When developers set out to build 60 subsidized apartments in an affluent corner of Florence, S.C., the chairman of the County Council waxed enthusiastic.
Affordable housing “would serve a great need,” he wrote, and its proximity to services and jobs fit county planning goals.
Lawyers, executives and civic leaders, they gathered at the Florence Country Club, a half-mile from the proposed development, and vowed to block it.
In many if not most affluent communities, existing land-use rules would have barred low-income housing, with the regulations often operating so quietly that they hide how fully exclusion is a product of design.
But a quirk in the Florence County zoning code, permitting the subsidized apartments, brought the opposition into public view.
Persons:
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Organizations:
Florence Country Club
Locations:
Florence, S.C