FLORENCE — For decades, the corridor from McLeod Health to Francis Marion University has been peppered with weedy motels, crumbling businesses and vacant lots hemmed in by barbed wire.
“This side of Florence has always been the last on everybody’s list,” said Brandon Rawlinson, a business owner who has lived and worked in the area for years. A recent report described the corridor as a “passthrough rather than a place.”
That’s about to change — or at least officials hope it is.
With the introduction of major developments like Buc-ee’s and the electric vehicle battery plant, economic development and planning officials expect to see East Palmetto Street take off.
Now, Florence County is embarking on an ambitious project to reshape the eastern gateway into Florence and control the projected development.
The first step is a complex set of new zoning rules designed to improve how U.S. 76 looks, creating a cohesive identity.
The rules paint a picture of Eastern Florence as a bustling commercial area with people walking down the block beneath shade trees, visiting restaurants and retail stores that boast new, uniform facades.
While the new regulations won’t immediately affect existing businesses, they will shape what Eastern Florence looks like for years to come.
It’s new territory for the county, which has historically left most properties unzoned. But the hands-on approach is necessary as residents deal with the positives and negatives of rapid growth, officials said.
“We have a lot of unzoned areas,” said Gregg Robinson, CEO of the Florence County Economic Development Partnership. “And we have to work with the people in the community to ensure that they get the right growth that they want.”
A poor first impressionFor many visitors to Florence, the U.S. 76 gateway is their first impression of the city. It’s not always a good one.
Officials often describe greeting potential investors at the Florence Regional Airport and then ushering them out the back to avoid exposing them to the run-down corridor.
The roadway features a confusing array of homes and businesses: restaurants and filling stations, the Department of Motor Vehicles, a Food Lion. An elementary school stands next to a highway patrol office and an RV park. Every mile or so, there’s another business selling used cars or mobile homes.
The corridor also is home to staples of Florence life: the Florence Flea Market, the decades-old Sunrise Drive-In Restaurant and Memorial Stadium, among others. It’s bookended by McLeod Health and Francis Marion University.
FLORENCE COUNTY GATEWAY 76’S PROJECT: Florence County is planning an ambitious project to rezone a swath of the U.S. 76 gateway into Florence to improve the corridor. (Source: Esri)
According to a report commissioned by the county, “land has developed in a somewhat haphazard manner, with some property owners taking great pride of ownership, while others do the absolute minimum required.”
As a result, the roadway is neither attractive nor inviting, the report found. It lacks any sense of character.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the best-looking road in Florence or anything like that,” said Brandon Sawyer. Sawyer owns Dixie Made, a Southern lifestyle clothing store near the Florence Flea Market.
Since Sawyer was born about 40 years ago, he can’t remember the corridor changing much. It’s the same aging, somewhat run-down area it’s always been, he said.
That’s a problem, because the corridor plays a key role in visitors’ introduction to Florence, Robinson said. The highway is often trafficked by investors, beach tourists and commuters.
“It is a primary gateway, and as we continue to represent Florence as the hub of the Pee Dee, we’ve got to clean those major corridors up,” Robinson said.
Work to reshape U.S. 76 predates the battery plant. But when AESC announced in 2023 that it would build a multibillion-dollar facility just north of the highway, the clock began ticking.
It’s not just the plant itself — a more than 3 million-square-foot “gigafactory” that promises to employ 2,700 people. The factory will likely attract numerous other businesses and workers, Robinson said.
Many of the workers may want to live nearby. They’ll seek out subdivisions being built in surrounding farmland. With homes come groceries and retail stores. Then restaurants and entertainment.
“With the introduction of the battery plant, it’s going to blow up. It’s really going to take off,” said Shawn Brashear, the county’s director of planning.
In the face of that growth, improving the city’s gateways has become a major priority for the city of Florence and county.
In 2021, the city tore down a hotel off East Palmetto Street that they labeled a nuisance. In late 2022, the city formed a committee to look specifically at enhancing the corridor. Just recently, officials announced an $18 million project to revitalize nearby Levy Park. They hope the work will be the spark the area needs.
The county hopes the rezoning project can shape that growth more effectively, giving the corridor an identifiable character in the same way that Florence’s historic downtown district is a distinct area.
“What we’ve got on 76 now is just a hodgepodge,” Brashear said.
Robinson pointed to Highway 51 near the Medical University of South Carolina’s Florence campus as an example of what it could look like in the future.
