Car Accident Attorney in Greer, SC

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Greenville County Planning Commission voted 8-1 Tuesday night to deny plans for a controversial Greer subdivision that has faced opposition from neighbors for years.

The commission rejected the latest plans for the Bellewyn subdivision on South Batesville Road, saying the proposal does not prioritize open space as required under county rules.

Under county regulations, developers must set aside a portion of land to remain undeveloped to help preserve natural areas and manage growth.

Bill Johnson, a Sugar Creek resident who has opposed the project since 2024, said the land is an old pasture that holds a special significance for residents.

“We’ve lived in our home in Sugar Creek for 40 years. This pasture is important to us,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the plan is out of character with surrounding communities and worries roads won’t be able to handle the extra traffic.

“We just saw this as taking what was essentially a cow pasture--19 acres of natural area--and just jamming 72 units into it,” Johnson said.

The commission denied plans in 2024 over density concerns. At the time, Hartness Development requested 72 lots, just under four homes per acre. Commissioners approved new plans a year later with conditions that emphasized neighborhood concerns, including open space requirements.

The new plan proposes using a thin border as open space. A speaker reading a statement on behalf of the developer said larger storm water ponds are necessary and should also count as open space.

“We were advised by the county’s attorney that the planning commission does not have jurisdiction over stormwater design matters,” the developer’s representative said.

Planning Commission Chairman Steven Bichel disagrees.

“Stormwater isn’t our purview, but if you dig a big hole in the middle of open space, that’s our purview,” Bichel said.

Developers could return with new plans. Johnson said he would support a proposal that reduces the current density.

“I’m hoping that it won’t be going forward. But, let’s see what happens,” Johnson said.

Residents raise concerns about public notice

Residents said they did not see the developer’s changes until Tuesday. They also said no public hearing signs were posted.

The planning commission said that did not happen because changes came from planning staff, which does not require the same process. One commissioner said they will look into changing that requirement.

The big picture regarding open space

The debate over the Bellewyn subdivision highlights a broader issue in Greenville County: open space. The county has no single standard for how developers must preserve open land—requirements vary by zoning and development type. Guidelines are also vague when it comes to classifying stormwater ponds as open space.

Last year, Greenville County Council placed a moratorium on cluster housing and began meeting with residents and developers to gather feedback and suggestions. The county is actively studying the issue and released an open space plan last June.

During a council meeting earlier this month, leaders said they plan to unveil a more detailed open space plan in February.

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The South Carolina Chef Ambassadors for 2026 have something going on in Myrtle Beach, Greer and Charleston — enough so that the governor has chosen them to represent the state.

Gov. Henry McMaster joined Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers and Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Director Duane Parrish to announce the chefs who will represent the culinary ambitions and accomplishments of the Palmetto State’s food scene.

They are Jordan Heyd, owner and executive chef of Lekker Eats in Myrtle Beach; James London, owner and chef of Chubby Fish and Seahorse in Charleston; and Guichard Ulysse, chef and owner of House 509 Bistro & Wine in Greer.

Chef Ambassadors represent the state through food festivals and other promotional opportunities, sharing South Carolina’s culinary traditions, agricultural heritage and undiscovered places, according to a news release. They support the state’s farmers by using Certified South Carolina produce, meats, dairy, seafood and other farm-fresh foods.

According to her bio provided by Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Chef Heyd was a local who began her culinary journey on private yachts, where she gained global food experience and developed a passion for international, healthy dishes. She trained formally in South Africa at a culinary school in Cape Town and became a yacht chef. COVID nudged her back to South Carolina, where she started a small business making prepared meals. That grew into Lekker Eats, a scratch kitchen, market and bar built on her “eat good, feel good” philosophy.

Charleston native Chef London discovered his passion for fishing and food at an early age, starting his restaurant career at age 14. After earing a business degree at the College of Charleston, he honed his skills at The French Culinary Institute in New York. His journey includes restaurants in New York , including the acclaimed Niko, and San Francisco before returning home to open Chubby Fish, a dock-to-table restaurant with an emphasis on local catches and sustainable sourcing. Next door, he opened Seahorse, a cocktail bar and supper club.

