City's Design Review Board approves plans for Main and Pine development

Published: Sept. 6, 2017, 9:07 p.m.

A crucial corner at one of the city's most important downtown gateway intersections is set to get a huge makeover with\xa0construction\xa0of a new 19,000 square foot development on the southeast corner of E Main and Pine streets. Anchored by United Community Bank, the two-story building will feature new\xa0office and retail space and is set help transform one of the busiest intersections\xa0in Spartanburg. On Wednesday, the City's Design Review Board gave final approval to the project after initially requesting some changes to the design at their meeting in August, clearing the way for\xa0development\xa0to move forward. \xa0 In addition\xa0to being a huge win for Spartanburg, the Main and Pine development is also a good test case for us to get down to the nitty-gritty on a few of our weightier local government topics, planning. \xa0 What was the reasoning behind Design Review Board's requested changes in their\xa0previous meeting? How does working with developers on their designs fit in with other improvements the City undertakes downtown? What is the overall goal in regulating the design of structures built in the downtown area in the first place? To the layperson, the deliberation between regulating bodies and developers might seem unnecessary, perhaps even an example of government overreach, but the underlying reason behind all if it couldn't be simpler: thoughtful planning ensures that the individual pieces of our city fit together to form a better whole than if each piece were considered solely in isolation. \xa0 Today on the podcast, we've got City Senior Planner, Natalia Rosario to help us answer those questions.