as wetlands without written approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and

c.

Public use of the improved recreational areas will not cause undue environmental stress on the remaining open space areas.

(2)

The development will contain adequate stormwater management facilities to comply with the McDuffie County Stormwater Ordinance. The planning commission may request technical assistance in evaluating the applicant's proposed measures to comply with this requirement. Any costs associated with this evaluation assistance shall be paid by the applicant. All drainage improvements shall tie into any available drainageways along the adjoining public streets.

(3)

The development shall have at least two entrances from a public street that are at least 200 feet apart (as measured from accessway centerline to accessway centerline along the intersecting street line). The planning commission may require additional accessways not to exceed two as it deems necessary to accommodate safe entrance, egress, and emergency access to the development.

(4)

A 100-foot wide vegetative buffer shall be provided along all property lines that adjoin an existing residential or agricultural lot.

(Ord. of 3-23-99, Art. VI, § 1)