Greenville city officials are pledging a strong commitment to neighborhoods, affordable housing and controlled growth with Monday night's unanimous approval of a new budget and the sometimes controversial Development Code.
The official budget total is 136 point eight million -- that's the general fund appropriation -- but total expenditures from all sources including the hospitality tax revenue sharing, fee increases, neighborhood infrastructure bond funds will run to more than a quarter billion through 2024.
Big ticket items include so called corridor roadway improvements -- Augusta Street, Wade Hampton Boulevard and Stone Avenue -- diverting traffic from downtown streets. Also included was eliminating street level pedestrian crossings in favor of overhead crosswalks to allow Academy Street to be the downtown bypass it was originally designed to be.
Plus, the massively revised Development Code, alternately lauded and reviled depending on whose interests were perceived to be threatened, is now a done deal, final approval also unanimous. However, city officials keep emphasizing that it has a built-in review process, and is not carved in stone.
