Threatened, rural South Carolinians accept zoning

Some rural residents of Greenville County, S.C., "have banded together to do what was once unthinkable in the county's rural reaches -- ask the county to add zoning restrictions to their property," reports Ben Szobody of The Greenville News. "The grassroots movement is an example of how traditional property-rights advocates can come to embrace limited land-use rules when large-scale development threatens a way of life."

The move was prompted by a proposal for "a dense, 100-acre subdivision" with septic tanks, Szobody writes. The plan faltered, but it made zoning-shy residents think about "what robust growth is doing to the farthest reaches of a county that still contains vast swaths of prime unzoned property, and how attitudes are changing about planning ahead of growth by way of land-use restrictions." (Read more)