Calling Easley a bedroom community to Greenville is a sure way to irritate a sizable chunk of the city’s longtime residents.
While Pickens County’s largest city and busiest commercial hub is, in fact, reasonably proximate to its larger neighbor to the east, Easley and its residents have long maintained a distinct sense of place and community.
But like virtually every community across the Upstate, Easley is struggling to absorb a steady influx of new residents while maintaining its essential character.
‘Ants on a pinhead’
For many longtime residents, it feels as if growth “snuck up on the city,” said Easley Mayor Lisa Talbert.
Talbert is the city’s first female mayor and has been in office six months. She said she was elected, in part, to help Easley navigate the challenges of growth.
Talbert said the pace of growth across the region in recent years has been staggering. Easley is no exception, and she said while campaigning last year she heard from many residents who expressed the fear that growth was outpacing the community’s ability to cope.
For a city with a long history and strong sense of identity as a welcoming small town, those concerns about growth served as a call to action, Talbert said.
“You can only fit so many ants on a pinhead,” she said, echoing the sentiments she heard from many residents.
Earlier this summer, City Council adopted a six-month moratorium on development of new single-family and multifamily housing projects. This pause is designed to give the city time to assess and update its zoning and land-use regulations to better guide how and where the city grows.
Talbert said, contrary to some beliefs, it is not an attempt to halt growth or discourage new residents from moving to Easley.
The mayor said the end goal is to enable city planners to strike a balance between protecting the city’s character and quality of life and the need to accommodate the new people and businesses that are helping drive Easley’s economic success.
Smart growth
One of the challenges of population growth for any community is ensuring both existing and new residents have opportunities for economic prosperity.
In Pickens County, much of that task falls to the Economic Development Alliance of Pickens County.
Executive Director Ray Farley said his organization is specifically targeting high-skill manufacturing jobs as the sector that pays the greatest dividends for county workers and their families.
He added people and companies already want to move to the region for many of the same reasons long-term residents cite.
“Our little corner of the world has a quality of life that is the envy of the rest of the country,” Farley said.
With outstanding natural beauty, great schools and easy access to all the regional points of interest that new and existing residents are eager to experience, Pickens County is nevertheless still largely rural with limited infrastructure to support manufacturing companies.
With full occupancy in Pickens County Commerce Park along U.S. Highway 123 in Liberty, the development of Speedway Industrial and Technology Park adjacent to the former Greenville-Pickens Speedway will play an important role in attracting new industry, Farley said.
Charlotte-based Carolina Handling became the new industrial park’s first tenant in June, and was quickly followed by German automotive supplier ElringKlinger.
“Industry wants to be here,” Farley said.
He added European companies in particular are interested in both Pickens County and the Upstate more generally, thanks in part to the presence of automotive behemoth BMW Manufacturing in nearby Spartanburg County.
Farley said targeted recruiting of high-skills manufacturing jobs continues to improve the economic prospects of county residents, which underpins the area’s coveted quality of life.
Going forward, the trick will be to attract and manage the right kind of growth, Farley and Talbert said.
“What I’m hoping is we can have something for everybody,” Talbert said. “We have to find the sweet spot.”
Easley by the numbers
- Population — 22,921
- Median household income — $62,551
- Median age — 42.8
- Manufacturing employment — 14.1%
- Retail employment — 11.7%
- Educational services/health care employment — 25.6%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Source: Jay King, Upstate Business Journal- August 8, 2024