Council advances expansion of areas allowing breweries

Proposed ordinance allows brewpubs in city 

Simpsonville, S.C. —  Simpsonville City Council voted 7-0 on Tuesday to advance proposed changes to the Simpsonville Zoning Ordinance, including expanding the area in which breweries are allowed to operate and permitting brewpubs inside city limits.

At the February Committee of the Whole meeting held via an online meeting service and live streamed on the City of Simpsonville YouTube Channel, Planning & Economic Development Director Jason Knudsen proposed to City Council an ordinance to make miscellaneous refinements to zoning regulations.

Knudsen said the Planning Department finds each year in the zoning ordinance a number of items that need to be "tweaked a little bit, added to or removed." One of the proposed additions in Ordinance TX-2021-01 is allowing breweries in the zoning district of general business, or Business-General District (B-G).

“Being proactive with master planning and what we’d like to see in our downtown, we’ve gone ahead and done some ordinance work to be able to ensure that a brewery or brewpub would be able to locate in appropriate areas as they're a big draw and something that we would like to bring to our city," Knudsen said.

Council is expected to discuss the downtown master plan in March at its annual retreat, which was rescheduled twice due to the pandemic. Before measures were put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, Council had planned to tackle the master plan at its retreat last year after the planning firm MKSK proposed a master plan in December 2019.

The Business-General District promotes "business activities and commercial establishments offering both retail goods and services," according to the zoning ordinance. Breweries, which are a large Upstate industry, are currently only permitted in the zoning district of industrial business, or Business-Industrial (B-I), which promotes "a wide range of employment-generating office, business, institutional, research and development and light manufacturing uses," according to the zoning ordinance

The proposed ordinance would allow a brewery to operate in B-G with a restaurant that meets the district standards. Because a brewery by itself is not an allowed use in B-G, breweries must be combined with restaurants, which are an allowed use in the general business district.

City officials are also proposing adding brewpubs to both B-G and the zoning district of urban business, or Business-Urban (B-U), which "promotes urban design concepts and compact development at a pedestrian scale," according to the zoning ordinance. A brewpub manufactures beer or wine for consumption onsite and commonly serve food.

Along with the addition of breweries and brewpubs to zoning districts, recommended descriptions of each business are also being proposed. The proposed description of a brewery is, "a building housing operation for the manufacturing of beer/wine;" the proposed description of a brewpub is, "a tavern, public house, restaurant or hotel which produces beer/wine for sale on the premises."