Proposed List of Prohibited Uses

What were the prohibited uses that failed to pass Town Council?

Here are the different portions of Folly Road defined by the Overlay District, who has jurisdiction, the list of prohibited uses, and the permitted uses.  

North Village  (County, City of Charleston)

Prohibited:  Auto Dealers, Vehicle Storage, Boat/RV Storage, Billboards, Gun Shops, Shooting Ranges, Hotels or Motels and Tattoo parlors.

Permitted:  Residential Office, Office General, and Neighborhood Commercial

Commercial Core (Town, City of Charleston)

Prohibited:  Auto Dealers (New and Used) Vehicle Storage, Boat/RV Storage, Billboards, Gun Shops, Shooting Ranges, Hotels or Motels and Tattoo parlors.

Permitted: Community Commercial

South Village (Town, City of Charleston)

Prohibited: Auto Dealers (New and Used), Billboards, Gun Shops and/or Indoor/Outdoor Shooting Ranges, Liquor Sales, Hotels or Motels and Tattoo parlors shall be prohibited uses.  

Permitted:  Residential, Office Residential , Neighborhood Commercial

Neighborhood Preservation  (County, City of Charleston)

Prohibited:  Auto Dealers (New and Used), Vehicle Storage, Boat/RV Storage, Billboards, Gun Shops, Shooting Ranges, Hotels or Motels,  Fast Food Restaurant, Gasoline Service Stations (with or without convenience stores), Indoor Recreation and Entertainment, Consumer Vehicle Repair and Tattoo parlors.

Permitted:  Special Management , Neighborhood Commercial

Conservation area (County, City of Folly Beach)

Prohibited:  Auto Dealers (New and Used), Vehicle Storage, Boat/RV Storage, Billboards, Gun Shops, Shooting Ranges, Hotels or Motels and Tattoo parlors.

Permitted:  Special Management , Neighborhood Commercial

The prohibited uses are pretty straightforward.   The permitted uses refer to the existing zoning districts.   

Any use that is not permitted by the existing zoning district is prohibited!

So, the list of prohibited uses either prohibit a use that is currently permitted by the current zoning or else just repeats an existing prohibition.

The following chart comes from the Town of James Island's current zoning.   CC stands for Community Commercial.     CN stands for Neighborhood Commercial.   OR stands for Office Residential.

A means allowed, N means not allowed, C means there are conditions, and S means that the BZA has to give special permission.

Uses	CC	CN	OR
Auto Dealers	A	N	N
Vehicle Storage	A	N	N
Boat/RV Storage	A	N	N
Billboards	N	N	N
Gun Shops	A	C	N
Indoor Shooting Ranges	A	N	N
Outdoor Shooting Ranges	N	N	N
Hotels or Motels	A	A	N
Tattoo parlors.	N	N	N
Liquor Stores	S	S	N

So, Billboards were on the list of prohibited uses.   Town Council rejected that, but they aren't permitted anywhere on Folly Road in the Town.   We have a few, but they are legal, nonconforming uses.  In other words, they were grandfathered in.

Auto Dealers are only allowed in Community Commercial.  That is in the Commercial Core area of the Overlay, which is mostly zoned Community Commercial. now   The recommendation from the Planning Commission was to ban them.   Council rejected that.   Auto Dealers continue to be allowed in the Commercial Core.

Auto Dealers are not permitted in Neighborhood Commercial or Office Residential, and so they are already prohibited in the South Village Area.   When Council voted against the list of prohibited uses, it didn't suddenly allow Auto Dealers in the South Village Area.

Tattoo Parlors were on the list of prohibited uses.   But they are not permitted anywhere on Folly Road.  At least not in the Town.   See the N N N for all of the zoning districts?   

Liquor stores were prohibited in the South Village.   That was a change.   While most of the South Village is either residential or office residential now, there are a few parcels that are Neighborhood Commercial, for example, Treadquarters.   A liquor store could open there, but only after a vote by the Town of James Island BZA.

Outdoor Shooting ranges are prohibited everywhere on Folly Road already--at least in the Town.   There was no need for the Town to specifically prohibit them.   Indoor shooting ranges are already prohibited in the South Village.   But the proposal was to ban them from the Commercial Core.   That area has community commercial zoning and so they are permitted.   The Overlay District list was overriding the current zoning and prohibiting something that is currently permitted.

And what about gun shops?   Like the other jurisdictions in the area, the Town of James Island has no special category for "gun shops."  They are just treated as sporting goods stores.   They are permitted in Community Commercial, which is the Commercial Core.   A "small" gun shop would be permitted in Neighborhood Commercial, with means less than 5000 square feet.   Basically, Treadquarters could be turned into a small gun shop.   They are not permitted in office residential, which is nearly all of the South Village.  But that isn't because gun shops are being singled out.  Hardly any retail shops are permitted in areas with office residential zoning.     

I expected that some of the items on the list of prohibited uses would be removed by Town Council.   I worked hard to get gun shops removed.   I was surprised that none of the list of prohibited uses was adopted by Council.   But the effect is just to keep the permitted uses unchanged.   Nothing that was already prohibited has now been permitted.