By Stan Welch
The future of the Powdersville area of the county will be the topic of two planning meetings to be held next week.
The Anderson County Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing on Tuesday October 10, at 6pm in the County Council chambers during their normally scheduled monthly meeting to consider moving the Northeast County Area Plan (NECAP) forward to County Council. The draft NECAP Area Plan can be found at http://www.andersoncountysc.org/Departments/Planning-Community-Development/Plans-Reports-and-Studies.
The preliminary results of the study of the northeast part of Anderson County confirms that the people in Powdersville and surrounding areas want better roads, more recreational facilities, and more autonomy over the area’s future development.
Aside from quite a bit of interesting data, those conclusions form the core of the Northeast County Area Plan (NECAP), a study conducted by the Anderson county planning department over the last several months. The area described by the acronym is defined by the Greenville and Pickens county lines to the north and east, and by Highway 8 (loosely) to the west and south. While portions of County Council Districts Four and Seven are included, the great bulk of the area is comprised of District Six, which is represented by Councilman Ken Waters.
Planning director Michael Forman explained that the area in question is growing at a rate of three per cent each year; a figure put into perspective by the fact that the entire county is growing at one per cent. Further evidence of the rapid growth can be seen in the area population of 26,710 per the 2010 census, and the projected population of 52,608 by the year 2040. That is a virtual doubling of the population in just 30 years.
County Councilman Ken Waters will be hosting a town hall meeting on Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 6:30 P.M. at Powdersville Middle School, in the cafeteria. Note the location change. Community residents and stakeholders are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting to receive input from County Council and staff regarding the Powdersville community.