Chef Ulysse is a native of Haiti who received his first cooking lessons as one of 10 children at the feet of his mother and grandmother. He immigrated to the United States and trained at Johnson & Wales University and launched a career working with South Carolina school districts and as a chef for Sodexo across four states. Ulysse and his wife returned to South Carolina and in 2022 opened House 509.

The South Carolina Chef Ambassador program launched in 2014, unifying the major industries of tourism and agriculture, which collectively contribute tens of billions of dollars to the state’s economy and account for hundreds of thousands of jobs statewide, according to the news release.

Chefs are appointed by the governor, and the program is run through a collaborative effort between the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.

“The Chef Ambassador program highlights the strong partnership between South Carolina’s chefs and farmers and the role they play in our tourism and agribusiness success,” McMaster said in the release. “We’re proud to welcome the 2026 class of Chef Ambassadors to represent our great state.”

Commissioner Weathers said the program helps remind state residents that culinary pride often begins on the farm.

“The Chef Ambassador program helps us connect South Carolinians with their food and with the farmers who grow it,” he said in the release. “These chefs exhibit our state’s culinary diversity and our wide array of locally grown foods.”

GREER — Hands crossed, clad in dark suits and perfectly knotted ties, Bernard Price and Paul Smith Jr. stand in front of a wrack of coats stretching out of frame in both directions.

The black-and-white, 1980 photo was taken the same year the two business partners bought out Smith’s father to take ownership of Smith and James, a men’s clothing store in the heart of Greer. By then, the clothier was already a decades-old institution in the Upstate.

Much has changed since that black-and-white photo was taken close to five decades ago. The city of Greer declined amid the collapse of the textile industry in the latter years of the 20th century and resurged with the creation of the North American BMW plant and accompanying automotive business that followed.

Downtown went from a bustling city center to a virtual ghost town where most storefronts sat empty, then back to a thriving commercial core.

Through it all, Smith and James, which first opened its doors in 1916, has endured.

It looks different today than when Bernard Price and Smith Jr. were photographed or, for that matter, from when it was founded as Smith and Vaughn more than 100 years ago.

Custom tailoring and formal wear remains an important part of the business.

But the wall-to-wall racks of suits and sports coats, which once dominated store, have largely been replaced by more casual clothes like high-end chinos, leather jackets and designer vests.

Still, the core principals haven’t changed, said Brandon Price, who took over operations at the store from his father in the mid-2000s.

“Our business is built on customer service,” he said. “If you have a problem, we’re here. We do free tailoring on all of our goods. We’re here to make sure everything fits you.”

A family tradition

From the beginning, Smith and James has been a family business. In 1924, original founder Thomas L. Smith hired on his nephew Paul Smith Sr., who went on to buy into the business in 1945 after his uncle’s death. About 35 years later, Smith Jr. and Bernard Price, who had worked in the store together for close to 20 years, bought the elder Smith out of the business.

Bernard Price become the store’s sole owner in 1992 and his son Brandon joined the team five years later, making him the latest in a lineage stretching back more than a century.

Growing up, Brandon Price said he had no interest in getting involved in the family business. He worked at the the clothier’s since-closed Inman store briefly in high school, but he wasn’t convinced it was what he wanted to do.

When he left home for the University of South Carolina, though, he got a job at a men’s store called Lourie’s to help support himself through college.

The job was a learning experience. It was also a revelation.

“That really is the best thing I ever did, as far as working outside the family business,” he said. “It got my interest in this business.”

After graduating, he returned home to join his father at Smith and James. His commitment to the Greer clothier kept the business alive for another generation.

“My dad said many a times, ‘If you hadn’t come back, we would have closed many years ago,’” he said.

Close to three decades later, he’s still keeping the tradition alive.

In his time there, Price said he’s dressed generations of families.

On a Thursday afternoon two weeks before Christmas, long-time customer Rick Lee walked through the doors of Smith and James looking for a bow tie to match the suit he’d already bought from the store.

