Laurens council approves recommended East Main subdivision, ‘Laurens Station’

Laurens , S.C.  – Laurens City Council’s approval last week of the planning commission’s most recent recommendation will give the city its first urban subdivision in at least 40 years, and with that comes the gradual increase in the city’s tax base as families contract to build within the city limits.

While other homes have been built in developments, this is the first which was required to come before the planning commission for recommendation and for approval by council in at least 40 years. It will include sidewalks and walkways which connect to those already within the city, said Mayor Nathan Senn.

Council unanimously approved the recommendation to allow Ryan Homes to begin work on Laurens Station, the name of the subdivision to be located in property close to East Main Street in Laurens. Entrance and exit access will be from East Main Street across from Woodrow Street, and from East Farley Avenue, which is also called Isaac White Boulevard.

Aside from four or five preview homes which will be built as models, all the homes in ‘Laurens Station’ will be built only when families contract to purchase them, according to Ryan Homes’ system of building subdivisions, said City Administrator Gary Coleman, so the city expects construction to occur gradually.

The landowner has been removing some trees and Ryan Homes will soon be taking over the property.

The plan includes a maximum of 153 homes in the subdivision, Coleman said, and it includes green space and sidewalks which will connect to those already in use by the city.

“It’s in an R3 District so it’s an urban development,” Coleman said.

While council this spring reduced its minimum lot width from 60 to 50 feet for the R3 Urban classification, the smallest lot width in the planned Laurens Station subdivision will be 55 feet at the street, but the lot size itself has not decreased.

“R2 subdivision homes and R1 both remain larger, but as an urban subdivision, the lot widths at the street are reduced for higher density housing,” Coleman said. “Ryan Homes said at the most it would build 50 houses a year so that will increase the tax base slightly over each year.”

Currently, there are about 3200 homes actively paying taxes within Laurens City Limits.

Mayor Nathan Senn said he’s heard concerns that the smaller sizes of lots will allow a huge influx of additional people within the city, but the city has faced significant negative growth for the last three and four decades.

“We hit our population max around 1980 and since then we have seen about a 16 percent decline,” Senn said. “During my administration we have grown .45 percent every year and that’s the first time since the 1980s that Laurens has seen three consecutive years of population growth.”