The alternative could be a messy patchwork — a collection of businesses that don’t mix well, some of which may be unappealing. A restaurant and a junkyard wouldn’t go well together, for example. That could even discourage investment, Robinson said.
Robinson said the proposed rules will give the county a leg up as it tries to attract high-value commercial uses. Simple things — like removing some of the overhead wires or planting medians with trees — can increase the appeal of investing in the area.
“If planned accordingly, you can make sure that you really capture a lot of the significant higher-end growth that everyone would like to see,” Robinson said.
Brashear acknowledged the new requirements will be more complicated and time-consuming, both for developers and county staff. But he said it’s worth it to ensure the county can grow responsibly. “It takes more time. It does. But it will result in a much better environment,” he said.
A scary step
After years of planning, the rubber is finally hitting the road as county officials unveil plans to reshape U.S. 76.
Brashear said both staff and residents are anxious to see what happens as the county begins to take a new approach to guiding development.
“That’s scary. That’s scary for me. And that’s scary for staff,” he said.
After assessing the corridor, staff have come up with three areas that will serve as the first seeds for the new plan.
Those areas are the Pee Dee Regional Airport, Francis Marion University and the intersection of U.S. 76 and Freedom Boulevard — where the Florence Flea Market is located.
Florence County has identified three “catalyst nodes” to build a plan around. One is at the intersection of U.S. 76 and Francis Marion Road, shown here.
The county is slowly passing a set of ordinances to rezone those areas and implement new rules. Brashear said the county wants to have all of that work done within a year.
Foundational to the county’s plan will be a new set of highly detailed rules about what is allowed and what isn’t — all the way down to the color of a building’s signage.
The city used a similar strategy as it reshaped downtown Florence.
These rules will encompass properties that front U.S. 76 and Highway 327, which connects to Interstate 95, Brashear said.
They will allow the county to prohibit certain businesses, like outdoor shooting ranges, manufactured home sales and sand or gravel stockpiles.
They also spell out certain design do’s and don’ts.
Officials hope that introducing more defined signage can improve the character of the U.S. 76 corridor and create a sense of identity.
For example, unfinished concrete blocks won’t be allowed along the corridor. Building colors must be subtle, neutral, earth tone or otherwise relate to appropriate historic building colors. Luminescent, sparkling, reflective, fluorescent and intense colors are prohibited. In parking lots, landscaping such as trees and bushes must total at least 10 percent of the paved area.
Those rules will apply immediately to new development, but not to existing property owners, Brashear said. That means homes or businesses already established in the area will be allowed to proceed as normal.
However, if a property owner seeks to change the property’s use, they will have to comply with the new rules. For example, someone who wants to turn a gas station into a restaurant would have to fall in line with the new requirements.
That means that the county’s plan may take years — even decades — to start making a difference, Brashear said.
It also presents challenges as officials reconcile their ideal use for a property with what’s already there.
Brashear said the county is exploring incentives to encourage property owners to adapt to the new rules sooner rather than later. What those incentives will look like isn’t clear.
“Nothing’s gonna happen overnight,” Brashear said.
Some local business owners are cautiously optimistic.
Sawyer said he welcomes the interest in the area, but he worries that the requirements might be too complicated.
Across the road at Booty Brothers Western and Work Boots, Rawlinson said the same thing.
Rawlinson, whose family has owned Booty Brothers for 51 years, is in favor of cleaning up the area and engaging in some beautification projects, but the zoning gives him pause.
A self-described staunch conservative, he chafes against the government telling him what to do — even if he agrees it’s what needs to be done.
“I know what they’re doing, and I can appreciate what they’re doing, especially from a business owner’s standpoint. But that doesn’t mean I think they should do it,” he said.
He worries the stringent zoning requirements will make it harder for local businesses to get up and running.
It’s a give and take, Brashear said.
Sometimes, people complain when the county won’t let them do what they want with their land.
Other times, they’re desperate for help when their neighbors are doing something they don’t like — like opening a dog kennel in a residential neighborhood.
Without zoning, the county has few options to control development, Brashear said. A patch of farmland can be turned into a subdivision. A business can be built in a residential neighborhood. A strip club could be built across from the airport.
“You know the saying a fence makes good neighbors?” Brashear asked. “Zoning does, too.”
While Brashear emphasized that he respects property rights and that the county doesn’t want to force anyone to do anything, he’s hoping the new rules will encourage new developments that improve the character of the area.
Ultimately, he hopes U.S. 76 will begin to feel like more of a place — and less of a passthrough.
