City Council moves forward massive project in West Greenville despite public pushback.

• Position: Greenville, South Carolina

In a final vote, the Greenville City Council voted in favor of approving The Woven development a project that has caused public uproar, primarily over gentrification and cost-of-living concerns, specifically in surrounding downtown Greenville neighborhoods. Critics are concerned about how the five-story, two-building project would further change the fabric of the community.

The 214-unit project to be located off Pendleton and Traction streets in West Greenville has been through the city's approval process for annexation and rezoning for months amid heavy public pushback while the council also heard out those community and council members in favor of moving the project forward.

The final City Council 4-3 vote resulted in the majority in favor of approving The Woven project, following more than three hours of public comments and council discussion at the Jan. 9 meeting.

Council members Ken Gibson, Lillian Brock-Fleming and Dorothy Dowe voted against the project, while Greenville Mayor Knox White and councilmen Wil Brasington, John DeWorken and Russell Stall voted in favor of it.

DeWorken said he voted in favor to push The Woven project forward, because it includes 44 affordable housing units and active retail at the ground level.

"Voting against it would allow for expensive townhomes to be developed instead, which would have no affordable housing and no ground level retail," he explained. "I choose affordable housing over expensive townhomes in this location."

However, DeWorken said he maintains "deep appreciation for the passionate advocacy" of those opposed to the project.

After a lengthy process and expressions of strong feelings from both sides of the spectrum, White said at the meeting the he shared concerns about the scale and mass of the project but he hopes the planning commission has it "mostly right."

"The pedestrian experience I think is still going to be a good one," he added.

He said when the project was first proposed, they were looking at the entire neighborhood and seeing a disturbing trend.

"We have done a lot of work on affordable housing in West Greenville on the city side, but as things have developed on the county side, we see where this is heading," White continued. "It's heading to suburbanized units that are very expensive. We have 55 units (townhomes) in the $600-$700,000s in the pipeline of very expensive housing ready to be built adjacent to this site."

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