Preserve our history

I, along with many of my neighbors, are very concerned with the rampant growth of our town. Our quality of life has already been negatively impacted, and it has seemed our city leaders are nit much concerned about it. But a tipping point has been reached for many of is. We are opposing the imminent destruction of the historic, 120 year old James house at 1011 Main St., to accommodate a rental community development.

This house was built with bricks made on site from clay dug from the Enoree river, and laid by Mr. John James, and completed in 1900. It is a regional treasure, and cannot be replaced.

On Monday, Nov 15, the Greer Planning Commission voted to against a motion to make the preservation of this 120 year old landmark a requirement for approving the DRD zoning. The meeting was well attended, and all noted the callousness shown by some of the commission members; we will remember it.

I was astonished to find out that the reason all of these large rental developments use DRD zoning, is because Greer does not have a zoning that allows for apartments or townhouses! The city is allowing developers to do construction that maximizes profits, to the detriment of all the folks that have lived here for years, or all of their lives. Why are we allowing this to happen?

I propose the city enact a temporary moratorium on all new construction of developments that are not covered by our zoning regulations. This will allow us to approach the future of our town in a measured, thoughtful way. We can simply not allow this “seat of the pants” development to continue.

It’s been said, “you cannot stop progress”, and maybe that’s true. But if we cannot preserve our history, is that progress? Maybe to some, but not to any of my friends and neighbors, and not the majority of the people of Greer.

TJ Swift
Greer