Lee has been shopping there for 30 years. Both of his sons bought their suits for their weddings there. That day, Lee was buying clothes to wear to his daughter’s.

“My grandson has just got to get a little bit older and he’ll come in here,” he said. “It’s just the whole feel. The tradition, the service and spending your money with local folks.”

While he went in for ties, a shirt hanging nearby caught his eye as he talked to Price near the front of the store.

“That’s your size, too,” Price said, laughing.

“I know it is,” Lee said with a smile. “See, I walked in for a bow tie and I’ll walk out with a shirt.”

After Price, sales associate Chip Bittner has been at Smith and James the longest. He started there in 2000 after leaving a Spartanburg men’s store.

Over the past two-and-a-half decades, he’s been there for the most important moments of his customers lives, from proms, to weddings, to funerals. Once, he was called to a nearby mortuary to tie a tie for a man who would soon be interred.

“I tied a bow tie over a coffin,” he said. “The family tried to pay me and I said, ‘No, not at all.’ I wouldn’t take a dime for that.”

Investing in Greer

The clothing shop on Greer’s Trade Street has weathered many storms since it first opened in 1916.

Rather than cutting his losses when downtown Greer’s fortunes took a turn for the worse, Price’s father doubled down, investing in the Upstate city that supported his business for so long. That choice paved the way for future growth.

In decades past, the rise of shopping malls and chain stores threatened to steal customers from the local shop. Now, many of those national companies appear to be declining or have disappeared entirely, while Smith and James is going strong.

Internet shopping now poses the biggest threat to the store’s bottom line, but Price said his business offers something online vendors never can.

“We know how this item fits, or how it fits different from others,” he said. “That’s just the customer service we give.”

The store’s greatest challenge came during the pandemic. For a business based on face-to-face interactions and personal relationships, Price said Covid-19 was nearly the death knell for the Upstate mainstay. But business surged when the world opened up again.

“When it came back, our tailored clothing business went through the roof,” he said. “People were wanting to dress up again because they had dressed down for so long.”

The Smith and James location on Greenville’s Verdae Boulevard — which opened in June 2021 replacing a Woodruff Road storefront — was a big part of that recovery.

More than anything, though, Price said he attributes the store’s survival and success to its regulars.

“We love to have new customers, but we certainly wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for our loyal existing customers who have been with us for generations,” he said.

GREER, S.C. —

A South Carolina care facility for children with autism closed suddenly last week, leaving families without childcare and employees without jobs or paychecks just before Christmas.

"They gave me a 30 minute notice that we're going to be closing indefinitely, and your son needs to be picked up at 12," said Kendra Young as she held her son.

Morgan Eigemann, a senior registered behavioral technician shared, "Effective immediately. No PTO was going to be paid out."

Quality Autism Care, which used Applied Behavior Analysis therapy to help children with autism adapt to the world around them, left staff without their last paycheck. Employees said the owner told them they would hopefully receive it in a couple of weeks.

Avonlea DeGraaf, a registered behavioral technician said during the announcement one of her coworkers said, "I don't even have enough money to get home today because my bank account is at zero. She (the owner) said, oh, I have a lot of bills too. I have two car payments that I can't make."

Former employee, Jessica Theodorski added, "After everything else, I have nothing. Because I also have, car payment, student loans, insurance."

Reporter: "How much does that leave you for food."

Jessica: "Not much. I actually just donated plasma yesterday."

In South Carolina, it is illegal to withhold wages for services rendered. The sudden closure also left children without the proper documentation needed for other facilities to accept new students.

"They lose everything," Eigemann said. "So, speech, OT, ABA, every single thing that they had, they lost that day in an hour. So, I just — I think it's horrible. I do."

Abby Sheline, shared her concerns for her child, saying, "We're still trying to find a speech therapist, because those are really hard to find right now. And I am worried that my son may regress on the skills that he has developed."

Agencies across the region are working to assist, but it will take a collective effort to support each child and specialist affected.

Project Hope's co-director, Susan Sachs telling us, "We're doing the best we can, just like I hope all other ABA organizations within the area are because this is quite unexpected."

We reached out to the owner and did not hear back before this story was published.